20 Dec 2016
Hello CII research cluster!
I am Tina Du, a new Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute. I am very excited to visit OII and it’s my great pleasure to meet and chat with so many interesting people here.
Let me introduce myself and my research in this blog.
I am Senior Lecturer of Information Studies at the School of Information Technology and Mathematical Sciences in the University of South Australia, which is located in the city of Adelaide, Australia. I am a key researcher in the Advanced Computing Research Centre (ACRC), one of the university’s flagship research centres. ACRC’s mission is to carry out research based on a strong collaborative ethos, which is strongly committed to the smart use of information by broad user groups including disadvantaged people.
My research focuses on understanding the interplay between human, information and technology, including theories and applications related to human information behaviour and social impact of the Internet. I have supervised 8 PhD students with 4 completions.
I am actively involved in building collaborative relationships around my research interest, including partnerships with Aboriginal communities, tourism industry, and the State Library in South Australia.
Since 2014 I have worked with Ngarrindjeri community in South Australia to investigate the use of ICTs as a way to promote learning and effective living within the Aboriginal community; this includes conducting a field study, coordinating computer/Internet training workshops, and chairing a public seminar. My work has identified the strengths and challenges facing Aboriginal people as they access information via the Internet in everyday lives. My work has created awareness among Ngarrindjeri elders and the community in general on the importance of smart use of the Internet for the community sustainable development and wellbeing.
I am leading an interdisciplinary project funded by the Australian Research Council that investigates group behaviour of Chinese tourists who plan to visit Australia and their collaboration in tourism information seeking. Collaboration is an essential aspect of modern life. Tourism is inherently a collaborative activity. How to optimise the way of collaboration and improve team performance remains largely unexplored. The outcomes will benefit Australian tourism industry through optimising tourists’ experience in tourism information search. It will lift Australia’s competitive advantages in a tough global market thereby contribute to national economic growth.
Partnership with the State Library in South Australia enables my lead work on investigating the relationship between immigrants’ settlement, social capital, and value of public library services. Helping immigrants settle well is a significant issue faced by countries such as Australia. Social capital is an integral aspect of community development and a valuable component of immigrant settlement. Public libraries play an important role in this formation of social capital. The research shows that public library services used by immigrants facilitate the development of social capital in terms of strengthening networks, building capacity, satisfying information needs and interacting socially.
My current research focus is about human-information interactions by disadvantaged groups and communities. My colleagues and I are going to organise a workshop “Vulnerable Communities in the Digital Age: Advancing Research and Exploring Collaborations” at iConference 2017 in China next March. The panel members are from universities in Australia, US, and China. We are calling for position papers for participating in the workshop. Read more here.