Kabir Shahani, Informatics 2004, sells his startup in major deal

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Appature, a Seattle healthcare marketing startup co-founded by CEO Kabir Shahani, was sold to IMS Health. Shahani, who graduated from the iSchool Informatics program in 2004 and is member of the Informatics Advisory Board, joined a startup called Blue Dot following a stint at Avanade after graduating. Blue Dot failed and as he reflected in Geekwire's interview, "the frustration of the first (startup) was not having a seat at the table that we wanted. And we felt like the only way that we could have it, was to start it ourselves. I like to think that we built a culture and

U.S. News ranks UW iSchool #3 in Graduate Library and Information Science

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

The latest rankings for “America’s Best Graduate Schools” were released March 12th by US News & World Report. The University of Washington Information School moved up from fourth to third place among U.S. master’s degree programs in library and information science (LIS) that are accredited by the American Library Association. “The iSchool’s ranking reflects the quality of the students we attract and the reputation of our faculty in creating one of the best LIS programs in the country,” observed UW Provost Ana Mari Cauce. “We are particularly proud of maintainin

MSIM students' research showcased by ASA Risk Consultants

Monday, March 11, 2013

Devin Luco, Dan Arnaudo, and Travis Warren, students in the iSchool master of science and information management program, contributed research notes to the March edition of the ASA risk consultants online newsletter. Luco's research note "Engaging in Cyber Warfare," advocates for the establishment of cyber warfare rules using the current conflict between the US and China as a case in point. Arnaudo's research note, "The Fight to Define U.S. Cybersecurity and Information Sharing Policy," reviews the past two years of political wrangling on cybersecurity intelligence shari

Informatics students organize first student-focused Startup Weekend

Friday, March 8, 2013

Those who know iSchool Informatics students would not be surprised to find them at the center of the first Startup Weekend to be organized on the UW campus. After all, Informatics students were key organizers for three TEDx events in 2012 – TEDxUofW, TEDxYouth@Seattle and TEDxWomen livestream 2012 – and many have plans to work for start-up technology companies after graduation. Startup Weekend, a non-profit based in Seattle, helps entrepreneurs of all ages vet their ideas before experts and find others who might bring those ideas to market. The goal of the event is to launch a

TASCHA study cited by UK's Guardian

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

The UK's leading publication, The Guardian, cited research from the iSchool's Technology and Social Change group (TASCHA) in their article titled, "Youth unemployment: can mobile technology improve employability?" The article cites TASCHA's 2009 meta study on the links between Information Communication and Technology (ICT) skills and employability. "ICT skills are almost never the missing link that miraculously transforms employment prospects." The article notes that the research shows that lower wage, lower skill workers face a multitude of other barriers

Two iSchool grads chosen as ALA Emerging Leaders

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Audrey Barbakoff and Kathleen Monks, both 2010 graduates of the UW Information School Master of Library and Information Science program, were among the 50 national participants selected as this year’s American Library Association Emerging Leaders. The ALA Emerging Leaders program enables newer library professionals to participate in problem-solving work groups, network with peers, gain an inside look into the structure of ALA, and have an opportunity to serve the profession in a leadership capacity. It allows participants to be on the fast track to ALA committee volunteerism as well

Documents that Changed the World: A Papal Resignation, 2013

Thursday, February 21, 2013

When he read that Pope Benedict XVI would resign — the first such papal resignation in nearly six centuries — Joe Janes quickly wrote and recorded a new episode in his Documents that Changed the World podcast series. In the podcasts, Janes, professor in the UW Information School, explores the origin and evolving meaning of historical documents both famous and less known. UW Today presents these periodically, and all of the podcasts are available online. “I was inspired by the suddenness of the announcement and then of course by the mechanism,’ Janes said. “Since a resignation h

iSchool at CSCW

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

The iSchool will participate in the 16th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW). The conference draws technology and information researchers and practitioners who present their work in the design and use of technologies that affect groups, organizations, communities, and networks. Participants from the iSchool include: Parmit Chilana, Ph.D. candidate Peyina Lin, Ph.D. candidate Andy Ko, assistant professor David McDonald, associate professor Jake Wobbrock, associate professor Paper Lin, P., Farnham, S. (2013). Opportunities via Exten

