Members of the ACT Partnership
| Daniel Atkins | Natasha Arnold | Laura Breeden |
| Karen Buller | Stephanie Clohesy | Derrick Cogburn |
| Michael Cohen | Joan Durrance | Maurita Holland |
| Liene Karels | JoAnne Kerr | Paul Resnick | Vlad Wielbut |Staff and Board:
Daniel E. Atkins (atkins@umich.edu) is Executive Director of ACT and Professor at the School of Information (SI), The University of Michigan.
Daniel E. Atkins earned a B.S. in electrical engineering with honors from Bucknell University in 1965, an MSEE and a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana in 1967 and 1970, respectively.
After serving as a Captain in the U.S. Army, Dr. Atkins joined the University of Michigan Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) as an assistant professor in 1972. He chaired the ECE curriculum committee responsible for developing the first computer engineering degree program. He did research and teaching in the area of high-performance computer architecture and designed and constructed seven experimental parallel machines in collaboration with partners such as the Mayo Clinic, the Environmental Research Institute, and Intel. He pioneered high-speed arithmetic algorithms now used, for example, in the Intel Pentium processor. He also contributed in the area of CAD for VLSI systems especially for application-specific architectures.
In May of 1981, Dr. Atkins was promoted to the rank of full professor and in September of that year, he joined the leadership team of the College of Engineering as Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies. He worked with James Duderstadt (now UM President Emeritus) and Charles Vest (now President, MIT) in a major revitalization of the UM College of Engineering. As Associate Dean, he encouraged large scale, multidisciplinary research projects, and built significant research partnerships with industry in areas such as manufacturing, distributed computing, and microelectronics. The research volume of the College increased by a factor of five during his six-year tenure. He was the principal architect and founder of one of the first large, workstation-based computing environments for engineering education, the Computer Aided Engineering Network (CAEN), which became widely regarded as a model for engineering teaching and research IT infrastructure. From January 1989 through July 1990 Dr. Atkins served as interim Dean of the College of Engineering and continued the process of rapid revitalization.
During the mid 1980's, Dr. Atkins' personal research in computer architecture shifted to the architecture of advanced distributed knowledge-work environments. He and psychology professor Gary Olson formed an interdisciplinary team of computer and social scientists to explore computer-supported cooperative work-especially the concept of a "collaboratory,"- a technology mediated environment-a laboratory without walls-to link people, information, and instruments in the conduct of science and engineering research. He participated in the NSF workshop that launched the concept of the collaboratory. He has been a continuous grantee of the NSF for 30 years and been the director of numerous large, funded research projects including the NSF EXPRES Project to support compound document interoperability and remote collaborative multi-media authoring; the Upper Atmospheric Research Collaboratory Project (UARC); the Space Physics and Aeronomy Research (SPARC) Project; and the NSF/DARPA/NASA University of Michigan Digital Library Project. He is a PI on other related grants, including a recent NSF ITR Grant on the "science of collaboratories." He also was a leader within the NSF CISE community in defining both phases of the NSF Digital Library Initiative as well as the International Digital Library Initiatives. He continues to teach a graduate course in the area of digital libraries.
From 1992-1998 Dr. Atkins was the founding Dean of the University of Michigan School of Information (SI) - a new graduate school stressing professional education and research from a socio-technical perspective in information and collaboration system design, use, and analysis. SI is now also the home for the UM research team on distributed knowledge-work environments. SI is regarded as one the first - and perhaps the boldest - of a new genre of "information schools" now being create at other leading universities.
In 1998 he left the deanship to focus on initiatives in the area of technology mediated knowledge environments, especially for science research and education. Also, with major support from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, he is building a new organization, the Alliance for Community Technology (ACT), as a strategic partnership of academia, social investors, and community-based organizations. The mission of ACT is to explore and empower the effective application of emerging information and collaboration technologies in non-profit organizations and under-served communities. ACT is, for example, helping create virtual library federations for tribal colleges, exploring the expansion of international educational options in southern Africa through collaboratory technology, exploring topics of more sustainable IT infrastructure for under-resourced organizations, and a variety of "digital divide/inclusiveness" issues.
Dr. Atkins is active in National Academies of Science activities in exploring the role of IT and the future of the research university and is serving as chair of the National Science Foundation Blue Ribbon Panel on Cyperinfrastructure. He serves as a consultant to industry, foundations, educational institutions, and government.
