Karine Nahon invited as weekly commentator for Israeli TV

Thursday, December 18, 2014

As an expert on the impact of information flowing through social media networks, Associate Professor Karine Nahon is often asked to analyse and give her opinion on the impact of social media on politics. “We live in a world where a tweet can be instantly retweeted and read by millions around the world in minutes, where a video forwarded to friends can destroy a political career in hours, and where an unknown man or woman can become an international celebrity overnight,” said Nahon. Going Viral, her 2013 book co-authored with Jeff Hemsley, explores the nature of virality and social netwo

Crossing oceans: Study abroad program bridges divide

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

iSchool student Justin Melde had never traveled outside the U.S., not even to Canada. So when he stepped off the airplane in Beijing this August as part of the iSchool’s first China Study Abroad program, he was hit with a new sensation. “The first moment I realized I was in a different country was when I walked out the jet bridge and saw all the signs in Chinese and realized I couldn’t rely on that as a source of information. It was a big moment,” he says. After five intense weeks, the engaging Master of Library and Information Science student had made fast friends with Chinese peer

iSchool’s pioneering Digital Youth Seattle Think Tank convenes national experts

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Two-years in the making, the Digital Youth Seattle Think Tank (DYSTT) brought together leaders from industry, research, practice and policy to share ideas, brainstorm research questions, and discuss  obstacles and solutions in the work of studying and learning from digital youth. Digital Youth, one of the strategic areas of focus for the iSchool, explores the interactions of young people with digital information and technology. Beginning with young children learning literacy skills through young adults using social media and online games, iSchool faculty and students conduct research t

Tech entrepreneur Kabir Shahani named 2014 Distinguished Alumnus

Thursday, December 4, 2014

The honoring of Kabir Shahani as the UW Information School’s Distinguished Alumnus for 2014 represents a number of firsts. At 32, he is the youngest recipient in the history of the award, and also the first to do so with an Informatics degree. The latter is particular noteworthy in that the honor closely follows the 10-year anniversary of the first graduating Informatics class. In the decade since receiving his B.S., Shahani’s rise in the business world has been mercuric. After first dipping his toe into the start-up waters shortly out of college, he plunged in with the founding of his

End of an era: iSchool founder Mike Eisenberg retires

Monday, December 1, 2014

Hard-charging, irrepressible, with a head full of big ideas, Mike Eisenberg is quick to tell you he doesn’t know the meaning of the word “No.” “If it’s the right thing to do, there has to be a way to make it happen,” says the iSchool’s founding dean. That bulldog optimism served him well in the late ‘90s when he set out to transform an overlooked, under-resourced library sciences department tucked beneath Suzzallo Library into one of the greatest information schools in the world. Fueled by the vision of a new broad-based information mecca in the emerging technology capital o

Joe Janes in the race for president of ALA

Monday, December 1, 2014

Associate Professor Joe Janes, chair of the MLIS program, recently announced his decision to run for president of the American Library Association (ALA). MLIS students Twanna Hodge and Heather Newcomer, co-presidents of the student chapter of ALA, sat down with Janes to talk about his candidacy. Q.  Why are you running for the presidency of ALA? A.  This profession has been very good to me and this is a great way for me to be able to give something back. I also think it’s going to be a hoot—a lot of fun, an adventure, an opportunity, and quite a ride no matter how it t

After internships, jobs at Starbucks await iSchool Informatics seniors

Friday, November 21, 2014

Information School seniors David Gutierrez, Zach Camara, and Stephen Ramirez were all selected for internships at global-leading coffee giant Starbucks last summer. During their internships, the three carpooled to work together and became good friends. And after enjoyable, productive stints at Starbucks, all were offered full-time jobs, which will begin as soon as they earn their degrees. Here’s what they have to share about interning at Starbucks, their experiences at the iSchool, what made their internships a success—and why they’re excited to go back to Starbucks and get to work.

