03-18-2005 12:21
We have two research projects that are beginning in Second Life. Both have agreed to our Research Ethics policy.

Havorford College
As part of a senior thesis in Psychology, a student at Havorford is exploring the similarities and differences between people who live in Second Life and players of MMORPGs such as WoW or EQ. She has a survey which she is hoping you will complete if you're interested in participating. She may also contact you for an interview, either in SL or via email, depending on your preference. You are under no obligation to participate in the survey or to consent to an interview. A write-up of the project will be presented as a Senior Thesis. All participants will be kept anonymous and the findings will not be published in print or on the Internet.

Stanford University
A group at Stanford in the Department of Communication is interested in seeing if conversational norms in RL translate to SL. The norms they're exploring relate to physical behaviors rather than what is said. They are hoping to recruit 12 people to wear attachments which will look at things such as distance between avatars during conversations. They will not be logging the chat, or tracking avatar names. They are planning to approach people in-world to recruit them to help with the study. Please don't feel like you have to participate unless you want to. The results of this study will be published, but again, all participants will be kept anonymous, and the data will be presented in the aggregate.

If you have any questions about either of these studies please feel free to IM me in-world or contact me directly at [email]robin@lindenlab.com[/email]
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