Creative Ecology and Digital Media
I use the term creativity ecology to describe a system of relationships among digital media companies, platform developers, and media users which influences digital media development (see special issue edited by Kow and Nardi, 2010). I performed ethnographic studies on modding communities of the online game World of Warcraft (Kow and Nardi, 2009). Modders are end users who develop modular extensions to commercial software. In my research, I found that modders, game companies, and game developers interact and negotiate some aspects of a game (Kow and Nardi, 2010). These interactions and negotiations contain both opportunities and contradictions, which when handled carefully can benefits to digital media production in general.

China's Digital Media Culture
China's cultural foundation is negotiating with digital media technologies to evolve new cultural practices. I examine China's digital media culture through in the contexts of Chinese modders of the online game World of Warcraft (Kow and Nardi, 2009, 2011). I argue that the notion of online community participation as it is currently formulated in the literature is non-universal. Based on my research on modding, I suggest that core teams are a common organizational format for producing digital media in China. A core team is a small, close-knit group with members recruited by a leader to perform activities essential to the goals of the team (Kow and Nardi, 2011). As digital media research becomes globalized, attention to varying cultures of media users will help us understand Internet culture more broadly.

Human Computer Interaction
I have expertise in the following areas that I weave into my research work: ethnographic methods, activity theory, social network analysis, and ecological interface design.