Ok, so there have been some important HSC developments regarding the CHI 2008 design project. Normally, if you are conducting research for a course grade and not planning to publish the study it is alright to proceed with the project without HSC approval. This is UNLESS the target population being researched is a “vulnerable subject population,” which the homeless in fact are. SO, this means that researchers will not be able to directly gather data about homeless people. This stems from a student question to the HSC committee about getting a homeless shelter employee to deploy a cultural probe with one of their clientele (e.g. a homeless citizen). One of the major problems in this instance revolves around consent and the possibility that homeless citizens will feel pressured into taking part in the study even if they don’t want to (which alludes to broader concerns regarding power structure and intrusion of privacy). Additionally, it appears that most research methods to directly study the local homeless population will be problematic from a research ethics/human subjects research regulation point of view.