Dissertation: The Sharing of Wonderful Ideas: Influence and Interaction in Online Communities of Creators
My thesis presents a new framework for understanding how communities of creators share work, influence one another's creative processes, and learn from one another. I introduce the concept of Online Communities of Creators (OCOCs), which are online communities where the core activity is sharing personal creations. I describe a design philosophy; I outline both design principles and ethical concerns for the development of OCOCs; I introduce two technologies —the Village Profile Survey and the Village Visualizer — and describe the motivation, design, and impact of these tools; finally I use a mixed-methods approach of ethnography and social network analysis to study two OCOCs: the Computer Clubhouse Village and the Scratch online community. To this end, I analyze how ideas spread through OCOCs using the framework for diffusion of innovation developed by Everett Rogers. I map specific behaviors in OCOCs to Roger's five stages of adoption of innovations: awareness, interest, evaluation, trial and adoption. I report on types of participation, how a particular technology I developed diffused through one community, which members' projects enter the "trial" stage of adoption, and what factors predict influence in OCOCs.
[ pdf of thesis ]
General Exams
The nature of learning environments is rapidly changing with technology's
quick pace. Having a deep understanding of the nature of situated
learning environments through a multidisciplinary approach to
physical and social learning spaces would be the foundation for
me to make a potentially unique contribution to the design of
technologies for social learning.
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proposal | examination
response ]
AskMobi: Supporting Children as Social Scientists
With this system children can engage in social science inquiry about
issues important to them. The system has two components: a cell-phone
application for designing and answering surveys and a web-based
system for analyzing, presenting and critiquing data. The system
supports the children in creating hypotheses, writing surveys,
analyzing data, and presenting it in a public forum where it can
be critiqued. With this system children can learn how to think
like scientists: how to come up with interesting research
questions, how to develop methodologies for answering their questions,
and how to be skeptical about data and its presentation. The hope
is that through these types of activities, children will begin
to be see their world as scientists do, as a source of questions, data, and answers.
Electronic
Jewelry Workshops
The Electronic Jewelry Workshop is a program in which children
design and create their own jewelry, while learning about basic
electronics and electricity.
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Master's
Work: Dealing with Distractions: Analyzing and Designing for
Task Switching at Work
Increasingly, distraction is just a click away: computers
offer you the temptation to switch from your primary task. For
my masters I studied how well people manage switching between
tasks and between multiple computer applications four different
ways: a controlled experiment on task-switching, a survey on email
behavior and efficiency, a survey on how different computer applications
are used for work and outside of work, and an analysis of computer
users’ real-world switching behavior. Based on the findings,
two outcomes are presented: 1.) a new software tool that visualizes
workflow to encourage users to reflect upon their work habits
and their task switching and 2.) implications for the design of
monitoring software, tools for self-reflection, and push or disruptive
technologies such as email systems.
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Last modified
2 February, 2008