[UbuntuWomen] Request for qualitative research participants!

[Sarah Riggs]

Hello Ubuntu Women!

My name is Sarah Riggs and I am a Master's Degree seeking candidate at the
School of Information and Library Science at UNC Chapel Hill. I am
conducting research which addresses the large gender gap in the open source
community.

In 2006, a team of researchers sought to capture an image of women
contributors to open source software, as it was clear that women made up a
very small minority of participants (Nafus, Leach, & Kriegar, 2006). Several
proactive members of your community then implemented programs aimed at
increasing the number of women in open source; however, little research has
been done since this study.

By conducting qualitative interviews, my intention is to collect narratives
about the experiences of open source participants. I will ask questions
about your experiences joining and participating in the open source
community. Your answers will be used to to identify ways in which more women
can feel comfortable joining the community and contributing to open source
software development.

I would like to hear thoughts from women as well as men who are open source
contributors. Please consider participating whether you are just starting
out, or have been contributing to open source for many years. It is
important for this research to obtain a diverse group of respondents with
varied backgrounds so this research constructs a representative narrative of
experience.

I will be conducting interviews through July 20th, 2011, and I will be happy
to meet you at a time and date at your convenience. Those volunteers who are
selected will be allowed to decide the method of participation, and phone
calls, face-to-face interaction, or Internet Relay Chat are valid means of
communication.

Exhaustive efforts will be made to ensure that any information you give me
is confidential, and you are always free to stop the interview at any time.

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any further questions. I can
be best reached by e-mail, *smriggs at email.unc.edu*


 Thank you for your time,

Sarah Riggs
Principal Investigator
Research Approved by IRB, UNC-Chapel Hill*
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Information and
Library Science <http://sils.unc.edu/>*



 Reference:

Nafus, D., Leach, J. & Kriegar, B. (2006). *Gender: Integrated Report of
Findings* (Deliverable – 16).* *Retrieved from Free/Libre/Open Source
Software: Policy Support,*
http://www.flosspols.org/deliverables/FLOSSPOLS-D16-Gender_Integrated_Report_of_Findings.pdf
*
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