Woody Hartzog and I are recruiting subjects for a study of privacy behaviors in online social networks (note: Twitter counts!). If you’d like to participate (and you can remotely – via phone, Skype, etc), please be in touch. The official recruitment script follows:
UNC-Chapel Hill researchers are conducting a study of privacy behaviors in social networking sites (Facebook, Myspace). We seek individuals who maintain multiple profiles, and purposefully keep their profiles separate on social networking sites. For example, people who maintain a “work profile” and a “personal profile” on a social networking site. If you meet this criteria, we are interested in your opinions about privacy, as well as the social implications of maintaining multiple profiles.
To qualify for this research, you must be age 24 or older, have started using social networking sites within the last two years, and maintain multiple profiles (e.g. a “work profile” and a “personal profile”) on social networking sites. Participation is entirely voluntary. Individuals who wish to participate will be interviewed for one hour, and will be compensated $10.00 for their time. Interviews can be in person, or remotely (over the phone, via Skype, etc.). To volunteer for participation, or ask any questions about the project, please email Principal Investigator Fred Stutzman at fred@fredstutzman.com. If you prefer, you may call 919-260-8508.
This research has been approved by the University of North Carolina Institutional Review Board, IRB-09-1078. Gary Marchionini, Ph.D., Cary C. Boshamer Distinguished Professor in the School of Information and Library Science, is faculty supervisor of this study.
Put simply, we’re looking for people who are fairly recent adopters of SNS, that maintain more than one profile on a site or sites (e.g. maintain a “personal” and “professional” identity that is separate), or who attempt to segment their identity in social network sites (create “friend lists” for coworkers, friends, or family, for instance). If you have any questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments or email me directly.
Fred Stutzman is a doctoral student, researcher and teaching fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Information and Library Science. He studies how people use social media.
I’ll spread the word!
-RM
I’ve been networking socially for too long to participate, but I’ve used your study as a the impetus for a blog post on my 3 twitter accounts. http://cogscilibrarian.blogspot.com/2009/06/twitter-tizzy.html :-)
Like Stephanie, I have been networking socially for way longer than two years, but other than that I meet the criteria. I would have really enjoyed being a part of this study. I’ll keep an eye out for the results of your research though.
Ditto for me. I’ve been doing it too long but otherwise qualify. If you change that requirement I’d be happy to participate.