WINFO Hackathon a huge success

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Women in Informatics (WINFO), an iSchool student group, increased participation in their annual Hackathon five-fold this year. More than 50 students formed 11 teams to compete in the 9-hour Hackathon that took place in Mary Gates Hall on October 11. “We ramped up the PR this year,” said Jessalyn Cheng, president of WINFO. “We reached out to CSE, Girls Who Code, HCDE and the whole school. Jenny Chen did an amazing job with the poster, too." WINFO leadership decided on the themes, found the sponsors and judges, and managed logistics for the event – which meant they didn’t get to

Informatics students win first place at DubHacks

Friday, October 31, 2014

How do you win your first hackathon — a hackathon that was also the first DubHacks, an event that took place at the University of Washington and attracted students from across the county? iSchool Informatics students Gantulga Balgan and Patrick Chiang agree that it starts with a good idea. The second year Informatics students, who are studying mobile app development in ios this term, joined nearly 400 students from across the country in the University of Washington’s Husky Union Building for DubHacks, a 24-hour collegiate hackathon and the first of its kind in the region for colleg

Going Viral co-winner of the ASIS&T Information Science Book of the Year Award

Friday, October 24, 2014

For the second year in a row, the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) honored the iSchool by awarding the Best Information Science Book to an iSchool professor. Associate Professor Karine Nahon and Jeff Hemsley (Ph.D. ’14 and now Assistant Professor Syracuse University) are co-winners for their book Going Viral. The award was shared this year with Robert Glushko’s book, “The Discipline of Organizing.” In their award-winning book, Nahon and Hemsley explore the nature of virality and suggest that the ubiquitous Internet memes of today, fro

Michelle Carter: New assistant professor is pioneering work on 'IT identity'

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Not long after moving to the US from her native England to work on her PhD. At South Carolina’s Clemson University, new iSchool Assistant Professor Michelle Carter found herself driving along back roads in an unfamiliar part of the south—with no car charger and a dying phone giving her directions to her destination. How she chose to solve this minor dilemma triggered an observation that’s blossomed into a novel area of inquiry: how IT becomes part of identity. “The only thing I came up with was to look for a garage where I could buy a charger. It was only later I realized I never

Negin Dahya: New digital youth assistant professor is passionate about addressing social inequities

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

When Vancouver. B.C. native and new iSchool Assistant Professor Negin Dahya wrapped up her undergrad degree in psychology and English lit at the University of British Columbia in 2005, she wasn’t sure what direction she wanted to go with her career. So she took time off to travel to Brazil, where she volunteered facilitating arts-based education with young people in local urban slums or favelas. While there, she was struck by the way popular media—like American TV shows dubbed in Portuguese and watched in many households—influenced the way local community members, especially young people

Professor Carole Palmer: Advancing discovery through data curation

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Her name is often associated with “big data.” Carole Palmer doesn’t like to use the term. What interests her are “deep data,” “rich data,” collective “high-impact data” that, with expert curation, can lead to new insights and discovery. “I am focused on how we promote getting all kinds of data for use in new purposes, get public access to it, and also make it highly functional,” says the new iSchool professor. Her promise of a new data curation curriculum at the school has already created a buzz on campus. ”We’re working on a series of courses that we hope to begin

Lies have longevity on the internet

Monday, October 13, 2014

Despite correction after correction, internet hoaxes and misinformation can live a long and oftentimes damaging life on social media, according to joint research from the University of Washington and Northwest University that was presented at the 2014 iConference in Berlin. In an analysis of three false rumors spread over Twitter during coverage of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, the research team found that lies spread quickly—but corrections did not. For instance, a rumor that an eight-year-old runner was killed was retweeted more than 90,000 times over the five days following the bla

Annie Searle in Risk Universe: Ebola risk — from epidemic to pandemic?

Thursday, October 2, 2014

We have been watching the spread of Ebola in West Africa since spring. The stories are frightening to read. How can poor countries get in front of such an outbreak? What is their governments’ role in communicating the types and sources of risk citizens are facing? Can they actually force citizens to drop cultural practices that span centuries? How is it that the World Health Organisation’s budget is so reduced at such a time? Why is it that most of the alarm and pressure to take action has been raised by on-the-ground global organisations like Doctors Without Borders? Seven years ago, i