David Randall PhD 👋
A Passionate User Research Specialist with 15 years of Experience conducting research in academia and business.
Hi, This Is David Randall 👋
A passionate User Research Lead 🖥️ & recovering Academic 🎓 with 15 years of Experience working in academia, tech and finance.
15+
Years of Experience
PhD
University of Washington
400+
Academic citations
Experience working in major companies
Teaching Experience
Analytic Methods for Information Professionals
Graduate Level
Information Management Capstone
Graduate Level
Design Thinking
Undergraduate
Intellectual Foundations of Informatics
Undergraduate
Design Methods for Interaction and Systems
Undergraduate
Education
Awards and Recognitions
Articles and Publications
Dissertation
Abstract
Members of online communities are increasingly participating in offline meet-up events and offline meetups are an increasingly important aspect of participation in many online communities. Prior research has shown these interactions are highly valued by community members, especially in video-sharing communities such as YouTube and online link sharing communities like Reddit. However, little is known about the impact such offline meetings have on the productivity and participation of members within the communities, and what research has been conducted has provided conflicting results. This research utilizes the lenses of Legitimate Peripheral Participation and Media Synchronicity Theory together to clarify prior inconsistent findings and investigate how offline interactions impact the productivity and participation of members of online communities. This was done through a multi-year process of ethnographic fieldwork including in-person and online participant observation, the collection of a decade of Reddit comment and posting data, 42 semi-structured interviews conducted both online and in-person, and a detailed case study of one YouTube collaboration channel. Overall members of offline communities showed a great deal of value in offline meetup events, describing them as critical and central elements of being a member of their iv respective community. As a result, there are clear impacts on individuals from their participation in offline meetup events, resulting from increased frequency of communication and a shift in their media choices to facilitate new and changing relationships with other community members. Individuals’ participation within their original community is also impacted – although not their continued membership – as they shift away from the medium hosting that community to develop their interpersonal relationships with other members.Curiously, despite clear evidence of the impact of offline interactions on individuals, members of these communities are often at pains to not exclude other members who do not, or cannot, attend such events. Claiming that offline interactions are not required for participation in a community, or a senior status within it. This work holds clear implications for the future of designing for online communities, particularly for platform that host such communities, and ensuring the right sort of communication tools are available to members at the right times in order to facilitate member interaction not just with the community but also with other members. This in turn will inform design techniques for platforms to limit user-attrition and encourage longevity, growth, and productivity in these communities. From a theoretical perspective this dissertation observes unique processes occurring within the Legitimate Peripheral Participation of group members moving through a Community of Practice that are not part of the traditional theory and offers potential explanations for these observed deviations as a jumping off point for future research. Additionally, it is also the first work to combine the theoretical lenses of Media Synchronicity Theory and Legitimate Peripheral Participation and as such offers a unique perspective into the media choices of individuals as they move through a Community of Practice. Future work from this research can look to uncover more around the active denial of users over the demonstrable impacts of meeting in person.
Full Conference Paper
Abstract
Over the last several years, a growing body of work has examined the nature of large-scale virtual organizations for data-intensive cooperative science. These projects, known as Cyberinfrastructures (CI) in the United States, are established realms of inquiry for the eScience and Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) communities. Scholarship in these communities extends technology focused inquiries to investigate the sociotechnical concerns to such infrastructure creation and maintenance. In this paper we present findings from our qualitative study of a federated cyberinfrastructure organization known as GENI. We contribute to this body of scholarship by investigating how stakeholders in the GENI project position existing, and newly created, resources for use in educational settings. We examine how stakeholders acquaint new potential stakeholders with this CI in order to draw them into the community, and the ways in which stakeholder’s roles evolve over time. Our findings illustrate several ways stakeholders leverage and align existing relationships and resources to expand the CI project’s user base. Finally, this paper suggests avenues of further inquiry and implications for organizing future CI projects.
Full Conference Paper
Abstract
From Harry Potter to American Horror Story, fanfiction is extremely popular among young people. Sites such as Fanfiction.net host millions of stories, with thousands more posted each day. Enthusiasts are sharing their writing and reading stories written by others. Exactly how does a generation known more for videogame expertise than long-form writing become so engaged in reading and writing in these communities? Via a nine-month ethnographic investigation of fanfiction communities that included participant observation, interviews, a thematic analysis of 4,500 reader reviews and an in-depth case study of a discussion group, we found that members of fanfiction communities spontaneously mentor each other in open forums, and that this mentoring builds upon previous interactions in a way that is distinct from traditional forms of mentoring and made possible by the affordances of networked publics. This work extends and develops the theory of distributed mentoring. Our findings illustrate how distributed mentoring supports fanfiction authors as they work to develop their writing skills. We believe distributed mentoring holds potential for supporting learning in a variety of formal and informal learning environments.
Full Conference Paper
Abstract
Young people worldwide are participating in ever-increasing numbers in online fan communities. Far from mere shallow repositories of pop culture, these sites are accumulating significant evidence that sophisticated informal learning is taking place online in novel and unexpected ways. In order to understand and analyze in more detail how learning might be occurring, we conducted an in-depth nine-month ethnographic investigation of online fanfiction communities, including participant observation and fanfiction author interviews. Our observations led to the development of a theory we term distributed mentoring, which we present in detail in this paper. Distributed mentoring exemplifies one instance of how networked technology affords new extensions of behaviors that were previously bounded by time and space. Distributed mentoring holds potential for application beyond the spontaneous mentoring observed in this investigation and may help students receive diverse, thoughtful feedback in formal learning environments as well.
