{"442951":{"#nid":"442951","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Bruckman Pioneers the Path to Better Online Communities","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBack in 1999 \u2014 before Twitter and Facebook or virtual worlds like Second Life were a twinkle in anyone\u2019s eye \u2014 Amy Bruckman was carving a pioneer\u2019s path in online communities. The \u201cmulti-user domains\u201d (MUDs) of the last millennium were bringing people together in new virtual ways, and they were an armchair anthropologist\u2019s dream come true.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs Bruckman set out to understand these \u201cidentity workshops\u201d where people could explore social or gender roles, she began to define what fostered the best engagement among people all over the world. Her pioneering work into this latest frontier led the young assistant professor at Georgia Tech to be named one of MIT\u2019s \u201cInnovators under 35\u201d that year.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EToday, Bruckman is again pioneering a new path \u2014 this time to the long-isolated island of Cuba. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe have just completed a qualitative study of how Cubans use the Internet, and are now working on a crowd-sourced information system to help,\u201d says Bruckman, associate chair of academics for the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech and co-primary investigator on the project with Chair Annie Ant\u00f3n. \u201cCuba is one of the most isolated countries in the world, but rapid change may be beginning. Currently, Cubans often have email but no web access. With our system, they\u2019ll be able to email a question, and volunteers will email back answers. People outside Cuba can also ask questions of Cuban citizens. We hope both to help Cubans with their information needs and to increase mutual understanding.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhile the work involving a tropical locale \u2014 when virtual or not \u2014 may sound enticing, it is another recent project by Interactive Computing students that Bruckman considers among the most profound: studying how people (mis)understand\u0026nbsp;intellectual property terms of service.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cCasey Fiesler and I found that people generally don\u2019t read terms of service, and couldn\u2019t if they tried \u2014 it would take too much time, and the average reading level is well above that of the typical Internet user,\u201d\u0026nbsp;says Bruckman, who was advisor to Fiesler (HCC \u002715) on the work. \u201cIn fact, our legal analysis shows that\u0026nbsp;they are not all the same, and people are agreeing to strikingly different terms without realizing it.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe research on this topic was awarded best paper at\u0026nbsp;ACM\u2019s Computer-Supported Cooperative Work \u0026amp; Social Computing conference in March. Co-author Fiesler is now an assistant professor at University of Colorado at Boulder \u2014 one of Bruckman\u2019s many students in nearly 20 years of teaching to go on to other heights.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cAmy is one of the smartest people I have ever met,\u201d says PhD Student Michaelanne Dye (HCC).\u0026nbsp;\u201cShe is genuinely interested in her students and committed to her\u0026nbsp;role as an educator.\u0026nbsp;As an advisor, she consistently\u0026nbsp;challenges\u0026nbsp;me to do my best work. It\u0027s an honor to study under someone who has been so foundational in the\u0026nbsp;field of computing.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBruckman says it\u2019s the students that make her most excited to come to work each day.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI love my research and my students,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd I particularly enjoy teaching. I have terrific students and colleagues \u2014 smart, thoughtful, and doing great work.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EYou can catch Bruckman each fall teaching \u201cComputers, Society, and Professionalism\u201d and the graduate class, \u201cDesign of Online Communities\u201d in the spring \u2014 if she\u2019s not corresponding with Cuba.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Back in 1999 \u2014 before Twitter and Facebook or virtual worlds like Second Life were a twinkle in anyone\u2019s eye \u2014 Amy Bruckman was carving a pioneer\u2019s path in online communities."}],"uid":"28124","created_gmt":"2015-09-01 09:48:04","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:19:29","author":"Tyler Sharp","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2015-09-01T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2015-09-01T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"349331":{"id":"349331","type":"image","title":"Amy Bruckman compressed","body":null,"created":"1449245696","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 16:14:56","changed":"1475895073","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:51:13","alt":"Amy Bruckman compressed","file":{"fid":"201016","name":"amy-bruckman_0.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/amy-bruckman_0_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/amy-bruckman_0_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":15651,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/amy-bruckman_0_0.jpg?itok=3HdCRWgP"}}},"media_ids":["349331"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"140011","name":"Amy Bruckman; Michaelanne Dye; School of Interactive Computing; Cuba; Casey Fiesler; ACM\u0027s Computer-Supported Cooperative Work \u0026 Social Computing Conference; multi-user domains"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:tlabouff@cc.gatech.edu\u0022\u003ETara La Bouff\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ENews and Media Relations Manager\u003Cbr \/\u003E404.894.7253\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}