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People
Faculty
karineb@u.washington.edu
Tel: 206.685.6668
website
 Dr. Karine Barzilai-Nahon is an assistant professor at the Information School, director of the Center for Information & Society, faculty adjunct at the department of Communication and affiliated faculty at the Center for Communication and Civic Engagement in University of Washington. Her research interests lie in information policy and politics and in the social aspects of the management of information. More specifically she studies information control and gatekeeping, self-regulation mechanisms in cyberspace and particularly in virtual communities, and "Digital Divide" measurement tools. She holds a PhD and MSc in Management of Information Systems (2004) from Tel-Aviv University, and BA in Computer Science and Political Science. Currently, she co-chairs the virtual communities minitrack and the digital divide minitrack at HICSS. She serves as an expert in many decision-making forums that relate to Internet and information technology policy and advises the science and technology committee of the Israeli parliament. She academically directed the Israeli delegation and participated as a representative in the UN summit of WSIS (World Summit of Information Society). Formerly she held senior positions in Research and Development in the hi-tech industry.
rmmason@u.washington.edu
website
Dr. Robert M. Mason joined the faculty of the Information School at the University of Washington in autumn 2005. His current research interests focus on the philosophy and ethics of technology management and the cultural aspects of knowledge management. He recently completed a research project that examined how knowledge was created and shared during implementation of enterprise systems in a consortium of state universities. He was previously on the faculties of the College of Business at Florida State University and the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. Prior to devoting full time to academia, he operated two consulting companies and worked in industry. He is a former president of the International Association for the Management of Technology (IAMOT) and serves on the senior editorial board for Technovation. He has an SB and SM in electrical engineering from MIT and a PhD in industrial and systems engineering from Georgia Tech.
Staff
Stephanie Earls, CIS Coordinator
sce5@u.washington.edu
Glenn Hampson
ghampson@u.washington.edu
Karen Hirst
khirst@u.washington.edu
Research Associates
Rucha Ambikar, Research Associate
rucha@u.washington.edu
Tel: 206.543.3084
Rucha Ambikar is a Research Associate at the Center for Information & Society at the University of Washington. She is finishing her doctorate in Social & Cultural Anthropology from the California Institute of Integral Studies and hopes to be done by this summer. Her dissertation focused on schools run by religious-right wing organizations in India and she specializes in qualitative research methods. She is interested in issues of sustainable development, and the intersections of gender, religion and nationalism. Her research work to date has been focused on South Asia. She also holds master’s degrees in Mass Communication from Marquette University, WI and in Sociology from Jawaharlal Nehru University, India. She enjoys cooking and reading murder mysteries in her spare time.
Christopher T. Coward, Head, ICT and Development Program
ccoward@u.washington.edu
Tel: 206.616.9102
 Chris Coward is founding director of the Center for Internet Studies (now the Center for Information & Society) which he helped established in 1999. He currently heads the ICT and Development Program where he splits his time between building the Program and his own research. Chris believes that the best way to understand the important questions of ICT and development is through creating multidisciplinary teams with full participation of overseas research partners, an approach reflected in all of the Program’s research. Chris’s research focuses on understanding the socio-economic impacts of ICT, particularly in public access settings. This work involves adapting methodologies from different disciplines to the ICT and development field. Chris also examines and advocates for greater developing world university based research in this emerging field of study.
Chris holds a Master of Public Administration (MPA) and a Master of Arts in International Studies (MAIS), both from the University of Washington.
Courses: PBAF 537: Information Technology and International Development
 migarrid@u.washington.edu
Tel: 206.685.0812
Blog: e-Inclusion in Central and Eastern Europe
See publications
Maria Garrido is a research associate for the Center for Information & Society at the University of Washington. Her research explores the role of information technology in fostering economic development in low-income communities in Latin America. She has published research on how grassroots organizations make use of information technology as a tool to mobilize civil society and to create networks of solidarity to work towards social change.
Her doctoral dissertation explores the role of social movements' networks and their impact in economic and social development in the context of Latin America. In particular, she draws upon the experiences of the Zapatista Movement in Chiapas, Mexico, to illustrate the way in which the actors that formed the Zapatista solidarity network are collaborating and working together with the movement's members to improve the lives of the indigenous communities in the region. She earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, a Masters in International Relations at the University of Chicago, and a PhD in Communications at the University of Washington.
Courses: TC 505: Computer Mediated Communication - Spring 07
rgomez@u.washington.edu
Tel: 206.685.1372
website
Publications: http://staff.washington.edu/rgomez/publications.html
Dr. Ricardo Gomez specializes in the social impacts of communication technologies, especially in community development settings. He is also interested in qualitative research methods, and in group facilitation and process design. He seeks creative ways to communicate complex ideas and research results in everyday language. He has worked with private, public and non-profit sectors around the world, with a particular focus on Latin America and the Caribbean. Before joining the University of Washington he worked with Microsoft Community Affairs, and with the International Development Research Center in Canada. He holds an MA from Université du Québec à Montréal (1992) and a Ph.D. from Cornell University (1997).
 Elizabeth Gould, Research Analyst
eagould@u.washington.edu
Elizabeth will complete her Masters degree in Library & Information Sciences at the University of Washington in June, 2008. She also holds an undergraduate degree in the Earth Sciences from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Currently, Elizabeth is working with the Center for Information & Society studying the social and economic impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in developing countries. She is also in charge of a literature review that, in addition to impacts, is investigating public access to diverse ICT venues around the world. Elizabeth is especially interested in serving the information needs of underserved communities, particularly those at the bottom of the economic pyramid. She uses her interest in foreign countries and libraries to study what "public" means in terms of access to information for everyone.
Christopher K.
Rothschild, Research Assistant
chriskr@u.washington.edu
Chris is currently finishing a dual Masters degree program in Public Administration and International Studies. His research interests are in rural development, with a concentration in ICT. Most of Chris' past research has been focused in East Asia.
Rebecca Sears, Research Coordinator
rmsears@u.washington.edu
Tel: 206.685.1932
Rebecca Sears is a research coordinator with the Center for Information & Society. Rebecca’s career interests center on information and communication technologies for social and economic development. She has been involved in large-scale technology implementations with the US Library Program of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the implementation of privacy compliance for the database marketing of the Microsoft Corporation, and public outreach on cyber fraud and identity theft for the Washington State Attorney General’s Office. She is interested in the power of information to make a concrete difference in the daily lives of people around the world. Rebecca holds a Master in Public Administration (MPA) from the University of Washington.
Joe Sullivan, Research Analyst
 jcs23@u.washington.edu
Tel: 206-685-1036 (office)
Tel: 206-898-4631 (mobile)
Joe's research focus is on access, inclusion, impact and sustainability of community technology programs in underserved and marginalized communities. In particular, he's interested in grounded qualitative approaches to evaluation and measurement, such as evidence narratives, that reveal deep patterns and emergent themes. Prior to joining the Center for Information & Society, Joe was an analyst with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's US Library and Native American Access to Technology Programs. He also works with international NGO's in South Asia around gender, migration and technology issues. Joe holds an MPA from the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington.
Affiliated Faculty
Michael Crandall, Senior Lecturer, Information School
Andrew Gordon, Professor, Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs
Beth Kolko, Associate Professor, Technical Communications |