Faculty and students contribute to iConference 2013

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

The eighth annual iConference – Scholarship in Action: Data, Innovation, Wisdom – will be hosted by the University of North Texas on February 12-15, 2013.  The iConference series is presented by the iSchools organization, and is open to any and all information scholars, researchers and professionals who wish to attend.  Microsoft Research is the presenting sponsor. UW iSchool faculty and students taking part in this event include the following: Workshop: Digital Youth Workshop: Calling all Designers, Researchers and Policy Makers Session Chair: Karen Elizabeth Fish

Pioneer of human values in technology design gives University Faculty Lecture

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

We are the architects of the tools and technology we use, and those innovations don’t take place in a moral vacuum — they have values, says Batya Friedman, professor in the UW Information School. Friedman, a longtime iSchool faculty member who also directs the Value Sensitive Design Research Lab, gave the University Faculty Lecture on February 7. UWTV recorded the lecture which is available to the public.  “What we do with design matters,” Friedman said. “We’re not just passive in the face of technology, it’s not something that happens to us. We are the creators of the

iSchoolers participate in ALISE 2013

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

The iSchool is sponsoring the opening session and keynote speaker at the annual conference for ALISE (Association for Library and Information Science Education). This year's theme is "Always the Beautiful Question: Inquiry Supporting Teaching, Research & Professional Practice." The conference takes place in Seattle, January 22-25, 2013. Faculty member Joe Tennis will also be presenting his paper “The Strange Case of Eugenics:  A Subject’s Ontogeny in a Long-lived Classification Scheme and the Question of Collective Integrity.” Tennis' paper won this year's ALISE/Boh

Cybersecurity students featured on UW360

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Hackers are getting smarter all the time and students need more than classroom lectures to prepare for careers in information assurance. iSchool Research Associate Professor Barbara Endicott-Popovsky started the Pacific Rim Collegiate Cyberscurity Defense Competition six years ago to help her students put their learning into practice. Student teams from all over the northwest engage in simulated attacks to an organization's computer infrastructure. In this video segment from the January edition of UW360, the magazine-style TV show that profiles people, programs and communit

LemonAid simplifies how users find software help

Sunday, January 20, 2013

“How can we improve how users get help online? Wouldn’t it be cool if users could just click on something in an application and see questions and answers?” That’s the question that motivated Parmit Chilana, a doctoral candidate, and Assistant Professor Amy Ko, at the University of Washington Information School, to develop LemonAid, a software program that can be added to any interactive web application to give users instant access to helpful answers when they have a problem. The user simply clicks on a label or image they believe is most relevant to their problem and they can see th

Katie Davis awarded $124K grant to investigate youth digital badging systems

Friday, January 18, 2013

The grant will fund a one-year study to look at whether digital badges and badging systems successfully motivate learning in middle-school children. Katie Davis is the sole investigator on the study titled, "A Qualitative Investigation into Students' and Teachers' Experiences with Badges." Digital badges are given as an award for an achievement or work accomplished. Common in video games and on social network sites, badges serve as a visible accomplishment and are shared with a larger online community that could include teachers and peer communities. But do they measurably increase lea

Karine Nahon appointed co-chair of ‘Digital and Social Media’ track at HICSS

Friday, January 11, 2013

For the first time in its 46-year history, the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), has appointed a woman to lead one of their conference tracks. Karine Nahon, iSchool associate professor, will co-chair a new track titled, ‘Digital and Social Media’, with Kevin Crowston from the Information School at Syracuse University.  The new track will be the tenth subject area to be covered in future conferences and provide a consolidated place for research about the topic. Nahon and her co-chair view the track as a ‘convening platform for researchers to share and