Full Conference Paper
Abstract
In this paper we report the results of a qualitative research study of the GENI cyberinfrastructure: a program of four federated cyberinfrastructures. Drawing on theories of stakeholder positioning, we examine how different GENI stakeholders attempt to enlist new participants in the cyberinfrastructures of GENI, and leverage existing relationships to create sustainable infrastructure. This study contributes to our understanding of how cyberinfrastructures emerge over time through processes of stakeholder alignment, enrollment, and through synergies among stakeholder groups. We explore these issues to better understand how cyberinfrastructures can be designed to sustain over time.
Full Journal Article
Abstract
The American Academy of Pediatrics has identified bullying as a serious health risk for adolescents. In today's age of social media and smartphones, this health risk has taken on new forms and extended its reach. Strategies to reduce the prevalence of and negative consequences associated with both traditional bullying and cyberbullying require knowledge of victims' lived experiences as well as the coping strategies they employ – both effectively and ineffectively – to respond to their tormentors. This article presents findings from an in-depth content analysis of the entire set of 1094 comments from a viral blog post about cyberbullying in which people shared their personal stories of bullying and coping. These stories included a mix of both traditional and online forms of victimization, as well as more general reflections about the distinct qualities of networked publics that serve to magnify, spread, and exacerbate the effects of bullying. The findings suggest that victims of both traditional bullying and cyberbullying are often targeted because they do not conform in one way or another to mainstream norms and values. Victims employed similar coping strategies to respond to their online and offline tormentors. Common behavioral strategies included seeking social support, ignoring/blocking, and finding a creative or expressive outlet. The two most commonly cited cognitive strategies were self-talk and taking the bully's perspective. Not all strategies were judged to be effective. The findings have relevance to researchers seeking to understand bullying from the perspective of victims and to practitioners seeking to develop effective interventions to support bullying victims.
Full Conference Article
Abstract
Libraries have long maintained strong protections for patron privacy and intellectual freedom. However, the increasing prevalence of sophisticated surveillance systems in public libraries potentially threatens these core library commitments. This paper presents the findings of a qualitative case study examining why four libraries in the US and the UK installed video surveillance and how they manage these systems to balance safety and privacy. We examine the experience of these libraries, including one that later reversed course and completely removed all of its previously installed systems. We find that the libraries who install surveillance initially do so as either a response to specific incidents of crime or as part of the design of new buildings. Libraries maintain varying policies about whether video footage is protected as part of patron records, about dealing with law enforcement requests for footage, and whether patrons ought to maintain any expectation of privacy while inside libraries.
Full Conference Article
Abstract
This paper presents the findings of an exploratory qualitative research study in which the authors sought to examine why two public libraries have implemented video security systems and why one of these libraries has reversed course and recently removed a previously installed surveillance system. We found that one library initially installed the system in various branches as an ad hoc response to specific incidents of crime without central administrative oversight, while the other installed their system as an integral part of the design and construction of their central library location and collaborates with local police and professional consultants on security issues. The former library system subsequently removed all of their cameras in 2011 as a consequence of having negative interactions with local police departments.
Full Conference Article
Abstract
This paper, originally presented at a Special Workshop on Information Privacy at iConference 2013 in Fort Worth, Texas on Feb. 12, 2013, presents the findings of a qualitative case study examining why one public library installed video surveillance systems and then later reversed course and completely removed the previously installed systems. We found that the library initially installed the system as a response to specific incidents of crime without central administrative oversight, and that the removal was prompted by deteriorating relationships with local police departments over the library’s position that the video footage was exempt from public disclosure under the state’s library records privacy law. The library system subsequently removed all of their cameras in 2011, claiming the cameras were not in sync with library commitments to intellectual freedom and patron privacy, despite the fact that library staff expressed strong interest in retaining the cameras and were concerned about staff safety and crime prevention. We also found evidence of surveillance creep.
Full Journal Article
Abstract
“The problem with communication is the illusion that it has occurred” (George Bernard Shaw). As organisations become more globalised rising time and cost constraints force them to increasingly make use of virtual teams. As a result of the continuous expansion of such teams in the workplace research and theories into their performance become ever more important. This study investigates the validity of one such theory, Media Synchronicity Theory, in predicting the performance of virtual teams in completing complex tasks, specifically teams whose members belong to an online community. There is currently little empirical evidence to support Media Synchronicity Theory, especially when related to virtual teams. This study provides such evidence and shows support for the theory in predicting behaviour that leads to efficient task performance amongst a virtual team. The results also find contradictory evidence towards Media Synchronicity Theory, suggesting that some aspects of the theory do not hold for teams more experienced with computer mediated communication – such as teams from online communities. The results suggest a need for more empirical evidence of Media Synchronicity Theory to help corroborate the results. Future research is also suggested into the impact online community membership can have on achieving better task performance.
