- Alexander Halavais
Alexander Halavais (born
July 21 ,1971 ) is a professor at the Communications Department atQuinnipiac University and a social informatics researcher. Before joining the faculty at Quinnipiac, Halavais taught in the School of Informatics at theUniversity at Buffalo and at theUniversity of Washington .In 1993, Halavais earned a bachelors degree in political science from the
University of California, Irvine , and he received a Ph.D. in communications from the University of Washington in 2001. His dissertation examined the social implications of theSlashdot website. He also completed coursework in communications and cognitive science at theUniversity of California, San Diego and complex adaptive systems at theSanta Fe Institute ."Online Journalism Review" has referred to Halavais as one of a number of "blogologists," exploring the ways in which social computing affects the society at large. [Marc Glaser, [http://www.ojr.org/ojr/glaser/1084325287.php Scholars Discover Weblogs Pass the Test] , "Online Journalism Review" interview with Halavais] His work has explored how
blog s are used in education, the patterns of internationalhyperlink s, and the role of pornography on the Internet. He is the editor of a volume oncyberporn and society, and a member of the executive board for theAssociation of Internet Researchers .To test
Wikipedia as a trustworthy source of accurate information, Halavais created a new username and inserted 13 errors into various Wikipedia articles. All the articles were corrected within three hours. During a presentation he admitted that placing all thirteen of the errors at one time probably affected his testing intent.Fact|date=March 2008 In work withDerek Lackaff exploring Wikipedia's topical coverage, Halavais has used theLibrary of Congress Classification to compare Wikipedia's coverage withBooks in Print . [Halavais & Lackaff (2008)]Works
*"Cyberporn and Society", 2006. ISBN 9780757526343
*Alexander Halavais, Derek Lackaff (2008) [http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2008.00403.x 'An Analysis of Topical Coverage of Wikipedia'] , "Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication" 13 (2) , 429–440References
External links
* [http://alex.halavais.net a thaumaturgical compendium] - Halavais's blog
* [http://wikimania2006.wikimedia.org/wiki/Presenters/Alexander_Halavis Wikimania bio] - Bio on Halavais for Wikimania conference
* [http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/94/getting-ahead.html Blogging Up] - "Fast Company" interview
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Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.