On Fri, Jul 18, 2014 at 1:27 AM, Heather Ford <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
> Jonathan, it looks like this will be a great workshop and I think CSCW is
> a great venue! but I don't think it addresses the issue unless there's
> something I'm missing (like an invitation, for example! ;) I see that the
> workshop is forward-facing but its aim seems to be to work with a bunch of
> different communities like Reddit and GalaxyZoo. What we need are better
> channels as Wikipedia researchers to communicate our needs as researchers
> operating outside the WMF. And preferably in a way that doesn't require us
> to have to travel to Canada to a workshop to do it!
>
> And, I offered it as a joke but it reminds me of a small, subtle point, I
> think it would be nice if you could offer an invitation to the researchers
> on this list to join the workshop and/or workshop planning when you
> advertise the work you're doing on this. I know it's a wiki and anyone
> could probably join, but I feel like there is enormous possibility for the
> group represented here to feel involved and recognised, and I, for one,
> would like to be invited sometimes.. to the fun stuff, that is, not just
> the hard, arduous stuff :)
>
>
For me, it's just a matter of bandwidth. I get a lot of personal requests
for advice, pointers, data, etc from wiki-researchers. I try to answer
them, but I can't personally work with every researcher who wants special
access beyond public dumps, APIs, databases... or who wants an "in" on
subject recruitment. I don't scale all that well :)

Plus, that's an opaque and ad-hoc process, and it doesn't contribute to the
formation of public standards and guidelines that benefit other
researchers. Hence, the workshop. We will try to get a bunch of researchers
together in one place, figure out what their needs are, and get them
involved in developing a better process for quenching their data thirst!

Not sure I get your invite question, tho? Are you asking to be a co-author
on our workshop proposal? ;)

