participants wanted for research on Collaborative Building ($30 1 hour Palo Alto)

The Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) is looking for Second Life users to participate in a study on collaborative building.

The study involves groups of two or three people working together on a building task in Second Life, followed by a discussion about the task. The total time required is one to one and a half hours. The study is taking place at PARC. It should be fun and easy for anyone who is familiar with the Second Life building tools. The research involves minimal or no risk.

Data and privacy:

Your screen video and voice conversation will be recorded for later analysis by the researchers; however no video or photos of you will be taken. Your identity and all recordings will be kept confidential and only seen by the researchers. You needn't use your own Second Life login as these will be provided. You may withdraw from the study at any time if you so choose.

When and where:

The study will take place during August. Within that constraint, the researchers are flexible. If you have days or times you would prefer to participate, please indicate this in your response.

The study will take place at PARC and you will have to travel there. Free parking is available. Participants will be paid $30 for completing the task. Light refreshments will be available.

Participants:

To be eligible to participate in this study you must:
• be over 18 years of age
• be a competent speaker of English
• be a competent user of Second Life building tools (expert level not required)
• be able to travel to PARC

If you have friends who use Second Life and are interested in participating, you are encouraged to participate together as a group. Alternatively we can group you with other subjects.

Contact details:

To participate, or to ask for more information, please email the researcher Greg Wadley via email gwadley at parc dot com or phone (650) 812 4472.

PARC is situated at 3333 Coyote Hill Road, Palo Alto, CA.

http://www.parc.com
http://disweb.dis.unimelb.edu.au/staff//gwadley

so... is it you will be recorded (ie video) or you will not?

you say screen video and voice conversations will be recorded, then you say no video or photos will be taken...

also you are not supposed to share accounts, or give your password to anyone

one more thing, why does this post seem so familiar?
(too lazy to search but I think I seen this one before)

also are you Greg?

If not you may want to remove the personal info leading to this Greg person

Why would he want to move the RL contact info, it should actually be there so you can contact a RL person, also the avs name is so close to the contact name in letters I assume the av is the contact too.

Apologies for confusion:

> you say screen video and voice conversations will be recorded, then you say no video or photos will be taken...

I'm using Fraps to record what participants see on screen, and mics to record what they say. But I'm not using (RL) cameras, so no picture of the participants themselves is taken.

> also you are not supposed to share accounts, or give your password to anyone

I have avs that people can use if they don't want to use their own av. I think privacy demands that I offer this option. I will log the participant in without telling them the password.

> one more thing, why does this post seem so familiar? (too lazy to search but I think I seen this one before)

This is definitely the first time I've posted this. But I posted a related question under 'Building tips' last week.

> are you Greg?

Yes. I usually work at Uni of Melbourne. From July-Oct I am a visiting researcher at PARC, working with the Playon group. I'm interested in virtual worlds (see publications on my web page). Feel free to contact me to discuss, either in-world, in email, or best of all, come and do the study! -Greg

http://www.dis.unimelb.edu.au/staff/gwadley/

Interesting. Expect an e-mail from me in a bit.

There have been so many researchers in SL many of them just grad students trying to get
people to fill out questionaires and so forth I think that many people in SL have become
desensitized to the whole process.

But for those of you who don't know, Xerox Parc is one of the grand daddies of all technological related research organizations. The basic idea of the graphical user interface your looking at, the mouse and windows just to name a few were invented at Xerox Parc.
Part of the history and lore of the personal computer and the mac are that both Jobs and Gates made visits to Xerox Parc to get ideas and info for creating the means to make it possible for individuals to own their own computers. Which in the 70's was a distant dream
to most people.

I think it is super cool that a research facility with the prestige and history of Xerox Parc is interested in SL. If I lived closer to Palo Alto I would definitely do it.

because if he is NOT greg (which he has now clarified he is)
then he would be sharing personal info of another person

but he isn't so it is a moot point

(sorry did not see your response till now so wanted to clarify what I meant)

I would not want someone to post my personal info (such as phone number)
that was why I said... are you Greg

as for the name being close, anyone can do that, and pretend to be that person (remember this IS the internet after all, no way to be sure)

thanks for clarifying


wish you the best of luck with it

maybe you should contact linden lab and see if there is some way they could assist you wish this endeavor

I did his yesterday. It was fun. They're also still looking for others.