Thanks for checking out my blog! I'll periodically update this post to add links to external blog posts as I make them. 2022 Introducing the GOV-BOTs psychometric scale for measuring users’ perceptions of bots in online communities. For ACM CSCW on Medium. 2021 Social Computing Researchers Need to Pay Attention to Religion & Spirituality in …
Why You Should Twitter if You Science
Before I began to use Twitter [which is equivalent to, before I became an academic], I used to hate on it. Why would I waste my time with one more endless feed of information and random chit-chat? However, if you are a scientist, then by the nature of the work you do, you must be …
Here’s How You Run a Fun & Engaging Virtual Event
With a little help from my friends, I've been running a lot of virtual events for our Graduate Student Association lately. *sigh* COVID times. But before there was COVID, we were still putting on virtual events. Why? An online community can have many benefits to support offline communities IRL. It can help organize people to …
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10 Things You Need to Know if You’re a Computer Science Graduate Student
In 2019, a friend of mine thought I might enjoy being President of our department’s Graduate Student Association (GSA), so he nominated me without telling me. When I first saw my name on the ballot, my internal reaction was something like, “Awwwwwwww HELL no. Who did this?” When I was subsequently elected, my second internal …
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The World’s Best Protein Bar
Life is a dream. A thread of experiences, woven in a veil, delicate and beautiful. I would not lift it from my eyes, nor could I. Not three days ago, after ascending the fearful but glorious Incan granite that leads to the peak of Wayna Picchu, I arrive to the summit. A winded mess. There, …
Losing Mom, Finding Spirituality
[Cross-posted from CaringBridge.org, originally published June 2019. Photo Caption: My mom gave me this golden heart-shaped locket when I was child. Her photo is on the left, mine is on the right. This photo of her holding the locket was taken shortly after she passed away of uterine cancer in 2015.] You can never know …
How can we #sciencethenews?
We interviewed researchers, journalists, and everyone in-between in order to understand how science news gets made, why it’s often challenging to produce, and what opportunities exist for new technological innovation. ... What’s critical to realize is that all of the diverse stakeholders involved in scientific media production have different skills, different incentives, and different definitions of success.
Friends with Benefits: How GroupLens and Wikimedia are Happier Together
How GroupLens and Wikimedia are Happier Together
C. Estelle Smith, Ph.D. 