Natasha Arnold (nharnold@umich.edu) is a Program Assistant at the Alliance for Community Technology. Natasha joined ACT in January of 2001. Her main duties include providing support for the entire ACT staff and events. She was previously employed in the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan where she served as the primary administrator for an Epidemiology work group.
She enjoys working for ACT and supports the vision of this program as it relates to her personal vision which is to assist others in improving the quality of their lives.
Natasha's educational background includes a degree in Theology from Oral Roberts University. She utilizes her education by travelling abroad and conducting mission trips to serve the people of the world.
Derrick L. Cogburn (dcogburn@umich.edu) is Assistant Professor of Information at the University of Michigan School of Information and an Assistant Professor of African Studies at the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies at the University of Michigan. His research program focuses on the area of international regime transformation in response to globalization and the emergence of an information society. Included in this research program are issues of e-commerce and SMMEs, community information centers, and geographically distributed computer supported collaborative learning.
The United Nations has appointed Dr. Cogburn to several committees, including the High-Level Working Group on Information and Communications Technologies in Africa, the Committee on Development Information, and the Technical Advisory Committee of the African Development Forum. He is an active member of the
Partnership for ICTs in Africa, and served for two years as a member of the G-8 Government On-Line steering committee.As an adjunct fellow at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, Dr. Cogburn helped to found the Global Information Infrastructure Commission and launched its first regional organization, GIIC Africa. Dr. Cogburn has served in a number of policy advisory roles for the South African government, including the Departments of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology; Communications; and Foreign Affairs.
Dr. Cogburn also visits on the faculty at American University and the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. He is currently completing a book, Globalization, the Information Economy and State Autonomy: Information Society Regime Formation and Telecommunication Sector Restructuring in South Africa. His doctorate is from Howard University where he served for two years as a W.K. Kellogg Doctoral Fellow with the Ralph J. Bunche International Affairs Center.
Michael D. Cohen (mdc@umich.edu) is Professor of Information and Professor of Public Policy at the School of Information, University of Michigan His research centers on processes of learning and adaptation that go on within organizations as they respond to their changing environments. He is a co-author of Leadership and Ambiguity, a major study of the organizational problems facing American college and university presidents. He edited, (with Lee Sproull) Organizational Learning, a major collection of research articles in this burgeoning field.
He has written numerous articles contributing to the theory of organizational decision making, many employing computer simulation. The best known of these is "A Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice," co-authored with James March and Johann Olsen. He has also pursued this theoretical work as an external faculty member of the Santa Fe Institute. His new book, Harnessing Complexity, was written with Robert Axelrod and will be published by the Free Press in winter 2000.
In recent years his empirical research has focused increasingly on the organizational effects of information technology, using both controlled laboratory and complex field settings. He was founding associate director of the Collaboratory for Research on Electronic Work, a multi-disciplinary team of University of Michigan faculty who conduct research in this area.
He is a member of the faculty group that merged with the former School of Information and Library Studies to create the University of Michigan's new School of Information. He has chaired the School's curriculum committee during a restructuring of the its requirements and course offerings. The new curriculum is designed to synthesize the heritage of librarianship with concepts from pychology, the social sciences, and computer science, in order to prepare students for careers in the ever-changing information professions. He teaches an ongoing workshop focused on new applications of information technology to the needs of small nonprofit organizations.
Joan C. Durrance (durrance@umich.edu) is Professor of Information at the School of Information, University of Michigan She is also co-project director with Research Fellow Karen Pettigrew of “Help Seeking in an Electronic World: The Role of the Public Library in Helping Citizens Obtain Information Over the Internet,” which is funded by the Institute for Museums and Library Services (IMLS), 1998-2000. She is also principal investigator for the Community Networking Initiative (CNI), funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation under the School’s CRISTAL-ED project. The CNI includes the Community Connector (a major Web site devoted to community networks and community information systems (www.si.umich.edu/Community/), and the Kellogg/Apple Library of Tomorrow Community Networking Initiative in Flint, Michigan (collaboratively developed with the Flint Public Library and the Mideastern Michigan Library Cooperative).
