APPENDIX C
             INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARD CONSENT DOCUMNET

 University of Florida Institutional Review Board Required Document for Proiect Protocol

              Certification of Informed Consent (Online Participants)

My name is Shawna Pies and I am a graduate student in Museum Studies at the
University of Florida. I am conducting a thesis project titled Digital Foundations for
Partnership: A Collaborative Model for Indigenous Communities and Ethnographic
Museum Collections. Geographic distance and a shortage of time and funding create
barriers to museum collaboration with the indigenous communities they represent. This
thesis project addresses these issues by using an online workspace. This project invites
Florida Seminole and Miccosukee Tribal Members to share information and
perspectives relating to the collection of nearly 300 Seminole/ Miccosukee artifacts held
at the Florida Museum of Natural History. Baskets, palmetto dolls, silverwork, wood
carvings, and patchwork are some of the object types represented in the collection. The
participants in this project will help to expand the descriptive and contextual information
regarding artifacts in the museum's Seminole/Miccosukee Collections by contributing
online feedback. Through this project, I plan to discuss the benefits and challenges of
using an online workspace to expand indigenous participation in the development of
online indigenous museum collections information.
       If you choose to participate in the online workspace, you will have the option to
comment at the bottom of each webpage where images of Seminole objects with
related information will appear on each page. During the months of October and
November, 2009 participants are invited to add their knowledge about such topics as
the history, use, community importance of the object, or other comments. The
information that you share in the comment box will be public. You are free to comment
on as many pages on the website as you choose, or choose not to comment at all. The
administrator of the site (Shawna Pies) has the right to delete offensive or inappropriate
comments. Shawna may also initiate unstructured interviews with Seminole and
Miccosukee museum staff and their associates on the general topic of museum
collaboration and methods of artifact consultation. There is no compensation for
participating, and there are no risks associated with participation in this project. There
are no direct benefits to you for participating in the study. Your participation is voluntary
and may withdraw your consent at anytime without consequence.
      Participants will aid in producing more accurate and culturally sensitive
collections information. The information that the comments provide may potentially be
added to the museum's records, and the museum website. These records are
sometimes shared with researchers and members of the public who make requests to
the museum for information. The comments submitted on the website may also be used
in my master's thesis paper and future publications. The thesis paper will be available
(in pdf format) on the University of Florida website and on the "floridamuseumproject"
website in January, 2009. The project website is
http://floridamuseumproject.pbworks.com/.