Dear Participant,

I'm Giovanni Schiazza MSc, a PhD student at the University of Nottingham, UK.
My PhD aims to co-develop a tool for memetic research based on computational social science.
Meta-Meme, a researchers' tool for the analysis of internet memes is intended to improve memetic research by reducing the cost/time meme analysis.
The tool is intended to democratise the access to memetic research by removing some of the common obstacles found in this field.
For instance, obstacles that prevent the start or progress of research: may relate to topical, organisational, financial or academic issues etc... (to name a few). 

Meta-Meme is a tool of the meme researcher, for the meme researcher and created by meme researchers.
To achieve such an ambitious goal, the creation of the tool will be informed by four (or more) rounds of Workshops using e-Delphi with different stakeholders.
As such, I am inviting Memetic researchers and Meme 'experts' to participate in a series of engagement studies, grouped by themes and methods employed in the tool.
There are different ways to participate in these engagement rounds: workshops or interviews. 
R1-4 are 2h workshops using e-Delphi starting in May 2024. Two identical workshops are scheduled for each round. 
Below are the themes explored in each round; please remember this while completing the survey. 

R1: Dawkinsian Memes, Internet Memes, Theoretical Frameworks, Characteristics and operationalisation of Internet Memes 
R2: IM operationalisation, Meta-Meme output design and selection of tool features
R3: Computational Social Science and Meta-Meme, what ML paradigms to achieve outputs
R4: Showcase, functionality and user interface of the tool, feedback and improvement

A different way to engage is through 1:1 1h interviews that run alongside the engagement rounds and will discuss similar topics. At the end of the interview you might be asked to fill out a survey, which will be similar to the ones used in the engagement rounds.

Participants will be compensated for most of the engagement rounds for their time. The compensation procedure and amount will be specified upon contact and in the workshop consent form.

For your valuable contribution to this project, we are offering £25 vouchers for 2h workshop participation and £10 for 1h one-to-one interviews. 
Vouchers will be allocated after the completion of the follow-up survey.
Since this is a co-production exercise, you can indicate that you are credited as a named or anonymous co-production author or be part of the acknowledgements.
You can indicate the extent to which you wish to be named or remain anonymous in the PhD thesis and/or subsequent publications. 

More information on the e-Delphi Workshop Rounds (R1-4)
Each round of engagement consists of 2h workshops, running twice a month.
Morning (10 am) and Afternoon (3 pm) sessions are available. Times CET. 
The project's duration is two hours of workshop + a follow-up survey. 
 
In each workshop, time will be allocated to complete a survey where you will be asked to produce and rank statements related to Internet Memes.
I will present the aggregate results from the workshop and previous rounds in the current and following workshops.
Delphi methodology data anonymisation will be employed to reduce bias.
More specific information will be available upon contact for workshop enrolment, on the workshop day, and in the e-Delphi survey consent form.
Each participant of the engagement rounds (workshop or interview) will be compensated for their time and effort, following the UK living wage rates.

Data processing of this survey
The details you provide in the form will be employed to contact you for the engagement round(s) of the Meta-Meme project.
Please note that by completing this survey, you express your interest in participating in the engagement rounds, and you might be contacted via the email you have provided. The survey takes around 8 minutes to complete.
Due to budget and time constraints, not all survey respondents will be required to participate in the engagement rounds. I will be in touch either way.

The responses from this survey will be used to map meme researchers' current knowledge to better inform the research tool's design (Meta-Meme).
Your responses will be kept confidential. The data obtained will be securely stored (in line with the GDPR principles and the University's research ethics).
Once the data are analysed, a report of the findings may be submitted for publication and used in the following engagement rounds.
Only broad trends will be reported, and identifying any individuals will not be possible. A summary of the results will be available from the researchers on request. These results may be made available via an online repository.

Please note that you can return to the previous page or change your answers using the back button (<-).
If you would like to contact me to discuss this research or withdraw your response, please e-mail giovanni.schiazza@nottingham.ac.uk

This study has been approved by an ethics board of the University of Nottingham; if you have any concerns about this, don't hesitate to get in touch with Dr Helena Webb at Helena.Webb@nottingham.ac.uk.
If you wish to file a complaint or exercise your rights, you can contact the Ethics Committee at the following address: cs-ethicsadmin@cs.nott.ac.uk

The privacy notice for this study can be found here.

By clicking the button below, you acknowledge that your participation in the study is voluntary, you are at least 18 years of age, and you are aware that you may choose to terminate your participation within 20 days from completion by simply emailing the Principal Investigator.

The project is being funded by the Horizon CDT at the University of Nottingham.

Thank you for your time.

Yours Sincerely,
Giovanni Schiazza.
MRL/Horizon CDT 
School of Computer Science, University of Nottingham
Do you consent to take part in this survey and to be contacted to participate to one or more of the engagement rounds?
By clicking the button below, you acknowledge that your participation in the study is voluntary, you are at least 18 years of age, and that you are aware that you may choose to terminate your participation in the study within 20 days from completion by simply emailing the Principal Investigator.