Biographies

Kirsten A. Foot, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Washington

As co-director of the WebArchivist.org, a research group focused on analyzing large-scale archives of Web objects, Dr. Kirsten Foot is pioneering new techniques for studying social and political action on the Web. Dr. Foot earned a Ph.D. in Communication from the University of California, San Diego, and did a postdoctoral fellowship at the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, studying the role of the Internet in the 2000 election.

Her current research projects include analyses of the Web spheres that developed around the events of September 11, 2001, the 2002 U.S. elections, the 2004 presidential race, and an international comparative study on the use of the Web in national elections.

She is an assistant professor with the University of Washington, where she teaches courses on new media criticism, global communication, the Internet and politics, and Internet research methods. Her interest centers on the reciprocal relationship between information/communication technologies and society. She also is interested in cultural-historical activity theory and other practice-based theories of technology. In this vein, she co-edits a book series called Acting with Technology at the MIT Press.

Steven M. Schneider, PhD, Associate Professor, SUNY Institute of Technology

Steven M. Schneider is co-director of WebArchivist.org, a research group focused on analyzing large-scale archives of web objects. He is Co-Editor of PoliticalWeb.Info, and was founding editor of NetElection.org, a site focused on the 2000 election.

He is an associate professor with the State University of New York Institute of Technology, where he teaches courses on the Internet and politics, communication technology policy, and American political behavior. A former Research Fellow at the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania from 1999 through the 2000 election, his primary interests surround the development and implementation of systems to collect and analyze large-scale archives of web objects, and the analysis of political behavior on the Internet.

Schneider holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he completed a dissertation examining the use of UseNet discussion groups to create an informal zone of the public sphere, and an M.A. in Communication from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.