Reid Priedhorsky – Research
As a researcher in computer science focusing on collaborative and social
computing, the principle which motivates me is sustainability – I work
to empower communities to make better decisions in pursuit of a more
sustainable future. I do this by building new tools for creating and
communicating knowledge.
I believe that computing’s vital and growing role at the core of
nearly every modern endeavor means that computer science is uniquely
positioned for great impact in the matter of global sustainability. My role as
a specialist in human- and community-centered computing is to liaise between
the technical computer science community and the world at large, in order to
improve the effectiveness of this critical support role. Specifically, I work
to improve the tools and algorithms which facilitate human communication,
collaboration, and shared creation of knowledge.
My scholarly contributions include:
- Formalizing the notion of geowiki (an online map which allows
editing of all geographic features displayed and supports standard wiki
monitoring features) and introducing the notions of personalized
geowiki (a geowiki which can customize itself according to
individuals’ needs) and computational geowiki (a geowiki where
user contributions feed into an algorithm, e.g. route-finding).
- Showing that the geowiki model works by leading a team which created and
maintains a successful geowiki, Cyclopath, that has been edited over 10,000
times.
- Showing quantitatively the value of user work in a geowiki: for example,
user work in Cyclopath has shortened the average computed route by
1 kilometer.
- Leading a team which was the first to compute the value of
Wikipedia edits and the impact of damage, using reader-based measures
rather than author-based ones, which created a much firmer foundation for
wiki research than was available previously.
I welcome questions; please e-mail me at reid@umn.edu.
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