2017-2019 Incoming Executive Committee – Secretary

by | Oct 12, 2017 | Uncategorized

At the annual meeting, AoIR transitions its Executive Committee. Over the next few weeks, we will post interviews from our incoming Executive Committee, as we welcome them into the leadership of the Association.

 

Daren Brabham
2017-2019 AoIR Executive Committee – Incoming Secretary

Who are you? Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I am an independent scholar and consultant based in Los Angeles, California. I study crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, and online communities, often through a critical lens and with qualitative methods. I’m the author of Crowdsourcing (MIT Press, 2013), Crowdsourcing in the Public Sector (Georgetown University Press, 2015), and more than 20 articles and chapters. Through my consulting, I help organizations build and manage online communities for solving problems and producing goods. I earned a BA in communication and religion from Trinity University and an MS and PhD in communication from the University of Utah.

What is your AoIR Executive Committee position?
Secretary (elect)
I love AoIR’s inclusivity, interdisciplinary stance, and quirky community. It has always felt like my intellectual home, and I am eager to give back to keep the organization going and growing.

How long have you been involved with AoIR? How many conferences have you attended?
I attended my first conference in 2008 (Copenhagen) and have attended five more since (2011, Seattle; 2012, Salford; 2013, Denver; 2014, Daegu; 2015, Phoenix). I chaired AoIR’s Best Dissertation Award committee in 2015 and served as a member of the committee in 2016.

What is/are your current research interests?
The focus of my research is on crowdsourcing. I’ve studied the types of problems that can be solved with crowdsourcing; what motivates crowds; crowdsourcing applications in domains such as urban planning and public health; and the discourse surrounding crowdsourcing (and crowdfunding) and what it means for society.

What is your favorite meme or YouTube video? Please provide a link to it if you can.
It took me 3 hours to answer this question because I just went and revisited all the old memes I like. There are just too many, and it’s so high stakes with this particular community, so here’s a solid one I like because I have two pugs:

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/414/678/cd8.jpg