[WikiEN-l] Question about researching Wikipedia

Thu Feb 10 03:01:40 UTC 2005

I'm a graduate student at the University of Michigan
School of Information (and also an admin at Wikipedia,
username Ffirehorse). I'm considering a long research
paper on the dynamics of community at Wikipedia for a
class on online communities that I'm taking this term.

My question is about protocol, and the reason I'm
asking it is because I'm not having much success in
locating on Wikimedia or Wikipedia any policy or
guidelines on how to approach the community in terms
of consent. Would a community-wide announcement be
sufficient? As someone who is already a member of the
community, while I'm doing the research, would it be
advisable to post some sort of note on my user page
that I'm also conducting research? 

Or is the sort of activity that I'm proposing (i.e.,
researching Wikipedia while also contributing as a
member) generally frowned upon? If so, I will drop the
idea without hesitation.

The research I'm considering would be in the form of
unobtrusive observation of norms, practices, routines,
and other forms of community-forming activity on
Wikipedia, and would not likely involve any direct
interaction with Wikipedia users. I'd be happy to go
into further detail about the specifics if need be.

Any guidance/feedback would be appreciated.

Thank you,
Frank Lester

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