[Institutional and project header]
Purpose of research: We are exploring how Free and Open Source (FOSS) digital infrastructure projects are conceptualized by both upstream maintainers and downstream users. We are hoping to identify potential conceptual mismatches within communities as well as ways to resolve them.
What you'll do: You'll be interviewed three (3) times over the course of a year about your FOSS project participation. All interviews will be professionally transcribed in real-time. We will work together during or immediately after the interview to revise your transcript until you are comfortable having it publicly shared with your name appearing on it. One of our research goals is to contribute to an open dataset of stories about FOSS participation that others can learn from.
Benefits to you and society: As a participant, you may potentially benefit from gaining a deeper understanding of your participation in FOSS projects as well as how other people understand participating in FOSS projects.
Risks to you: There are minimal risks associated with participation in this study; you get to choose which stories you want to tell, what you want to say during your interview, and what (if anything) you would like to edit out, anonymize, or otherwise revise from your transcript before releasing it under an open (creative commons) license.
Confidentiality: Your stories, as edited, annotated, and approved for publication by you, will be released publicly under an open license and with your name. Before this release process takes place, we can help edit/clean up the data in any way you request - deleting sections, anonymizing names, generalizing statements (i.e. changing mentions of specific other projects and people to more general terms such as “another project does…” or “another person said..”) and you will have full control over what portions of your interviews the open data repository.
Compensation/Costs: You will be compensated $150 for participating in the study upon successful completion of your third interview.
Voluntary Nature of Participation: Your participation in this study is voluntary; you can withdraw at any time without penalty. You are free to not respond to any prompts you do not feel comfortable answering. If at any point you feel any discomfort with the prompts, please do not hesitate to stop the researcher.
Contact Information: If you have any questions about this research project, you can contact the researchers with the contact information listed at the top of this page. If you have concerns about the treatment of research participants, you can contact the Human Subjects Research Office at [University]: [contact information]
Documentation of Informed Consent: I have had the opportunity to read this consent form and have the research study explained. I have had the opportunity to ask questions about the research project and my questions have been answered. I have been offered a copy of this consent form, and provided one if requested. By signing below, I am consenting that I am prepared to participate in the research project described above.
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(Note that this document may also be signed and returned digitally.)