Her research on the reference interview has been widely published in journal articles. This work was honored in 1997 by the American Library Association when she received the R.R. Bowker Isadore Mudge Award for outstanding contributions to reference librarianship. She has also written three books: Meeting Community Needs through Job and Career Centers; Serving Job Seekers and Career Changers; and Armed for Action, as well as numerous articles on community information systems and services.
Durrance is an experienced teacher and researcher. Her teaching in the area of community information began at the innovative Community Information Services program at the University of Toledo in 1975. Her expertise is in the following areas: community information systems and services; information behavior; community roles of public libraries; and professional practice and the reference interview.
Durrance has been active in professional associations, including the Association for Library and Information Science Education, where she served as president in 1996-97, and in other professional associations, including the American Library Association and its subsidiary, the Public Library Association, and other professional societies. She is a founding member of the new Association for Community Networking and serves on its Board of Directors.
Maurita Peterson Holland (mholland@umich.edu) is Associate Professor and Assistant to the Dean for Academic Outreach at the School of Information, University of Michigan Her interests are special libraries and information centers, knowledge management, distance-independent learning, technology-assisted community networks and programs, and professional continuous education.
As assistant to the dean, she directs the Office of Academic Outreach and Practical Engagement Programs, which includes the Directed Field Experience, internship, Digital Tool Kit, and Just-in-Time learning programs. She is also the coordinator for the Library and Information Services specialization of the Master of Science in Information degree.
Her current activities include establishing "Internet on the Air," a weekly radio program aired across southern Michigan on the campus public radio station, WUOM, and a Website of interviews and programs (www.iota.org). Having just completed its second season, the project is now seeking broader support to bring the program to a national audience.
She also directs the School's Native American initiatives (www.si.umich.edu/CHPI) and the AmericCorps Michigan Neighborhood Partnership collaboration..
A frequent piano recitalist in the Ann Arbor area, Holland provides annual benefit concerts at the Kerrytown Concert House. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Greenhills School, Ann Arbor, and is active in Detroit area Swedish cultural affairs.
Liene Karels' (lkarels@umich.edu) primary association is with the Millennium Project at the UM Media Union. After four years as an aggie at Purdue with a specialty in aquatic botany, Liene Karels came to Ann Arbor to work at Gelman Sciences as a specialist in particle studies. Through a series of promotions, she advanced to Advertising Manager and was charged with national and international visibility for the company for 6 years.
She broadened her education at the University of Michigan with a degree in graphic design. Soon after that, joined the University's department of Marketing Communications as Assistant Director where she grew with the profession for the next 8 years. Marketing Communications handled over 600 projects a year for a variety of University colleges, departments, programs, and events. Each project was a custom one involving assessment, strategy, design, production, and distribution. Promoted to the President's office at the University she continued to work on a variety of communications tasks from a different perspective.
Outside the University her clients have included: Roche Pharmaceutical for whom she helped develop and design an interface for a custom data discovery mine; Daimler Chrysler who needed an interface for their media site, as well as an new site for their History Museum. Work continues with General Motors on various advertising projects.
At the Millennium Project, because of the rapid pace of technological development, the approach to communication design has been reflective of the development environment. She helps design project strategies based on what COULD be. This solution-based approach relies on technology to grow to fit the need. It almost always does.
JoAnne Kerr (jmkerr@umich.edu) is a Program Manager for the Alliance for Community Technology at the School of Information, University of Michigan. JoAnne joined the University of Michigan in 1996 as administrative associate to Daniel Atkins, Dean, School of Information. In 1999 she assumed full time program support of the Alliance for Community Technology (ACT) grants from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.
JoAnne's prior work experience was in the corporate environment. She came to U of M after being employed for 12 years in marketing and sales support with Apple Computer. She earned her MBA from the University of Detroit-Mercy.
Skipper (left) is her dog, adopted through the Humane Society of Huron Valley.
Paul Resnick (presnick@umich.edu) is Associate Professor of Information at the School of Information, University of Michigan Previously he worked as a researcher at AT&T Labs and AT&T Bell Labs, and as an assistant professor at the Sloan School of Management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Resnick's research focuses on electronic support for the creation and use of social capital, productive resources that reside in the social relations among people. In face-to-face communities, he is designing and evaluating tools such as photo directories and email lists, and exploring how teenagers can serve as information organizers for their communities. In on-line settings, he is analyzing and designing reputation systems, such as the feedback feature at eBay. He employs a range of research methods, including design space analysis, economic game theory, and quantitative empirical evaluation methods.
