I am joining University of California Humanities Research Institute in September 2011 as a Postdoctoral Scholar. I defended my Ph.D. dissertation titled "Rethinking Participation" on July 19, 2011.

In my postdoctoral research, I am examining the learning and peer production ecology of real-time strategy (RTS) game Starcraft II (2010).

I am generally interested in cultures of online communities developing digital media, also known as peer production communities. I have examined such online communities in the U.S. and China. Due to differing Internet environments and I.T. industrial structures in both countries, their online communities developed different cooperative practices and contradictions. My ongoing work is to understand the online community cultures that exist in different localities, and how they can better contribute to their societies.

Prior to doing my Ph.D., I had four years of experience conducting Human-Computer Interaction research in commercial settings, such as offices, homes, chemical plants, and refineries. I have also won several awards at the Honeywell Laboratories. After I left the company, I worked on consulting contracts with multiple companies. I have conducted ethnographic studies, ecological interface design, usability studies, interaction design, scenario-based design, and quantitative surveys. I am familiar with multiple regression analysis, factor analysis, and social network analysis.

I meditate regularly for the past twelve years. I am also a proud father of my son Zenn born on April 23, 2010.

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Emails:-
mail [at] kowym [dot] com