Important - We need your approval or any objections please!

[Janette]

Please give me some feedback and any objections. How do you feel about this?

I have received a request to conduct research into on line health communities using our Forum by a student from the university of Sydney.

Briefly, the topic focuses on human computer interaction, studying how online health communities such as The Aussie Breast Cancer Forum not only provide support to people diagnosed with a serious health condition but can also be an example of a democratic process whereby community members enact political change through their participation. As a framework the research will employ both deliberative democracy and discursive design theories from political science.

The research will be subject to ethics approval from the University of Sydney Ethics Committee and, with your permission and approval from the University, the data collection phase will commence. At this stage I expect that to be toward the end of July 2010.

I seek your agreement to observe patient contributions on The Aussie Breast Cancer Forum. "I would like to use short quotations in my thesis with no identifying data."