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Kate Ehrlich rejoined the Collaborative User Experience group in Cambridge as a senior technical staff member, working with the research group and On Demand Innovation Services (ODIS) on a collaboration initiative for Business Consulting Services (BCS). Kate originally joined Lotus Research in 1993, when she did ethnographic research on information seeking that led to prototypes for collaborative filtering and a very early version of instant messaging. Between then and now, she moved into research on knowledge management, focusing on expertise location and the role of intermediaries as translators between knowledge seekers and knowledge sources.
After leaving Lotus, Kate joined Viant, a professional services organization, where she worked in a research group on wireless and broadband emerging technologies, and as a consultant helping multinational organizations create and deploy collaborative solutions. Prior to rejoining IBM, Kate was a practicing consultant with her own company, Collaborative Practices, focusing on deployment strategies for collaborative technologies.
Kate is interested in furthering the practice side of collaboration to meet business goals in a way that is informed by the insights and innovations from research and grounded in the work practices of individuals. Although she professes interest in almost all aspects of business collaboration from virtual teams through knowledge sharing, she is especially intrigued by two issues: How to create effective networked organizations, and the role of visible objects in facilitating knowledge sharing between groups.
Kate has a B.Sc in psychology from the University of London and a PhD. in cognitive science from the University of Sussex, UK. She is co-chair of the Second Multiples of One Conference (http://www.multiplesx1.org) being held at MIT and a visiting scholar at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Kate also has a long association with the local and national CHI organization. She is currently editor of the Design column for Interactions magazine, and has been Papers co-chair for the international CHI conference and conference co-chair for the Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) conference.
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