Re: Dissertation Research

Hi Matthew,

Perhaps we could chat about this (phone/skype/etc) in the next week or
so. This sounds like interesting and useful research but there are
also some factors that could give cause for concern. Although as a
project we operate in public, this is an environment that not everyone
here is equally comfortable with participating in. I have heard
anecdotally from a couple of participants that they feel more at ease
discussing schemas in smaller, low-profile fora than on the mailing
lists that are perceived to be "centre stage". In that light I am wary
of the potential impact if it becomes understood that all mailing list
and github interactions are potentially under a sociological
microscope and being recorded for scholarly analysis, comparisons and
publication. These kinds of collaboration are the sort of system that
it is hard to observe without also affecting. It would be good to talk
through some of those issues. I am not aware of any general W3C
guidelines for social science researchers studying communities, beyond
the more general codes of conduct in
https://www.w3.org/Consortium/cepc/ .

My advice would be to couch this a little more as an "opt in"
collaboration amongst interested parties, rather than the "opt out"
structure implied by your "anyone who wishes to be excluded will be".
In practical terms it would be difficult to ensure that everyone
engaging via the W3C lists or via Github were even aware of your work,
and there is no single party who can really give permission on behalf
of other participants. As chair of this group I can suggest that it
may help if you could cite any "human subjects research" guidelines
that you will be following (e.g. related to
https://uwm.edu/irb/consent-process-guidance/ and suchlike). My main
concerns are that the privacy of individual participants here should
be respected and that research efforts (yours or others) do not have a
chilling effect on people's willingness to collaborate in public. It
might be that the best way to achieve might simply be to become more
"one of us" through informal collaboration and discussion here and on
the other Linked Data / Semantic Web mailing lists around W3C.

Happy to chat about any of this. I think it's clear to everyone that
these kinds of collaborative discussions can always be improved and
sometimes it helps to have a fresh perspective crystalize issues that
everyone kind-of understood but which hadn't been fully articulated. I
have much the same view on these things w.r.t. the other W3C lists too
(semantic-web@w3.org, public-lod@w3.org etc.).

cheers

Dan


On 10 June 2016 at 16:56, Matthew T Mccarthy <mccart74@uwm.edu> wrote:
> Hello, Schema.org Community!
>
>
> My name is Matthew McCarthy and I am a Ph.D. candidate in the sociology
> department at The University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. I’m writing today to
> ask the community’s permission to conduct dissertation research on
> Schema.org’s development. My interests are in science and technology studies
> as well as in information sociology. As such, I am very interested in how
> systems of knowledge and classification are constructed, represented, and
> utilized. I am particularly interested in linked data technologies as
> examples of these systems. While most of my research will focus in on the
> issue discussions that occur on GitHub, the documentation available on
> Schema.org, and from the W3C, I would also like to interview members from
> the Schema.org community. That said, if you or anyone you know who is
> involved in the development or use of linked data technologies would like to
> assist me in my research, please let me know. If anyone has concerns,
> questions, or hesitations about participating, or about my research in
> general, please contact me. I will respect the wishes of the community and
> those who participate in Schema’s development, so anyone who wishes to be
> excluded will be. I’ve included my contact information below, as well as a
> link to my departmental webpage.
>
>
>
> https://uwm.edu/sociology/people/mccarthy-matthew/
>
>
> Thank you for your time,
>
>
> Matt
>
>
>
> Matthew T. McCarthy
> Ph.D. Candidate/Lecturer
> Department of Sociology
> University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
> P.O. Box 413
> Milwaukee, WI   53201

Received on Friday, 10 June 2016 22:14:36 UTC