h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi,

We're a group of 3 students studying h2g2 for a class project (U1306707, U1316553, U1297534). We were pointed to this page by one of the people we contacted for interviews, LLWaz (U123301), and we would like to establish our legitimacy as serious academic researchers. A description of the class study can be found at http://www.cc.gatech.edu/classes/AY2005/cs6470_spring/researchstudy/

Our research requires us to conduct interviews with site members (preferably via phone). We have been asking several members to participate in our research, and our method for contacting them has been to request an interview, and point them to our contact details on our user pages. Before we actually interview them, or use any of their contributions (whether on h2g2 or elsewhere), we require them to review and sign a consent form (http://www.cc.gatech.edu/classes/AY2005/cs6470_spring/researchstudy/webconsent_h2g2_study.html) which informs them of the risks & benefits associated with the study, as well as detailing the confidentiality measures we use to protect them. Contributions or personal communications will not be used unless we have the participants' consent.

We hope that our having contacted several site members does not contravene the house rules (a full list of members contacted is available on request). We are most anxious to establish our credentials, and to assure the h2g2 staff that no abuse of either the site or the site members is intended.

The team may already have received an email detailing this information, and we have also contacted Natalie. Apologies for the cross-posting, but we wished to make sure that we were being heard.

Please contact us for any further information/clarifications - details are on our userpages.

Sincerely,

Arvind Venkataramani (U1306707), Britt Caldwell (U1316553), Madhur Khandelwal (U1297534)