Resnick was a pioneer in the field of recommender systems (sometimes called collaborative filtering or social filtering). Recommender systems guide people to interesting materials based on recommendations from other people.
From 1995-1997, he was one of the main authors of the PICS (Platform for Internet Content Selection) technical specifications. PICS provides a common infrastructure for the creation of labeling systems and filtering software based on those labels.
The September 1996 issue of Network Computing Magazine named Resnick one of its 25 Network Technology Drivers for 1996. His articles have appeared in Scientific American, Wired, Communications of the ACM, the American Economic Review and many other publications.
Vlad Wielbut (also known to some under his Polish first name: Wlodek, hence wlodek@umich.edu) is Community Technology Specialist at ACT and a Project Associate at the School of Information. He obtained his Master of Information and Library Science from the University of Michigan's School of Information in May 1997 and joined the Alliance for Community Technology to be responsible for the development and maintenance of the ACT's technological infrastructure, including its Intra- and Extranet nodes, collaboration tools, document repository, etc.
Vlad's varied background and interests include modern languages (he studied German language at the University of Kiel and obtained his BA in German Language and Literature from Eastern Michigan University), programming (in Pascal, Fortran, and C++), education (he holds a Secondary Teaching Certificate in the State of Michigan), electronic publishing, and computer networks.
During his two years as a School of Information graduate student and a Digital Information Associate Vlad participated in a plethora of Web-based research and development projects such as: Art Image Browser, Instrument Encyclopedia, content-based image retrieval, CHICO, Pewabic Pottery Exhibit, and others.
Consultants and Affiliates:
Laura Breeden is an independent consultant focusing on Internet strategies and organizational development, based in Menlo Park, California. Her clients have included SRI International (Menlo Park), the Education Development Center (Newton, MA), the Morino Institute (Reston, VA), Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN), and HandsNet (San Jose, CA), as well as other leading institutions that study, develop and promote the use of network technologies.
From 1994 to 1996 Ms. Breeden was director of a highly competitive, multi-million dollar federal grant program designed to demonstrate the benefits of the "information superhighway" in the public sector. Under her leadership, more than 200 organizations received a total of $60 million for innovative community projects, through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration of the U. S. Department of Commerce. In addition to directing the grant program, Ms. Breeden was involved at senior levels in the formation of federal policy on the use of technology in education, health care and social services.
Ms. Breeden is an experienced speaker and conference facilitator, who has addressed audiences in the U.S., the U.K., and Japan, appeared on National Public Radio's "Science Friday", and given numerous media interviews. She is able to convey the immediate, practical applications of new technologies to diverse audiences effectively and with humor. As a facilitator, she has worked with educators at the K-12 level, college and university faculty and administrators, industry leaders, community organizations, and policy makers.
Prior to joining the Commerce Department, from 1991 to 1994, Ms. Breeden was executive director of FARNET (the Federation of American Research Networks), a non-profit association of Internet service providers whose mission is to promote the use of the Internet for research and education. While at FARNET, she conceived of and co-edited "51 Reasons: How We Use the Internet and What It Says about the Information Superhighway", a collection of stories from Internet users about how network access benefited their personal and professional lives.
From 1983 to 1991 Ms. Breeden held a series of positions in the Network Services Group at Bolt Beranek and Newman, Inc. in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She was instrumental in the formation of NEARnet, the New England Academic and Research Network.
Ms. Breeden's additional work in the public sector includes several years in community-based child care and three years as a fund-raiser for an international development and relief agency.
Ms. Breeden is a graduate of Oberlin College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa
Karen Buller is a President and CEO of the National Indian Telecommunications Institute. She has considerable knowledge about electronic networking and how it relates to Native American communities. She has worked in math and science curriculum development and its employment through electronic dissemination. Recently, Karen gave testimony in congress in support of the FCC proposed telecommunications bill. Also serves on the Board of Directors for Libraries for the Future.
Stephanie J. Clohesy is an independent consultant providing strategic organizational and program planning and development to the U.S. and international nonprofit sectors. Her career as a leader in public service has included working on issues including public policy, women's rights, citizen participation/democratization, and organizational and leadership development.
