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My research interests are in the area of computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW), and center on sociotechnical studies of work, examining the interaction of organizational settings, task design, and technology use. In particular, I am interested in social computing and public participation in scientific research, which intersect in virtual citizen science.

My research includes studies on citizen science, free/libre open source software development, and the iSchool community.

Citizen science is a type of scientific research in which professional researchers collaborate with members of the public. Our NSF-funded VOSS grant project involves developing a typology of citizen science projects as virtual organizations. Understanding how these projects create scientific knowledge is the focus of my dissertation research.

Free/libre open source software development is the phenomenon studied by the FLOSS research group at the iSchool at Syracuse University. My research includes studies of the dynamics of social network structures, classification of project success, and measure development. I have also worked on replicating prior FLOSS studies using analysis workflows to demonstrate the value of eScience approaches for social science research.

The iSchools are an interdisciplinary group of schools of information. Since 2005, the iSchools Caucus has been bringing together this growing community; my research in this area has examined the faculty compositions of these schools for evidence of intellectual diversity and institutional relationships.

• A 2009 census of iSchool faculty diversity according to disciplinary background is the focus of the iConference 2010 paper, Intellectual Diversity in iSchools: Past, Present and Future. We find substantial differences between the intellectual heritage of each of the iSchools, and that the strong intellectual cores of the community are in six broad areas: computing, library, information, management & policy, social & behavioral, and science & engineering.
• My thesis research is succinctly presented in my iConference 2008 paper, Community Identity: Peer Prestige and Academic Hiring in the iSchools.
• My 2007 Master's thesis, Exploring Peer Prestige in Academic Hiring Networks compares the hiring networks of iSchools and Computer Science departments to understand which network characteristics may predict US News & World Report graduate program rankings.

A few other things that are interesting enough to share:

• I had a lot of fun writing personas and scenarios for group projects in SI 622 and SI 682, courses on usability and interface design at the University of Michigan School of Information.
• Information and communicable diseases both spread through social networks. Try out my multi-agent simulation for a model of HIV & AIDS transmission in Axtell & Epstein's SugarScape , implemented with Netlogo. Adjust the variables to see their effect on the disease transmission events.

Publications

• Howison, J., Wiggins, A., & Crowston, K. (Under Review). Validity Issues in the Use of Social Network Analysis for the Study of Online Communities. Journal of the Association for Information Systems. Resubmitted 10 February 2010.
• Wiggins, A. & Crowston, K. (In Press). Developing a Conceptual Model of Virtual Organizations for Citizen Science. International Journal of Organizational Design and Engineering.
• Crowston, K., Wei, K., Howison, J., & Wiggins, A. (In Press). Free/Libre and Open Source Software: What We Know and What We Do Not Know. ACM Computing Surveys.
• Qin, J., Chen, M., Liu, X., & Wiggins, A. (2010) Linking Entities in Scientific Metadata. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Dublin Core and Metadata Applications. Pittsubrgh, PA, 20 - 22 October, 2010.
• Wiggins, A., & Crowston, K. (2010). Reclassifying Success and Tragedy in FLOSS Projects. In Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Open Source Software (IFIP 2.13). Notre Dame, IN, 30 May - 2 June, 2010.
• Wiggins, A., & Sawyer, S. (2010). Intellectual Diversity in iSchools: Past, Present and Future. In Proceedings of the iConference 2010. Champaign, IL, 3 - 6 February, 2010.
• Wiggins, A. (2010). Organizing from the Middle Out: Citizen Science in the National Parks [ abstract and poster]. Poster presented at iConference 2010. Champaign, IL, 3 - 6 February, 2010.
• Crowston, K., Wiggins, A., & Howison, J. (2010). Analyzing leadership dynamics in distributed group communication. In Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Kaui, HI, 5 – 8 January, 2010.
• Wiggins, A. (2009). Tales of the Field: Building Small Science Cyberinfrastructure. Presentation at Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) 2009 Annual Meeting. Washington, DC, 28 October - 1 November, 2009.
• Wiggins, A., Howison, J. & Crowston, K. (2009). Heartbeat: Measuring Active User Base and Potential User Interest in FLOSS Projects. In Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Open Source Software (IFIP 2.13). Skövde, Sweden, 3 - 6, 2009.
• Wiggins, A. (2009). Coordination Dynamics in Free/Libre Open Source Software Development. Paper presented in the Doctoral Consortium at the Fifth International Conference on Open Source Software (IFIP 2.13). Skövde, Sweden, 3 - 6 June, 2009.
• Wiggins, A. (2009). Interdisciplinary Diversity in the iSchool Community [abstract and poster]. Poster presented at iConference 2009. February 9 - 11, 2008, Chapel Hill, NC.
• Li, Q., Heckman, R., Allen, E., Crowston, K., Eseryel, U., Howison, J., & Wiggins, A. (2008). Asynchronous Decision-Making in Distributed Teams. Poster presented at Computer Supported Cooperative Work 2008, November 8– 12 , 2008, San Diego, CA.
• Wiggins, A., Howison, J., & Crowston, K. (2008). Replication of FLOSS Research as eResearch. In Proceedings of the Oxford e-Research Conference 2008. Oxford, UK, 11-13 September, 2008.
• Wiggins, A., Howison, J. & Crowston, K. (2008). Social dynamics of FLOSS team communication across channels. In Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Open Source Software (IFIP 2.13). Milan, Italy, 7-10 September, 2008.
• Howison, J., Wiggins, A. & Crowston, K. (2008). eResearch workflows for studying free and open source software development. In Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Open Source Software (IFIP 2.13). Milan, Italy, 7-10 September, 2008.
• Crowston, K., Howison, J. & Wiggins, A. (2008). eSocial Science for Free/Libre Open Source Software Researchers. Paper presented at 4th International Conference on eSocial Science. Manchester, UK, 18-20 June, 2008.
• Wiggins, A., McQuaid, M., & Adamic, L. (2008). Community Identity: Peer Prestige and Academic Hiring in the iSchools.  In Proceedings of the iConference 2008.  Los Angeles, CA, 28 February - 1 March, 2008.*
• Wiggins, A. (2007). Data Driven Design: Using Web Analytics to Improve Information Architectures.  Paper presented in the research track at ASIST Information Architecture Summit 2007.  Las Vegas, NV, 22-26 March, 2007.
• Wiggins, A., Adamic, L., & McQuaid, M. (2006). The Small Worlds of Academic Hiring Networks.  Paper presented at Applications of Social Network Analysis 2006.  Zürich, Switzerland, 5-6 October, 2006.