Hey Jodi -- thanks for asking the question. Some of my thoughts about how researchers can solicit off-wiki interviews:
- If you have not already created one, I suggest creating a project page on Meta <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Projects> and linking to it in any posts. This gives interested editors a single page on wiki where they can find relevant information on the project if they're curious. The benefit of Meta in particular is that it also provides a consistent format, has privacy/transparency guarantees, has a place for discussion (talk page), and is discoverable by other researchers. - If the research is extractive in some way (i.e. not just passive data analysis but asking for editor's time as with interviews), you want to make sure it also provides clear benefits for those Wikimedian individuals/communities. When soliciting interviews, it isq quite helpful to communicate these benefits to editors so they can judge whether it's worthwhile to participate. - Your inclination to post on talk pages for topic-specific WikiProjects (collaborative spaces) is spot on. This helps a lot with reducing interview-request spam for editors and if your research leads to actionable findings / tools, then you have a community of folks who know the project and you can hopefully work with to disseminate. - Start small (maybe posting to one group to begin with). This wll help you gather feedback -- e.g., address questions/concerns from editors -- before posting in more places. - Also consider looking for local events to attend -- e.g., an edit-a-thon or Wikimedian conference <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Events>. This is a great way to find editors for interviews in more relaxed spaces and potentially get to observe and ask questions about their editing processes first-hand. For instance, I saw you're at UIUC: maybe the Wikimedians of Chicago User Group <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedians_of_Chicago_User_Group#Activities> has events that could be attended? Sometimes there are nearby Wikimedians-in-Residence <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedian_in_residence#Full_list_of_past_and_present_WiRs> who could potentially help you connect with local communities as well. Hope that helps and curious to hear thoughts from others. Best, Isaac On Wed, Jan 11, 2023 at 5:42 PM Jodi Schneider <jschnei...@pobox.com> wrote: > Hi wiki-research-l folks, > > Can the list point me in the right direction about how researchers should > solicit off-wiki interviews? I'm seeking to interview editors of English > Wikipedia who have provided information about scientific and technical > topics. I'm struggling to find up-to-date documentation about expectations > for researchers... > > Currently the focus is COVID-19; in future years the focus will shift to > climate change; and AI and labor. Overall the project seeks to understand > how knowledge brokers (including Wikipedia editors) assess the quality of > technical and scientific information. This is part of my 3-year, US-based, > IRB-approved research study: > https://infoqualitylab.org/projects/knowledgebrokers/participate-y1 > > My inclination (in the absence of specific best practice directions) would > be to post a message the Talk pages of the most obvious WikiProjects, with > information about the project and how to reach me: > WikiProject COVID-19 > WikiProject Medicine / Pulmonology > WikiProject Viruses > WikiProject Disaster management > Is that appropriate? I'd welcome a pointer to specific requirements or best > practices. Offline advice also welcome! > > -Jodi > User:Jodi.a.schneider > jschnei...@pobox.com > https://jodischneider.com/jodi.html > _______________________________________________ > Wiki-research-l mailing list -- wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org > To unsubscribe send an email to wiki-research-l-le...@lists.wikimedia.org > -- Isaac Johnson (he/him/his) -- Senior Research Scientist -- Wikimedia Foundation _______________________________________________ Wiki-research-l mailing list -- wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe send an email to wiki-research-l-le...@lists.wikimedia.org
