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
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