User:Robertekraut

I am a social psychologist, who conducts research on how Wikipedia operates and what makes parts of it successful. I was influential in starting the Association for Psychological Science's Wikipedia InitiativeAssociation for Psychological Science's Wikipedia Initiative, which has the goal of encouraging its member to improve the coverage of psychological science in Wikipedia. I started my career as a traditional social psychologist, but working in the telecommunications industry for twelve years shifted my focus from disciplines to problems. As a researcher, I have broad interests in the design and social impact of information technologies in small groups, in the home, and in organizations.

I conduct research in five major areas:
 * Online communities
 * Everyday use of the Internet
 * Technology and conversation
 * Collaboration in small work groups.
 * Computers in organizations

Research: My research in a specific area first examines in detail the challenges individuals, groups, and organizations face in performing social tasks. This empirical research can inform the design of new technology to meet some of these challenges. Here I collaborate with computer scientists and engineers. The research comes full circle when we evaluate the usefulness of the new technology.

Teaching: I teach courses in these topics, including undergraduate, masters, and Ph.D. level courses in communication, computer supported cooperative work, and organizational computing. I have used Wikipedia writing assignments in these classes at least six times including most recently in Fall, 2017 my course on Organizational Communication.

Robert Kraut's homepage

Subpage for 2015 course assignment to improve an Wikipedia article relevant to organizational communication.

My editing history.

Category:Human–computer interaction researchers