David Huffaker is the director of UX research for Google Maps. His current research focuses on understanding communication and social behavior to inform the design of HCI system.[1] He attended the University of Central Florida Burnett Honors College in the class of '97, and was honored in 2014 with a Professional Achievement Award from that college.[2] He holds a Ph.D. in media, technology and society from Northwestern University. His PhD advisor was Noshir Contractor. Together with Simon Fung, Huffaker invented the invented times feature on Google Maps which tracks historic and real-time busyness at various places around the world.[3]

Research

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Huffaker, with co-researcher Sandra Calvert, studied the phenomenon of identity on the Internet. Their work concluded that, unlike the conclusions of researchers like Sherry Turkle, identity was singular and consistent across platforms.[4]

His studies on blogging conclude that blogging is a positive activity for teens because it allows them to learn to tell stories, which he sees as important for promoting literacy.[5]

His work has been incorporated into the data science curriculum at the City of London College of Economics.[6]

Selected writings

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  • Huffaker, David A., and Sandra L. Calvert. "Gender, identity, and language use in teenage blogs." Journal of computer-mediated communication 10, no. 2 (2005): JCMC10211.
  • Huffaker, David. "The educated blogger: Using weblogs to promote literacy in the classroom." AACE Review (Formerly AACE Journal) 13, no. 2 (2005): 91-98.
  • Huffaker, David. "Dimensions of leadership and social influence in online communities." Human Communication Research 36, no. 4 (2010): 593-617.
  • Huffaker, David A., and Sandra L. Calvert. "The new science of learning: Active learning, metacognition, and transfer of knowledge in e-learning applications." Journal of Educational Computing Research 29, no. 3 (2003): 325-334.
  • Huffaker, David. "Teen blogs exposed: The private lives of teens made public." Proceedings of American Association for the Advancement of Science. AU VOL/ISS/DATE/PAGE (2006).

References

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  1. ^ O' Neil, Cathy (2014). Doing Data Science. O'Reilly Media Publishing.
  2. ^ "David Huffaker, '97, Senior Researcher, Google Inc. Professional Achievement Award 2014". The Burnett Honors College. 4 November 2014. Retrieved 16 August 2024.
  3. ^ Fung, Simon. "Google Popular Times". Retrieved 6 August 2024.
  4. ^ Chayko, Mary (2020). Superconnected: The Internet, Digital Media, and Techno-Social Life (3 ed.). Sage Publications. pp. 131–132. ISBN 9781071803516.
  5. ^ Rosen, Larry D. (2007). Me, MySpace, and I: Parenting the Net Generation. St. Martin's Publishing Group. p. 105. ISBN 9780230608573.
  6. ^ Data Scientist Diploma. City of London College of Economics. pp. 192–198.
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