I have a background in online communities, stretching back over 13 years, as a community member, as an online community manager, and as a scholar studying them ethnographically. I have a deep love and respect for online communities and the passion they hold. I am currently a Master's candidate at
San Jose State University in
Applied anthropology. My thesis topic revolves around stakeholder relations in Web 2.0, using
LiveJournal as my fieldsite. I am analyzing how communications occur, how they break down, and where the failures in communication occur. I hope to use this information to be able to assist organizations with interfacing better with their online communities; not seeing them as simple consumers to be sold a product to, but instead as partners and true stakeholders in their operations. I anticipate graduation (finally!!) in May, 2013.
I previously worked for the Wikimedia Foundation from October 2010 through November 2011 as a Community Associate in Reader Relations. I worked with the Volunteer Response Team to identify ways to help improve their processes, as well as working with the editor community to address concerns from the reader community. I also did some analysis of other research done within the Foundation.
Before coming to the Foundation, I worked with Copeland, Carson, and Associates managing a small online community. I also worked for User Friendly Media, Inc. as Community Coordinator. User Friendly was my first full foray into online communities, and one which I still have a great deal of love for.
My volunteer account is Kethryvis, which I use sporadically usually on small edits on interesting subjects that generally have nothing to do with my scholarly interests. What generally prompts me to edit is reading an article and thinking, "Wow, that doesn't read right! Someone should fix that. Oh wait..."
I also registered an alternate account,
Kheff in order to see what the registration process was like for new editors. This account made no edits and was abandoned once this research was complete.
