[Amcl-users] Request from academic researchers re: MUD Users

[Paul D. <dho...@ri...>]

Dear MUD Users:=20
We are faculty members in the Jones school of management at Rice
University in Houston, Texas (you may verify this by doing a Google
search under Lisa Klein or Paul Dholakia). We are conducting an academic
research project studying different types of social interactions on the
internet, and its influence on participants from a sociological
perspective.
In this regard, we are conducting a survey of members belonging to
e-mail groups, chat-rooms, and perhaps most importantly MUDs, seeking
information on different elements of their thoughts, feelings, and
motivations for participating in the group, as well as questions about
the group=92s value to them... The survey is available for answering on
the web at the following URL:
http://www.surveypro.com/cgi-bin/surveypro/run_survey.cgi?id=3D2458
Of course, this research is strictly academic, and has no commercial
motives or interests whatsoever. We hope to publish this research in a
sociology or communications journal.
As a small token of our appreciation for participants' time, and in the
spirit of the philosophy underlying the internet, we will donate $250
each (a total of $500) to two organizations/ groups/ charities of our
participants' choice (we ask participants to nominate their favorite
groups in the survey). We will randomly select two groups or
organizations from the nominations of all completed responses.
We are writing to seek your help in conducting this research, first
through participating, and second, through encouraging other regular MUD
users to participate in the research. This will not take more than ten
or fifteen minutes of your (and their time). We would be deeply
appreciative of any help that you can provide through participating, or
passing on information about this research to MUD users.
If you have any questions, please e-mail us (Lisa at lk...@ri...) or
(Paul at dho...@ri...). Thank you very much for supporting our
research.
Best wishes,
Lisa Klein, Assistant Professor, Rice University Web-page:
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~lklein=20
Paul Dholakia, Assistant Professor, Rice University Web-page:
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~dholakia=20
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Dr. Paul Dholakia
Assistant Professor of Management
Rice University
314 Herring Hall - MS 531
6100 Main Street
Houston TX 77005-1892
Tel: 713-348-5376
Fax: 713-348-5251
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~dholakia
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