Because the e-mail service for @cs.dal.ca and @dal.ca
addresses is not always completely reliable I am likely to
respond from an address using @dalprofs.org instead.
I am an active researcher.
My overall goal is to help people find and use information more
effectively.
I believe this goal can best be achieved through interdisciplinary and
collaborative research.
Much of my research is conducted under the mantle of the HAIKU research group.
My major research areas are summarized by the fields below:
HypertextText which does not form a single sequence and which may be read
in various orders … (Simpson & Weiner, 1993, in the
OED Additions Series)Human-Computer Interaction
Understanding how people use computer technology, to develop tools
that fit users rather than tools that users must contort to fitWeb scienceWhat do people and communities want from [the technology of] the
Web (Shneiderman, 2007 in CACM, DOI:10.1145/1247001.1247022)Digital Libraries
A reconceptualisation of that cornerstone of civilisation, The Library
Specifically the following topics:
Hypertext in the wild: Technology-enabled Learning (esp.
annotation and text analytics)
Supporting expert readers and learners by understanding their needs,
and building suitable tools to support their activities
Building on open electronic resources to create tools that will
enable users to make more, and more persistent, knowledge from existing
texts
SensemakingSensemaking is the process of searching for a representation and
encoding data in that representation to answer task-specific
questions. (Russell et al., 1993 in
INTERCHI'93, DOI:10.1145/169059.169209)Cultural Preservation (especially in Memory Institutions, the so-called GLAM sector)
Touch Archive: A curated collection of non-textual objects, from cultural artefacts to computer files
Information Seeking… a variety of behaviors [sic] seemingly
motivated by the recognition of missing information. …
information seeking is typically defined strictly in terms of active
and intentional behavior… (Case, 2007, p. 81,
Looking for Information: A Survey of Research on Information
Seeking, Needs, and Behavior[sic], 2e, ISBN
978-0-12-369430-0)Privacy (especially in Health Records)
Using privacy-by-design to create communities of trust and
collaboration to produce high efficiency, harmonization and linkage of
datasets
Potential Graduate Students/Research Assistants
Please see the Graduate section (below) for topic
suggestions, answers to frequently asked questions, and more.
I do not do research in data mining (except possibly specialised user
interfaces).
This Fall (Sept.–Dec. 2024) I will be
teaching CSCI1107 (Social Computing).
This Winter (Jan.–Apr. 2025) I will be teaching CSCI4163 & CSCI6610 (Human Computer Interaction)
and CSCI6606 (Human Factors in On-Line Information Systems).
Most course materials, and all announcements, for my courses should be
available for registered students from the dal.brightspace.com website.
I am available to meet by appointment (online and in person). There is no single location where I hold such meetings: I have access to a shared room in the Goldberg building and I have an office just for me in the Paramount building.
I will not have regular office hours before September 2024. I am available to meet by appointment (online and in person) or chance.
My office is in an undisclosed location.
I pronounce my family name as blustin in the
International Phonetic Alphabet. That sounds like
Biography
As a high school student I was much more successful in humanities
courses (Literature, History and Philosophy) than the Sciences
(Mathematics, Physics, etc.) but because I
found the way the empirical sciences explained the world enticing, and
the experience I had working with researchers at the Weizmann Institute,
I enrolled in biochemistry at university. Three summers working in physiology and
genetics laboratories helped me decide that my talents lay elsewhere.
I began studying computer science and philosophy but later focused my
attention solely on CS. As a
tutor, and later as an instructor, I discovered the joy of teaching —
of being a part of someone's learning.
My masters supervisor (Bob Webber) introduced me to hypertext and
cyberpunk literature; and I introduced him to the then nascent World Wide
Web. We began a lengthy investigation into how to help people to find
and use information that is the basis of my research mission. I began
my PhD studies in Computer Science under the supervision of the late
Jean Tague-Sutcliffe (then the Dean of the Graduate School of Library and
Information Studies at the University of Western Ontario). Mark
Kinnucan, a professor in GSLIS,
introduced me to the cognitive aspects of human-computer interaction just
as Jean introduced me to serious experimental design and statistical
analysis.
My doctoral thesis was about developing and testing methods
for automatically converting lengthy scholarly texts into forms that are
quick to read and understand. In the last phases of that research it
became apparent to me just how essential individual differences and
interface aspects were to the effectiveness of such methods. The way
I approach my goal of helping people to find and use information continues
to be deeply embedded in hypertext and, since the end of my doctoral work,
has involved studies of human-computer interaction.
I am an associate professor in Dalhousie University's Faculty
of Computer Scienceand hold a cross-appointment in
the Department of Information Science (in the Faculty of
Management). I became an associate professor (with tenure)
effective July 2007. I have been a faculty member in Computer
Science (and Graduate Studies) at Dalhousie since August
2000. I joined the Faculty of Management in 2005.
The Dept. was created in July 2023,
previously it had been the School of Information Management.
My office hours are announced in my
courses' Brightspace instances. I am available to meet by appointment (online and in person).
