\usepackage{textcomp}
\usepackage[garamond]{mathdesign}
-\usepackage[letterpaper,left=1.2in,right=1.2in,top=1.2in,bottom=1.2in]{geometry}
+\usepackage[letterpaper,left=1.2in,right=1.2in,top=1.15in,bottom=1.1in]{geometry}
% packages i use in essentially every document
\usepackage{graphicx}
research question and strategy is representative.
I have also followed this strategy in a series of quantitative studies
-of the Scratch online community: a public website where a large
-community of users create, share, and remix interactive media. The
+of the Scratch online community: a public website where millions
+of users create, share, and remix interactive media. The
community is built around the Scratch programming environment: a
freely downloadable desktop application that allows amateur creators
to combine media with programming code (see Figure
displeasure \cite{hill_responses_2010}.
\begin{wrapfigure}{l}{2.6in}
+ \vspace{-1em}
\begin{centering}
\includegraphics[width=2.6in]{figures/frontpage_modified-topremix.png}
\caption{The front page of the Scratch online community where users
can share and collaborate on projects.}
\label{fig:scratchfrontpage}
\end{centering}
- \vspace{-2em}
+ \vspace{-1.5em}
\end{wrapfigure}
This year, I am conducting a population-level analysis in a new
contributions to different wikis on the same topic or theme are driven
primarily by environment-level changes in interest and that projects
can even benefit from complimentarities and synergies
-\cite{hill_is_2012}.
-
+\cite{hill_is_2012}. By looking at failures, these studies provide
+tests of several of the most influential theories of the conditions
+for collective action, suggest important practical and theoretical
+limitations to existing models, and point to previously untheorized
+mechanisms.
\section{Reputation and Status}
Although empirical research comparing successful and unsuccessful peer
(see Figure \ref{fig:barnstar}) -- a collaboration with Aaron Shaw and
Yochai Benkler -- I provide an empirical test of an influential
status-based theory of collective action from sociology. Although the
-study finds support for the widely hypothesized ``virtuous cycle'' of
-status rewards both causing and being caused by contributions, it also
+study finds support for a widely hypothesized ``virtuous cycle'' in which
+status rewards both cause and are caused by contributions, it also
finds that this effect is limited to a sub-population of Wikipedia
contributors -- ``signalers'' who show off their awards
\cite{hill_status_2012}. This result has broad implications for both
analysis of a design change and in-depth interviews of users to
demonstrate how credit-giving is ineffective when it stems from an
automated system because systems fail to reinforce status-ordering
-with credible human expressions of social deference and gratitude.
+with credible human expressions of social deference and
+gratitude. These studies suggest important limits to previous
+theoretical work on status as a motivator for collective action, and
+put forward a more nuanced theoretical model.
%\newpage
\section{Design-Driven Natural Experiments}
design of socio-technical systems, I have structured much of my work
around the evaluation of technological design changes. In several
papers, I treat design changes as ``natural experiments'' that
-exogenously change the ways that social structure is enacted. By doing
-so, I can both build causal understandings of social phenomena from
-field data, and can tighten the distance between theory and design.
+exogenously change the ways that social structure is enacted.
\begin{wrapfigure}{r}{0.25\textwidth}
\vspace{-1em}
hobbyist microcontrollers to argue that relatively simple design
changes in the \emph{LilyPad Arduino} -- a electronics toolkit
minimally re-designed for women and girls (see Figure
-\ref{fig:lilypad}) -- lead to large increases in the proportion of
+\ref{fig:lilypad}) -- led to large increases in the proportion of
women contributors and drastic shifts in the type of projects created
\cite{buechley_lilypad_2010}. I have also explored how technical
errors may be able to provide similar opportunities for analysis by
interrupting normal operation of a system and revealing internal
-processes that are usually hidden \cite{hill_revealing_2010}.
+processes that are usually hidden \cite{hill_revealing_2010}. In
+addition to the important theoretical findings in these studies, this
+type of work represents an important methodological advance in that it
+allows for stronger causal claims while also closing the gap between
+theory and design.
% or changes in socio-technical systems describing responsibility for a piece of software can lead to an important impact in the type and structure of contributions in peer production \cite{michlmayr_quality_2003}
datasets, I plan to compare the performance of collaborative
production to individually produced works to understand when
successful collection action leads to increased performance. For
-example, in an analysis using data from Scratch which currently under
+example, in an analysis using data from Scratch which is currently under
review -- done in collaboration with Monroy-Hernández -- I show
important limitations of collaboration through remixing in regards to
project quality, particularly for more artistic or media-intensive
organizations with large, active, online communities (e.g., the MIT
Media Lab and the Wikimedia Foundation). These organizations, like
many others, make design changes to the software that supports their
-communities to encourage contributions and improve users'
+communities to encourage contributions and improve their users'
experiences. Most of the time, these organizations have very little
idea if these changes are effective. I plan to seek funding for, and
to create, a technical framework and a network of academic and
projects / bmh-research_statement / blobdiff