Aleks Krotoski

Aleks Krotoski
Born Aleksandra Krystyna Krotoski
22 October 1974
Nationality American
Education PhD in Social Psychology[1]
Alma mater
Occupation
Employer The Guardian
Notable work The Virtual Revolution
Partner(s) Ben Hammersley
Website

Aleksandra Krystyna Theresa "Aleks" Krotoski (born 22 October 1974) is a Polish-American broadcaster and journalist, resident in the UK, who writes about technology and interactivity.[2][3][4][5][6][7] She presents The Guardian podcast Tech Weekly and contributes to guardian.co.uk. She formerly wrote a print column for The Guardian's now defunct Technology section. The daughter of a Polish-American scientist she was raised in America, emigrated to Scotland to finish her degree in Psychology and then became a TV presenter/reporter.

Education

Her father was a Polish-American scientist who determined the true mechanism of malarial relapse,[8] Krotoski completed a PhD in Social Psychology at the University of Surrey,[1] on social influence in Second Life supervised by Julie Barnett and Evanthia Lyons.[1] Her thesis which examined "how information spreads around the social networks of the World Wide Web." [9]

Career

From 1999 to 2001 she co-presented Channel 4's late evening video gaming review show, Bits with Emily Booth and Emily Newton Dunn.[10]

In 2006, she contributed to the United Kingdom's Department for Education and Skills and the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) collaboration, "Unlimited Learning: The role of computer and video games in curriculum-based education".[11] In 2004, she authored ELSPA's "Chicks and Joysticks: An exploration of women and gaming".[12]

In September 2006 she was named one of the games industry's 100 most influential women by NextGen.biz[13] and in November 2006 she was named one of the "Top Ten Girl Geeks" by CNET, two spots behind fictional character Lisa Simpson.[14]

In February 2010, she presented The Virtual Revolution for BBC Two. This TV documentary series was described by the BBC as charting "two decades of profound change since the invention of the World Wide Web, weighing up the huge benefits and the unforeseen downsides."[15] She also presented an accompanying four-part podcast series on the BBC World Service.

As of November 2010, she was Researcher in Residence at the British Library and curator of the Growing Knowledge digital exhibition at the library,[16] and a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics.[17]

Since 2011, she has presented the BBC Radio 4 series Digital Human, which examines the relationship between human behaviour and the use of the World Wide Web.[18]

On 4 July 2013 her book, Untangling the Web[19] was published. It was based on "thirteen years of research"[20] concurrently with her previous activities. It received reviews in the journal Nature[21] and The Observer.[22]

Personal life

Krotoski is married to Ben Hammersley,[23] with whom she has a daughter.[24]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Aleks Krotoski.
  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Krotoski, Aleksandra Krystyna (2009). Social influence in second life : social network and social psychological processes in the diffusion of belief and behaviour on the Web (PhD thesis). University of Surrey.
  2. ↑ "Dr Aleks Krotoski’s keynote speech Big Breaks in the Digital Age". White Hat Media blog. Retrieved 2010-04-17.
  3. ↑ "Aleks Krotoski Profile". Guardian.co.uk (London). 1 October 2007. Archived from the original on 23 April 2010. Retrieved 23 April 2010.
  4. ↑ Aleks Krotoski's publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database, a service provided by Elsevier.
  5. ↑ Krotoski, A. (2011). "Wikileaks and the New, Transparent World Order". The Political Quarterly 82 (4): 526. doi:10.1111/j.1467-923X.2011.02250.x.
  6. ↑ Hunsinger, J.; Krotoski, A. (2010). "Learning and researching in virtual worlds". Learning, Media and Technology 35 (2): 93. doi:10.1080/17439884.2010.496169.
  7. ↑ Krotoski, A. (2010). "Serious fun with computer games". Nature 466 (7307): 695. doi:10.1038/466695a.
  8. ↑ F. B. Cogswell The hypnozoite and relapse in primate malaria
  9. ↑ "Aleks Krotoski". The Virtual Revolution. BBC. Archived from the original on 2 February 2010. Retrieved 9 February 2010.
  10. ↑ Bits TV Series on IMDb
  11. ↑ "Unlimited Learning: The role of computer and video games in curriculum-based education" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-03-20.
  12. ↑ "Chicks and Joysticks: An exploration of women and gaming" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-03-20.
  13. ↑ "Games Industry's 100 Most Influential Women - Page 6".
  14. ↑ "Top ten girl geeks". CNET.
  15. ↑ "Episode Guide". The Virtual Revolution. BBC. Archived from the original on 27 January 2010. Retrieved 9 February 2010.
  16. ↑ "Growing Knowledge".
  17. ↑ "LSE Visiting Fellowship". Aleks Krotoski. 2012-01-12. Retrieved 2012-10-01.
  18. ↑ "BBC Radio 4 - Digital Human, Series 1". Bbc.co.uk. 2012-06-11. Retrieved 2012-10-01.
  19. ↑ Krotoski, Aleks (2013). Untangling the Web. Faber & Faber. ISBN 9780571303663.
  20. ↑ Aleks, Krotoski. "quote from the book's Acknowledgements". Retrieved 24 July 2013.
  21. ↑ Kiser, B. (2013). "Books in brief". Nature 498 (7455): 431. doi:10.1038/498431a.
  22. ↑ Naugton, John (21 July 2013). "Rewire by Ethan Zuckerman; Untangling the Web by Aleks Krotoski – review". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 24 July 2013.
  23. ↑ "Ben Hammersley Tweets about his marriage to Aleks Krotoski". 2014-04-15. Retrieved 2014-04-15.
  24. ↑ "Ben Hammersley Tweets about his child".