== Thank-you for agreeing to participate in my study == 

 Thank-you for agreeing to participate in my study, entitled “Online Self-presentation among Wikipedians.”  I appreciate it.   

 As I indicated in my last message, here are five short questions about your user page that I would like you to answer.  These will help me to understand your motivations for creating a user page such as yours.  Please be as brief or as thorough as you like.   

  
 5 QUESTIONS 

 1. Are you a member of social networks such Facebook or MySpace?  

 2. In addition to maintaining a user page in Wikipedia, have you also written or edited articles?  If so, about how many times?   

 3. What are the key messages about yourself that you hope to convey with your user page? 

 4. Have your Wikipedia contributions ever received feedback, such as being edited by others or commented on?  Have you received a message from another Wikipedia user?  If so, do you think your user page positively or negatively affected what other people said and how they said it? 

 5. Do you see your “online self” as being different from your “offline self?”  Can you elaborate? 

  
 Please indicate your answers to these questions on your talk page, or on mine.  Please respond by October 1st so that I have time to properly read your responses.  If you like, you can email your answers to me instead (jmcvea@ualberta.ca).   

 Thank you again  )  

    

  
 ADDITONAL INFORMATION 

 Background 

 • 	 I am asking you to participate in a research project that is part of my MA degree. 

 • 	 I am asking you because you have created a user page in Wikipedia that other people can use to learn about you. 

 Purpose 

 • 	 My research is about how people present themselves online. 

 • 	 I will look at how people present themselves when presenting themselves to the Wikipedia community. 

  
 Study Procedures 

 • 	 With your consent, I will analyze the language of your user page and gather basic statistics such as the count of words, the frequency of words, the number of sections, and so on.     

 • 	 I will also read the text of your user page, looking for elements in common with ads posted by other people.  I will note whether you include a picture, or links to other content on the internet.  

 • 	 I ask you to answer my five questions, above.  This will take about ten to fifteen minutes to complete.  I will ask you to answer the questions within a week, and send your answers to me. 

 • 	 Throughout my research, I will adhere to the University of Alberta Standards for the Protection of Human Research Participants, which you can view at http://www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/gfcpolicymanual/policymanualsection66.cfm 

  
 Benefits 

 • 	 There is no direct benefit to you for participating in this research.  You may, however, find it interesting to read my perspective on how you present yourself online.  

 • 	 I hope that the information I get from doing this study will help understand how technology affects the way people come together into a society.   

 • 	 There is no reward or compensation for participating in this research. 

  
 Risk 

 • 	 There is no direct risk for participating in this research.  

  
 Voluntary Participation 

 • 	 You are under no obligation to participate in this study. Participation is completely voluntary. 

 • 	 You can opt out of this study at any time before October 10, 2011, with no penalty.  You can ask to have me withdraw any data that I have collected about you.  Even if you agree to be in the study, you can change your mind and withdraw.   

 • 	 If you decline to continue or you wish to withdraw from the study, your information will be removed from the study at your request. 

  
 Confidentiality 

 • 	 This research will be used to support a project that is part of my MA degree.   

 • 	 A summary of my research will be available on the University of Alberta website.   

 • 	 Your personally identifiable information will be deleted and digitally shredded as soon as I have finished gathering data about you.   

 • 	 Data will be kept confidential.  Only I will have access to the computer file containing the data.  It will be password protected.  It will not be sent by email or stored online.  

 • 	 I will always handle my data in compliance with University of Alberta standards. 

 • 	 If you would like to receive a copy of my fin