Culture and New Media Technologies

about

My project follows the Activity Theory principle of ascending to the concrete by bridging theory and reality by studying culture of modding communities in the real world. I am currently a third year PhD student at University of California, Irvine. I am doing my PhD with Professor Bonnie Nardi.

I am a Singaporean, and Chinese by ethnicity. Singapore uses English as its common and official language. Most families like mine speak mother tongue at home, and in my case - Chinese language. I, as a result, is exposed to both English and Chinese, and well aware of both culture.

I like Chinese culture more, particularly its depth and broadness in cultural knowledge. My keen-ness in exploring the Chinesey dimensions motivated the types of questions I asked in my research. At the same time, I respected the American culture. Particularly its community spirits. I saw both culture complementary in many ways.

Before I started my PhD, I was a HCI consultant, with my own firm. Thus, I am part Anthropology, part HCI. I did not think about these artificial dichotomy too much. I believes researchers should think more about applications, rather than differentiating academic origins. We are here to solve human problems. So here I am, as I always do, mix in my research multiple methodological traditions.

I believed that is the way technological communities are evolving as well, solving real world issues, bringing different people together. In modding communities of World of Warcraft, people are facing hurdles - both legal and social. My hope is that my two cents can make a difference.

Outside of my research, I am a Chan (Chinese Zen Buddhism) practitioner. I meditate, and have been attending annual week-long retreats in New York and Malaysia for the past ten years. Meditation calms the mind; and in calmness other parts of my life comes together.

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Emails:-
mail@kowym.com
ykow@uci.edu

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