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 More...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. Less...