Teaching Assistant Professor Martin Wolske has joined the editorial board of the Journal of Community Informatics. The journal includes scholarly articles and notes from the interdisciplinary field of Community Informatics, which involves the study and practice of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) in support of community-defined development goals.
"It was a great honor to receive the invitation from Editor-In-Chief and iSchool alum Colin Rhinesmith [PhD '14]. I am pleased to join such an august board that also includes several colleagues who have been part of the iSchool in the past, including Caroline Haythornthwaite, Noah Lenstra, and Bharat Mehra," Wolske said. "Our School continues to have a significant focus on information systems research and design ensuring access to and effective use of digital technologies to advance well-being of people and their communities. This work of inquiry in, with, and for community foregrounds social change and transformative action in emergent social-technical relations. Within the Community Informatics sphere, our School has especially played an early leadership role with the launch of Prairienet Community Network in 1993, which became known as the Community Informatics Initiative and later as the Center for Digital Inclusion."
Wolske joined the iSchool in 1995 and has served in many key roles, including interim director of the Center for Digital Inclusion (CDI) and director of Prairienet. Since the late 1990s, he has taught networking, information systems, and community informatics and engagement courses, for which he received the 2011 Library Journal Teaching Award. He has been principal investigator or co-principal investigator on a number of grants related to digital inclusion and digital literacy that have received funding through the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, the American Library Association, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, among other agencies. Wolske also serves as a conference committee member for the Community Informatics Research Network.