Ramesh Srinivasan

Education

Doctorate, Design Studies, Harvard University, 2005
M.S, Media Arts and Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2002
B.S., Industrial Engineering with Honors, Stanford University, 1998

Research Interests

The reflexive connections between diverse cultures, organizations, and communities and emerging information systems/technologies

Teaching Interests

Social informatics, information systems design, information technology and international development

Recent Publications

Srinivasan, R., Boast, R., and Furner, J. "Performative Tags: Analyzing the relative performance of expert folksonomies in Digital Museum systems", in preparation.

Srinivasan, R. and Pepe, A. "Eliciting Cultural Ontologies: A comparison between Hierarchical Clustering Methods and Participatory Design Processes.", Information, Processing and Management, in preparation.

Srinivasan, R. "Evaluating Marginalized Community Information Services Models: A comparative study" in preparation.

2006: Srinivasan, Ramesh - "How does one do qualitative internet research that has global relevance? : A critical response", in "Internet Inquiry: Dialogue Among Scholars." (eds. Nancy Baym and Anette Markham), in press

News

Dr. Srinivasan recently received a two year $50,000 grant from the Christensen Fund to initiate a knowledge-sharing new media project in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan (Central Asia).

Current Research Projects

Emerging Databases, Emerging Diversity (ED2): National Science Foundation-funded initiative to study methods by which digital collections can maintain multiple cultural ontologies. The collaboration involves Cambridge University's Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology, and the Zuni community of New Mexico. What does digital access to ancestral objects mean to diverse communities? Moreover, how does this allow public institutions of information to negotiate deeper relationships with communities and allow knowledge to be presented through information systems that recognize multiple ontologies, perspectives and cultural conceptions?

South Asian Web: How can a social network system be designed around the diverse, locally-specific ontologies of a diasporic community in Los Angeles? What impact would it have on the social networks of a fragmented immigrant community? And how does this system enable cultural identity and identification to be revealed in the context of different generations of immigrants? Funding received by the UC Humanities Research Institute

Village Incubators: An ongoing project focused on two largely illiterate villages in Southern India (Andhra Pradesh) and collaborations with the Byrraju Foundation. The goal of this research is the study of the impact of video on the nature of community conceptualizations around "development". Supported by UCLA's International Institute.

Digital Networks of Indigenous Knowledge: This research will investigate how indigenous and cultural knowledge in Central Asia can be diffused into the university setting and impact pedagogy, cultural communication, and agricultural knowledge within several universities sponsored by the Aga Khan Foundation. The work will involve engaging custodians of knowledge and history to begin to engage in media-based documentation of their knowledge through such forms as video. Research shall focus on the impact of such a system on pedagogical and developmental activities within the region. Supported by The Christensen Fund.

Other areas of exploration include: quantitative ontology modeling, public health and behavioral ICTs, digital microfinance systems, e-governance systems design and evaluation

Recent Grants

The National Science Foundation - Science and Society - Full Research Grant (Peer Reviewed) - Digital Objects and Cultural Difference -$300,000

International Institute Small Research Grant - Village Incubators Research (Peer Reviewed) - UCLA - $10,000

Faculty Senate Research Award for Rural Development Research (Peer Reviewed) - $3,000

Village Incubators in Public Health - California Institute for Information Technology (Cal IT2) - 7/06 - $20,500 (Peer-Reviewed)

UC Humanities Research Institute - Full Research Grant (Peer Reviewed) - Extramural Explorations - Creating Digital Systems for the South Asian Diaspora - $20,000 - Beginning 9/06

The Christensen Foundation - Planning Research Grant (Peer Reviewed) - Creating Digital Networks of Indigenous Knowledge - $20,000 - Beginning 8/06

Faculty Senate Research Grant (Peer Reviewed) - Community Voice and ICT Development - $6000 ? 9/06

Links

Full Curriculum Vita