Ethnographic Study of the OGSA-WG

As of August 11, 2007

Status: Data collection stage starts on March 14, 2007

Policy

• If at any time and for any reason, you prefer your participation in the working group not to be documented, you are free not to
• If at any time you would like to stop the observation, please tell the researcher. He can stop and continue at a later date, or stop altogether
• Pseudonyms will be used to mask the identity of working group members, as well as the name of the working group
• Observational data collected will be stored securely and encrypted to avoid a potential breach of confidentiality
  • All the procedures of this study, as described above, were approved by the Social & Behavioral Sciences Institutional Review Board at the University of Chicago, OGF Board, and GFSG.

Study rules

• Notification
  • Participants should be aware about his attendance. In cases in which he is not physically present (i.e. telephone conferences or dial-ins) he will notify his presence.
• Documentation
  • If anyone who participates in any of the sessions he attends would like him not to use your comments, you can approach him either during or after the event to request that your contributions be erased from his notes. He will immediately do so.
  • Since he will convert contributions to pseudonyms about two months after each session, it would not be possible for him to accurately associate names with contributions. He therefore asks these requests to be made during the two month period.
• Attendance
  • Since pseudonyms are used both for individuals and the working-group, it would be difficult to maintain confidentiality if his real name is mentioned in minutes and other related documentation available to the public. We will use his Pseudonym for minutes.
  • His initial communication with our group will be erased after he finishes his data collection stage (about a year from now).

Letter from Zack Kertcher

Dear OGSA-WG Member:

name is Zack Kertcher and I am a researcher in the department of sociology at the University of Chicago. I am conducting a study that will look at the ways in which the grid community works to standardize grid technology.

The primary motivation for this study is that despite a well established sociological tradition that examines science and technology, we know very little about the social underpinnings of open standardization, and, particularly, of standardization efforts that involve such a culturally and socially diverse community as the OGF.

The OGSA-WG was selected to participate in the study based on a number of criteria, particularly for its significance to the standardization efforts. The research involves ethnographic observations of your group, in addition to two other groups of the OGF, as well as interviews with 30-50 selected members of the OGF community. This collected information will be used in published research as well as in academic presentations. (If you are unfamiliar with this type of research, "Epistemic Cultures: How the Sciences Make Knowledge" http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/KNOEPI.html is a good example).

The ethnographic observational component of the study includes a continuous documentation of the interactions of members of the work groups throughout the duration of the study, for approximately one year. Attending public meetings, listening to telephone conferences of the work group, and subscribing to the public mailing list all serve this purpose. Participation of the work group in the study is on a purely voluntary basis.

Members of the studied work groups are entitled to a free copy of the study report that summarizes the study and its key findings. The study report is expected to be available at the beginning of 2009. You may also choose to receive a copy of the full study. I will send an email to you through the OGSA-WG’s list server when the report is available. If at any time and for any reason, you prefer your participation in the work group not to be documented, you are free not to. If at any time you would like to stop the observation, please tell me. We can stop and continue at a later date, or stop altogether.

Note that pseudonyms will be used to mask the identity of work group members, as well as the name of the work group. Observational data collected will be stored securely and encrypted to avoid a potential breach of confidentiality. All the procedures of this study, as described above, were approved by the Social & Behavioral Sciences Institutional Review Board at the University of Chicago.

If you have questions you may contact me at:

• Zack Kertcher Department of Sociology, University of Chicago 1126 East 59th Street Chicago, Illinois 60637
• Phone: (773) 493-3360
• Mobile: (773) 931-6227
• Email: kertcher at uchicago.edu

If you have any questions about your rights as participants in this research, you can contact the following office at the University of Chicago:

• Social & behavioral sciences institutional review board University of Chicago 5835 south Kimbark - Judd 121 Chicago, Il 60637
• Phone: (773) 834-7835
• Fax: (773) 834-8700
• Email: sbsirbwise at listhost.uchicago.edu

Thank you for your participation.

I am looking forward to a productive and interesting year!

Sincerely,

Zack Kertcher

• My advisor is
  • Andrew Abbott (http://sociology.uchicago.edu/faculty/abbott.html).
• Also in my committee are:
  • James Evans (http://sociology.uchicago.edu/faculty/evans.html)
  • Karin Knorr Cetina (http://sociology.uchicago.edu/faculty/knorr_cetina.html).