ITNR explores and analyses how people use information, telecommunications and new media.
The two photos, below, include most ITNR members.
From left: Dr. Graeme Johanson, Professor Don Schauder, Jen Sullivan, Dr. Kirsty Williamson, Dr. Steve Wright.
From left: Dr. Joy McGregor, Professor John Weckert, Dr. Kirsty Williamson, Professor Don Schauder, Dr. Graeme Johanson.
Since 1991, ITNR has researched people's relationships with each other and their new information and communications environments. We have particular skills in analysing user needs and understanding how systems and services can be developed or adapted to meet those needs.
There is increasing demand for the kind of expertise offered by ITNR because of a growing realisation that the needs of users must be taken into account for the success of communication and telecommunication and services. User needs projects that have been developed or undertaken include:
The Director of ITNR, Dr Kirsty Williamson, has worked principally as a researcher for many years. Since 1990 she has received more than $3 million in research grants, partly in industry funding, beginning with over $500,000 from the Telstra Fund for Social and Policy Research in the 1990s. She has also received six ARC grants (one Discovery and five Linkage grants) and two major DoCITA grants (almost $400,000 all-told). Her research has spanned a range of topics with the emphasis on understanding and meeting user needs in the areas of information and technology. Examples include online investments, plagiarism in schools, breast cancer, online banking and older people and the Internet.
Together with colleagues from Caulfield School of Information Technology, Monash University, and School of Information Studies, Charles Sturt University, she has written a book on research methods, originally published in 2000, now in its second edition (2002) and soon to be updated in a new book. The book, which focusses on the fields of information management and information systems, has been in strong demand from a number of different countries apart from Australia (including Sweden, Canada, USA, Italy, South Africa) and from a diverse range of fields apart from information management and systems (including engineering, business and eco tourism).