In Brief

R. Kelly Garrett recently received awards related to his dissertation. His dissertation examines whether individuals are using the control afforded by new information and communication technologies (ICTs) to limit their exposure to information supporting viewpoints other than their own. He is one of two recipients of the National Communication Association's 2006 G. R. Miller Outstanding Dissertation Award. The award will be presented at the NCA conference in the Fall, where he’ll be presenting a new paper based on his dissertation data. Additionally, he received an honorable mention for the Horace H. Rackham Distinguished Dissertation Award. This is the highest honor given to dissertations produced under the auspices of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

David Obstfeld recently received a $322,000 grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation to study organizational innovation. The grant is sponsored by three NSF directorates: Innovation and Organizational Change, Sociology, and Law and Social Science. Professor Obstfeld is investigating how emergent combinations of social networks, knowledge, and resources lead to innovation within and across organizations, with special attention to the brokerage activities that facilitate these combinations. Research findings will advance organization and strategy theory as well as identify concrete practices with which managers can foster innovation.

Alladi Venkatesh was this year’s recipient of the Faculty Service Award at the Paul Merage School of Business, for his outstanding service to the Business School.

Vijay Gurbaxani has been named Senior Associate Dean at the Paul Merage School of Business. He will continue his role as Director of the CRITO Consortium.

Walt Scacchi was Program Co-Chair of the IFIP International Conference on Open Source Software in Como, Italy (June 8-10, 2006), and was elected to serve as General Chair for the conference next year, which will be held in Limerick, Ireland. He was also elected in July 2006 to be the Associate Chair of the IFIP Technical Committee Working Group 2.13 on Open Source Software.

CRITONIANS ON THE MOVE

Sean Xu joined the faculty at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology where he will continue his work on the use of e-commerce in China.

Dale Ganley has moved to the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada where she will continue to study the role of newer ICTs in reducing the digital divide.

Victor Gonzalez took a position as a Lecturer in Human-Computer Interaction at the University of Manchester, England. He is teaching a new course in Systems Investigation Methods for undergraduates and planning a course in Qualitative Research Methods for postgraduate students. His research is focusing on community informatics, and in particular the study of a new initiative in the City of Manchester called “Community Reporters”, which aims to create a network of volunteer journalists devoted to report local issues through video-blog and mobile technologies.

Jason Dedrick is teaching IT for Management at UC San Diego in the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies.

FUTURE CRITONIANS

Baby Fell has arrived! Emie Catherine Fell was born on June 9. She was 8 lbs. 3 oz & 20 inches long. Both Emie & mother Leslie are doing great.

Sebastian Gonzalez-Luna was born August 28 at St. Mary’s Hospital in Manchester. Both Karyna and Sebastian are doing fine. Victor and Karyna are very happy and enjoying every single moment with little Sebastian.