Best,
> Heather.
>
>
>
>>
>> On RCOM more generally... I think clarifying the role of the committee,
>> and getting a larger and more diverse set of people involved, might help
>> make RCOM work. But as Aaron can attest, it is difficult to get people to
>> agree on what RCOMs role should be, let alone get them to work for RCOM.
>>
>> I've been involved with RCOM for a while, albeit not very actively.
>> Unfortunately, I think that the fact that the only people who "review"
>> requests *happen to be** WMF staffers contributes to confusion about
>> RCOM's role and it's authority. IMO, if RCOM or any other subject
>> recruitment review process is to succeed, we need:
>>
>>    - more wiki-researchers who are willing to regularly participate in
>>    both peer review *and* in developing better process guidelines and
>>    standards (it's really just Aaron right now)
>>    - more *Wikipedians* who are willing to do the same
>>    - some degree of buy-in from the Wikimedia community as a whole. RCOM
>>    needs legitimacy. But where, and from whom? Subject recruitment is a 
>> global
>>    concern, but the proposed subject recruitment process is focused on 
>> en-wiki
>>    (mostly because that's where most of the relevant research activities 
>> *that
>>    we are aware of* are happening). How to make RCOM more global?
>>
>> RCOM is in a tough spot right now. We can't force researchers to submit
>> their proposals, or abide by the
>> suggestions/recommendations/decisions/whatever that result from their
>> review. But because we *look like *an official body, it's easy to blame
>> us for failing to prevent disruptive research (if you're a community
>> member), for "rubber stamping" research that we like (ditto), or for
>> drowning research in red tape (if you're a wiki-researcher).
>>
>>
>> - J
>>
>> *we were wiki-researchers first!
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>  Heather Ford
>>> Oxford Internet Institute <http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk> Doctoral Programme
>>> EthnographyMatters <http://ethnographymatters.net> | Oxford Digital
>>> Ethnography Group <http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/research/projects/?id=115>
>>> http://hblog.org | @hfordsa <http://www.twitter.com/hfordsa>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 17 July 2014 08:49, Kerry Raymond <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>>>  Yes, I meant the community/communities of WMF. But the authority of
>>>> the community derives from WMF, which chooses to delegate such matters. I
>>>> think that “advise” is a good word to use.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Kerry
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>  ------------------------------
>>>>
>>>> *From:* Amir E. Aharoni [mailto:[email protected]]
>>>> *Sent:* Thursday, 17 July 2014 5:37 PM
>>>> *To:* [email protected]; Research into Wikimedia content and
>>>> communities
>>>>
>>>> *Subject:* Re: [Wiki-research-l] discussion about wikipedia surveys
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> > WMF does not "own" me as a contributor; it does not decide who can
>>>> and cannot recruit me for whatever purposes.
>>>>
>>>> I don't think that it really should be about WMF. The WMF shouldn't
>>>> enforce anything. The community can formulate good practices for
>>>> researchers and _advise_ community members not to cooperate with
>>>> researchers who don't follow these practices. Not much more is needed.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי
>>>> http://aharoni.wordpress.com
>>>> ‪“We're living in pieces,
>>>> I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> 2014-07-17 8:24 GMT+03:00 Kerry Raymond <[email protected]>:
>>>>
>>>>  Just saying here what I already put on the Talk page:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I am a little bothered by the opening sentence "This page documents the
>>>> process that researchers must follow before asking Wikipedia contributors
>>>> to participate in research studies such as surveys, interviews and
>>>> experiments."
>>>>
>>>> WMF does not "own" me as a contributor; it does not decide who can and
>>>> cannot recruit me for whatever purposes. What WMF does own is its
>>>> communication channels to me as a contributor and WMF has a right to
>>>> control what occurs on those channels. Also I think WMF probably should be
>>>> concerned about both its readers and its contributors being recruited
>>>> through its channels (as either might be being recruited). I think this
>>>> distinction should be made, e.g.
>>>>
>>>> "This page documents the process that researchers must follow if they
>>>> wish to use Wikipedia's (WMF's?) communication channels to recruit people
>>>> to participate in research studies such as surveys, interviews and
>>>> experiments. Communication channels include its mailing lists, its Project
>>>> pages, Talk pages, and User Talk pages [and whatever else I've forgotten]."
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> If researchers want to recruit WPians via non-WMF means, I don’t think
>>>> it’s any business of WMF’s. An example might be a researcher who wanted to
>>>> contact WPians via chapters or thorgs; I would leave it for the
>>>> chapter/thorg to decide if they wanted to assist the researcher via their
>>>> communication channels.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Of course, the practical reality of it is that some researchers
>>>> (oblivious of WMF’s concerns in relation to recruitment of WPians to
>>>> research projects) will simply use WMF’s channels without asking nicely
>>>> first. Obviously we can remove such requests on-wiki and follow up any
>>>> email requests with the commentary that this was not an approved request.
>>>> In my category of [whatever else I’ve forgotten], I guess there are things
>>>> like Facebook groups and any other social media presence.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Also to be practical, if WMF is to have a process to vet research
>>>> surveys, I think it has to be sufficiently fast and not be overly demanding
>>>> to avoid the possibility of the researcher giving up (“too hard to deal
>>>> with these people”) and simply spamming email, project pages, social media
>>>> in the hope of recruiting some participants regardless. That is, if we make
>>>> it too slow/hard to do the right thing, we effectively encourage doing the
>>>> wrong thing. Also, what value-add can we give them to reward those who do
>>>> the right thing? It’s nice to have a carrot as well as a stick when it
>>>> comes to onerous processes J
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Because of the criticism of “not giving back”, could we perhaps do
>>>> things to try to make the researcher feel part of the community to make
>>>> “giving back” more likely? For example, could we give them a slot every now
>>>> and again to talk about their project in the R&D Showcase? Encourage them
>>>> to be on this mailing list. Are we at a point where it might make sense to
>>>> organise a Wikipedia research conference to help build a research
>>>> community? Just thinking aloud here …
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Kerry
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>  ------------------------------
>>>>
>>>> *From:* [email protected] [mailto:
>>>> [email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Aaron
>>>> Halfaker
>>>> *Sent:* Thursday, 17 July 2014 6:59 AM
>>>> *To:* Research into Wikimedia content and communities
>>>> *Subject:* Re: [Wiki-research-l] discussion about wikipedia surveys
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> RCOM review is still alive and looking for new reviewers (really,
>>>> coordinators).  Researchers can be directed to me or Dario (
>>>> [email protected]) to be assigned a reviewer.  There is also
>>>> a proposed policy on enwiki that could use some eyeballs:
>>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Research_recruitment
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Wed, Jul 16, 2014 at 11:16 AM, Federico Leva (Nemo) <
>>>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> phoebe ayers, 16/07/2014 19:21:
>>>>
>>>> > (Personally, I think the answer should be to resuscitate RCOM, but
>>>> > that's easy to say and harder to do!)
>>>>
>>>> IMHO in the meanwhile the most useful thing folks can do is subscribing
>>>> to the feed of new research pages:
>>>> <
>>>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:NewPages&feed=atom&hidebots=1&hideredirs=1&limit=500&offset=&namespace=202
>>>> >
>>>> It's easier to build a functioning RCOM out of an active community of
>>>> "reviewers", than the other way round.
>>>>
>>>> Nemo
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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>>
>>
>> --
>> Jonathan T. Morgan
>> Learning Strategist
>> Wikimedia Foundation
>> User:Jmorgan (WMF) <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Jmorgan_(WMF)>
>> [email protected]
>>
>>
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-- 
Jonathan T. Morgan
Learning Strategist
Wikimedia Foundation
User:Jmorgan (WMF) <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Jmorgan_(WMF)>
[email protected]
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