[Aslug] Fwd: Request from academic researcher

[Adrian Casey]

Feel free to take part in this survey.  They are offering $500 to five 
opensource projects in return for contributions.

Cheers.
AGC.

----------  Forwarded Message  ----------

Subject: Request from academic researcher
Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2002 08:00:09 +0800
From: "Dr. Paul Dholakia" <dholakia at rice.edu>
To: Adrian Casey <aslug at outbacklinux.com>

Dear Linux User Group Moderator:
I am a faculty member in the Jones school of management at Rice University in
 Houston, Texas (this may be verified using a Google search with “Paul
 Dholakia”, or “Utpal Dholakia”). We are conducting an academic research
 project, studying social interactions online, and how communities organized
 around products or brands are formed, from a sociological perspective.

In this regard, the entire open-source movement, and particularly LINUX user
 groups and online bulletin boards provide a wonderful context to study these
 sociological issues.

We are conducting a survey of members of LINUX user groups/ online bulleting
 boards seeking information on different elements of their thoughts,
 feelings, and motivations of participating in such groups, and the value of
 the group to them... The survey is available on the web at the following
 URL:

http://www.surveypro.com/cgi-bin/surveypro/run_survey.cgi?id=2444


Of course, this research is strictly academic, and has no commercial links or
 interests. We hope to publish this research in a sociology journal.

As a small token of our appreciation for participants' time, and in the
 spirit of the philosophy underlying the open-source movement, we will donate
 $500 total to the five favorite organizations/ groups of our participants'
 choice (we ask the participant’s to nominate their favorite groups in the
 survey).

I am writing to seek your help in conducting this research, first through
 participating, and second, through encouraging your user group members to
 participate in the research.. This will not take more than ten minutes of
 your (and their time).

We welcome all help, and look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,
Paul Dholakia
Assistant Professor
Rice University
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~dholakia

-------------------------------------------------------

-- 
Cheers.
Adrian Casey.
Alice Springs Linux User Group
http://www.aslug.org.au