about

photo credit: linda dawn hammond

I’m an internet researcher, teacher and community builder. I’m currently a Research Associate at the new Experiential Design and Gaming Environments Lab at Ryerson University and a PhD candidate at the Curtin University of Technology’s Internet Studies program. My advisers are Helen Merrick, Matthew Allen and Philip Moore. My thesis is an ethnographic study that follows the lives of a small group of 20-something Facebook users in Toronto, Canada (home of the world’s second largest geographical Facebook network). I’m also a guest lecturer (teaching online and networked media) at the CFC’s Media Lab. Before that, I taught internet studies at Curtin.

Some other stuff that I do is community building and game design at Atmosphere Industries, an award-winning cross-media experience and social gaming collective which I co-founded with David Fono. We recently won ‘Best in Fest’ and ‘Best Use of Technology’ at Come Out and Play 2010 in NYC for our public space game, Gentrification: The Game!

Before starting my PhD, I worked with a number of high tech organisations and NGOs doing social media engagement and research, including the youth-focused TakingITGlobal. I have an honours degree from the University of Toronto in Semiotics & Communication Theory and Philosophy (double major), and I’m a graduate of the CFC’s Media Lab‘s Interactive Art and Entertainment Programme.