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You are invited to be in a research study of how interface design promotes hierarchical tagging. You were selected as a possible participant because you have adequate experiences of online tagging websites. We ask that you read this form and ask any questions you may have before agreeing to be in the study.
This study is being conducted by Jilin Chen, Computer Science and Engineering Department, University of Minnesota.
The purpose of this study is to investigate how different layouts and visualization of our website may change the structure of tags generated by all our users. We hope by designing a proper interface, users will be able to create tags with meaningful hierarchical structures rather than flat structures that can be seen commonly in other tagging websites.
If you agree to be in this study, we would ask you to visit our websites, give tags to web page URLs through our website and build your personal collection of tags and URLs. We will collect information about your tags, URLs as well as your procedure for building your collection in our system, and give you a survey after the experiment to get some additional input. No other information will be collected or maintained.
The study has a risk. Since URLs and tags you add might be made public with a unique identifier which is assigned to you, if somebody who knows you well get access to your tagging record, he or she might identify you from these information, although the unique identifier is not tied to your personal information such as your name, and we will keep your record carefully so that other people will not be able to access it.
The benefits to participation are: First, you can maintain your URL bookmarks online. Second, you can classify bookmarked web pages effectively by assigning tags to them through our interface designed for hierarchical tagging.
While our whole group greatly appreciate for your participation, we are not able to provide any payment to you.
The records of this study will be kept private. In any sort of report we might publish, we will not include any information that will make it possible to identify a subject. Research records will be stored securely and only researchers will have access to the records.
Participation in this study is voluntary. Your decision whether or not to participate will not affect your current or future relations with the University of Minnesota. If you decide to participate, you are free to not answer any question or withdraw at any time with out affecting those relationships.
The researchers conducting this study are: Jilin Chen, Satoshi Azuchi, Jeff Beck and S. Andrew Sheppard under the supervision of Professor John Riedl. If you have questions, you are encouraged to contact us at EE/CS 5-208, 200 Union St. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, socweb@cybership.org, or contact our advisor at EE/CS 5-211, 200 Union St. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, (612) 624-7372, riedl@cs.umn.edu
If you have any questions or concerns regarding this study and would like to talk to someone other than the researcher(s), you are encouraged to contact the Research Subjects’ Advocate Line, D528 Mayo, 420 Delaware St. Southeast, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455; (612) 625-1650.
You may save a copy of this information to keep for your records.
I have read the above information. I have asked any questions and have received answers. I consent to participate in the study.