My
research interests are in the area of computer-supported
cooperative work (CSCW), and center on sociotechnical
studies of work, examining the interaction of organizational settings,
task design, and technology use. In particular, I
am interested in social computing and public participation
in scientific research, which intersect in virtual citizen science.
My research includes
studies on citizen science, free/libre open source software
development, and the iSchool community.
Citizen science is a type of scientific
research in which professional researchers collaborate with members
of the public. Our NSF-funded VOSS grant
project involves developing a typology of citizen science projects
as virtual organizations. Understanding how these projects create
scientific knowledge is the focus of my dissertation research.
Free/libre open source software development is
the phenomenon studied by
the FLOSS research
group at the iSchool at Syracuse University. My research includes studies
of the dynamics of social network structures, classification of project
success, and measure development. I have also worked on replicating
prior FLOSS studies using analysis
workflows to demonstrate the value of eScience approaches for
social science research.
The iSchools are an interdisciplinary
group of schools of information. Since 2005, the iSchools Caucus has
been bringing together this growing community; my research in this
area has examined the faculty compositions of these schools for evidence
of intellectual diversity and institutional relationships.
A 2009 census of iSchool faculty diversity according to disciplinary
background is the focus of the iConference 2010 paper, Intellectual
Diversity in iSchools: Past, Present and Future.
We find substantial differences between the intellectual heritage
of each of the iSchools, and that the strong intellectual cores of
the community are in six broad areas: computing, library, information,
management & policy, social & behavioral, and
science
& engineering.
My 2007
Master’s thesis, Exploring
Peer Prestige in Academic Hiring Networks
compares the hiring networks of iSchools and Computer Science departments
to understand which network characteristics may predict US News & World
Report graduate program rankings.
A few other things that are interesting enough to share:
I had a lot of fun writing personas and scenarios for group projects
in SI
622 and
SI 682, courses
on usability and interface design at the University of Michigan School
of Information.
Information and communicable diseases
both spread through social networks. Try out my multi-agent simulation
for a
model of HIV
& AIDS transmission in Axtell & Epstein’s SugarScape ,
implemented with Netlogo. Adjust the variables to see their
effect on the disease transmission events.
Qin, J., Chen, M., Liu, X., & Wiggins, A. (2010) Linking
Entities in Scientific Metadata. In Proceedings of the International
Conference on Dublin Core and Metadata Applications. Pittsubrgh,
PA, 20 – 22 October, 2010.
Wiggins, A., & Crowston, K. (2010).Reclassifying
Success and Tragedy in FLOSS Projects. In Proceedings of the
Sixth International Conference on Open Source Software (IFIP 2.13).
Notre Dame, IN, 30 May – 2 June, 2010.
Li, Q., Heckman, R., Allen, E., Crowston,
K., Eseryel, U., Howison, J., & Wiggins, A. (2008). Asynchronous
Decision-Making in Distributed Teams.
Poster presented at Computer Supported Cooperative Work 2008, November
8– 12
, 2008, San Diego, CA.
Wiggins, A., Howison, J., & Crowston, K. (2008). Replication
of FLOSS Research as eResearch. In Proceedings of the Oxford
e-Research Conference 2008. Oxford, UK, 11-13 September, 2008.
Wiggins, A., Adamic, L., & McQuaid,
M. (2006). The
Small Worlds of Academic Hiring Networks. Paper
presented at Applications of Social Network Analysis 2006. Zürich,
Switzerland, 5-6 October, 2006.
My
research interests are in the area of computer-supported
cooperative work (CSCW), and center on sociotechnical
studies of work, examining the interaction of organizational settings,
task design, and technology use. In particular, I
am interested in social computing and public participation
in scientific research, which intersect in virtual citizen science.