Policies for use of Contact Information on W3C Silver project

From Silver

DRAFT: Rules of Engagement for working with Silver Research Volunteer List

While hundreds of people have volunteered to support research for Silver, some people have been nominated for this support and have not necessarily opted in to be contacted by Silver researchers. For this reason, the Research Volunteer List is private and not for use outside of the Silver project.

The Silver Task Force has set the following rules of engagement for using the Research Volunteer List:

  1. Use of Contact Information: Silver Research Volunteer contact information is only to be used for research related to the Silver project and not shared with other researchers, organizations who are not a part of the project, or used for any other purposes than research for the Silver project.
  2. Ethics of Research with People with Disabilities: Be sensitive to the nuances of working with people with disabilities in research. For additional information on ethical guidance for doing research with people with disabilities see National Disability Authority's Ethical Guidance for Research with People with Disabilities (pdf)
  3. Right to Discontinue: Any participant in Silver research may refuse to answer a question or discontinue their participation in the research at any time.
  4. Personally Identifying Information: Obtain explicit written permission from any contact for anything that would reveal their personal identity.
  5. Give credit: Be respectful of people who give insights and credit them for the source of their idea with their permission.
  6. Accessibility of Surveys: Survey or research tool content that is presented to research participants must meet WCAG 2.0 AA so that people with disabilities can fully participate in the research.
  7. Intellectual Property in Research Results: Confirm that anyone who has a written contribution to the Silver project is willing to contribute their intellectual property to the W3C Silver project. This applies to research that becomes part of the Silver specification (also called a W3C Recommendation or Standard) For more information on see the W3C Community Contributor License Agreement for W3C projects. Since all W3C standards are public and royalty-free, the license agreement is a way to insure that anything that becomes part of a standard will not later charge the public a royalty for using the standard. This should not be a common occurrence.
  8. Data Retention: W3C keeps public information associated with projects that is stored on a W3C website. See the W3C URI Persistence Policy.


For additional information on a code of ethics for opinion research, see The American Association for Public Opinion Research Code of Ethics

For additional information on ethical guidance for doing research with people with disabilities see National Disability Authority's Ethical Guidance for Research with People with Disabilities (pdf)

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