About

I am a member of GroupLens Research at the University of Minnesota, where I get to work with a number of interesting and talented folks in the areas of human-computer interaction, personalization, and data mining. Prior to coming to the University of Minnesota, I attended Carleton College, and worked as a software developer in Seattle and in Denver. I used to be a competitive swimmer and ultimate player; these days I’ve taken to skiing and squash. I make pizza every week, religiously.

Research Interests

I am interested in when, how, and why people help one another via networked technology. Take, for example, Yahoo! Answers, an online question and answer site where many thousands of people come every day to ask questions and interact with one another. In some ways, Yahoo! Answers is a huge success: many people have received useful answers to their questions or have found a fun online social space. In other ways, Yahoo! Answers is less satisfactory: many questions are poorly answered or go unanswered, and there is plenty of inappropriate or rude content. What has shaped the qualities that this technology and community of users exhibit?

The properties of this Web site – and of other social technologies – are shaped by design. By “design”, I don’t mean color pallets and widget layouts. I mean deeper constructs, such as the algorithms that decide what content to display, the policies that govern the privacy or anonymity of users, or the signup scripts that affect the amount and type of work users must do before they become full members. Understanding deep design features is difficult and incredibly interesting. Human behavior is complex and unpredictable; and yet there appear to be algorithms and interfaces that consistently and strongly shape users’ behavior. I am interested in investigating existing design features to better understand what works, and in innovating new designs that help technology-enabled communities become stronger.