[tor-project] Fwd: Tor Research - Re: Weekly UX meeting on Jitsi!

Tue Apr 18 12:15:35 UTC 2017

Hi all,

Many thanks for forwarding this on - very much appreciated! If anyone has any thoughts or concerns about my potentially carrying out this kind of research I'd be really grateful to hear them. As Linda points out in their email, it wouldn't be right for me to carry out this kind of observational research without talking to people about it first and getting informed consent. While some types of research do try to observe participants without their knowledge, as a sociologist I'm not comfortable doing this and I don't think it would be an ethical way to go about things. I think that mindfully, respectfully carrying out this kind of research with the consent and knowledge of the participants isn't only ethical best practice, but ultimately also gives you a much more interesting perspective (and hopefully might mean that the research could be of more use to the participants when it's finished). As before, I'm happy to answer any questions at all about the research or the current stage of the project, or discuss what might be the best way to go about something like this.

Very best,

Ben

________________________________
From: tor-project <tor-project-bounces at lists.torproject.org> on behalf of Linda Naeun Lee <linda at torproject.org>
Sent: 12 April 2017 15:11:19
To: Isabela Bagueros; Alison; colin at torproject.org; Antonela Debiasi
Cc: tor-project at lists.torproject.org
Subject: [tor-project] Fwd: Tor Research - Re: Weekly UX meeting on Jitsi!

Hello UX meeting-y people (and I've cc'ed tor-project as well, if anyone wants to give me their two cents):

I have gotten an unusual request--a researcher wants to observe us. Are there guidelines on this sort of thing?

My immediate gut reactions is: well, this is technically a public channel but having someone observe us and participating are different. And as a researcher, I know that people being aware that they are being observed cause them to act differently versus when they are unaware anyway (not that he shouldn't have asked for consent, he definitely should have).

What are your thoughts?

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: COLLIER Ben <s1263350 at sms.ed.ac.uk<mailto:s1263350 at sms.ed.ac.uk>>
Date: Wed, Apr 12, 2017 at 7:10 AM
Subject: Tor Research - Re: [tor-project] Weekly UX meeting on Jitsi!
To: "linda at torproject.org<mailto:linda at torproject.org>" <linda at torproject.org<mailto:linda at torproject.org>>

Dear Linda,

I hope that this finds you well. I'm a doctoral researcher at the University of Edinburgh currently researching the Tor Project and the broader Tor community - in particular my research seeks to explore how antisurveillance tech communities discuss and express values through design processes. I've been conducting some initial interviews with members of the Tor community and I was hoping to carry out some online research - in particular sitting in on a couple of discussions like the one on Jitsi mentioned in your email below.

In terms of meetings like this one, or on Tor Project's IRC channels, do you think it would be possible for me (with the consent and knowledge of participants) to observe and include these in an anonymised form in the research? If so, I'm very keen to conduct these in a mindful and respectful way, and to minimise any disruption, and would be happy to discuss the best way to do this in this particular case. I would also be very happy to feed back and discuss my findings with participants and the wider community once the research is complete. I'm also absolutely happy to answer any questions or discuss any concerns which you or any other member of the team have about my research.

Very best,

Ben Collier

Twitter: @JohnnyHistone
Scottish Centre for Crime and Criminal Justice Research: http://www.sccjr.ac.uk/about-us/people/ben-collier/
Edinburgh University PhD Student Profile: http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/research/students/viewstudent?ref=339
PhD Blog: https://bencollierblog.wordpress.com/

________________________________
From: tor-project <tor-project-bounces at lists.torproject.org<mailto:tor-project-bounces at lists.torproject.org>> on behalf of Linda Naeun Lee <linda at torproject.org<mailto:linda at torproject.org>>
Sent: 11 April 2017 20:22:14
To: tor-project at lists.torproject.org<mailto:tor-project at lists.torproject.org>; ux at lists.torproject.org<mailto:ux at lists.torproject.org>
Subject: [tor-project] Weekly UX meeting on Jitsi!

Hi all,

We're meeting weekly on https://meet.jit.si/TorUX on Mondays at 15:00 UTC. Currently, it's going to be discussions about redesigning the website.

Feel free to listen in on what is going on, if you are curious.

The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.

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