Beth Kolko

bkolko [at] u.washington.edu
Faculty
Human Centered Design & Engineering

I am a faculty member in the Department of Technical Communication at the University of Washington, and also a Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. I have a background in rhetoric and cultural studies which informs my work on information technologies and international development (ICT4D). I run the CAICT project, a multi-year NSF grant studying cross-cultural impact of ICT adoption, and I work extensively with the UW Center for Information and Society on ICT4D projects.

My approach to ICT4D emphasizes the idea of diversity and technology by focusing on ICTs in developing countries in order to counteract what could be called a failure of imagination in terms of how devices, software, and services are designed. The potential benefit of ICTs across domains has been documented, but much currently available technology doesn't adequately consider infrastructure, regulatory, and usage environments. My Design for Digital Inclusion (DDI) group applies theory-based analyses of culture and technology to examine how technology is used in diverse settings and demonstrate how technologists, social scientists, and humanities scholars can collaborate on technology-related development and implementation projects. I also run the Digital Games Research Group at UW (currently on hiatus).
In 2008, I was a visiting faculty fellow at Microsoft Research and a Fellow at the Berkman Center at Harvard University.