Joseph Michael Reagle Jr. (born 1972
[) is an American ]academic
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...
and author focused on digital technology and culture, including Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read refer ...
, online comments, geek feminism, and life hacking
A life hack (or life hacking) is any trick, shortcut, skill, or novelty method that increases productivity and efficiency, in all walks of life. The term was primarily used by computer experts who suffer from information overload or those with a p ...
. He is Associate Professor of Communication Studies
Communication studies or communication science is an academic discipline that deals with processes of human communication and behavior, patterns of communication in interpersonal relationships, social interactions and communication in differen ...
at Northeastern University
Northeastern University (NU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston. Established in 1898, the university offers undergraduate and graduate programs on its main campus as well as satellite campuses in ...
. He was an early member of the World Wide Web Consortium
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web. Founded in 1994 and led by Tim Berners-Lee, the consortium is made up of member organizations that maintain full-time staff working to ...
, based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
,[ Reagle's "papers" page on the W3C website indicates that he had co-authored a paper there in 1996: An archived message from January 2004 indicates that Reagle had left the W3C by that date: ] and in 1998 and 2010 he was a fellow at Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society
The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society is a research center at Harvard University that focuses on the study of cyberspace. Founded at Harvard Law School, the center traditionally focused on internet-related legal issues. On May 15, 2008, ...
.
Education
Reagle received an undergraduate degree in computer science and a minor in history from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County
The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) is a public research university in Baltimore County, Maryland. It has a fall 2022 enrollment of 13,991 students, 61 undergraduate majors, over 92 graduate programs (38 master, 25 doctoral, ...
. He then enrolled in the Technology Policy Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
and wrote a masters thesis on trust and cryptographic financial instruments. He returned to MIT as a research engineer, and also served as a fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
.[ He returned to schooling at ]New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
, where he taught, and earned a PhD in 2008 with a thesis about the history and collaborative culture of Wikipedia, supervised by Helen Nissenbaum
Helen Nissenbaum is professor of information science at Cornell Tech. She is best known for the concept of " contextual integrity" and her work on privacy, privacy law, trust, and security in the online world. Specifically, contextual integrity ...
.
Career and research
left, upright=0.7, Reagle in 2008
Reagle was a member of the World Wide Web Consortium
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web. Founded in 1994 and led by Tim Berners-Lee, the consortium is made up of member organizations that maintain full-time staff working to ...
from 1996 to 2003.[ There he worked on issues such as intellectual property and privacy.]
In 2002, he was listed as one of ''MIT Technology Review
''MIT Technology Review'' is a bimonthly magazine wholly owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and editorially independent of the university. It was founded in 1899 as ''The Technology Review'', and was re-launched without "The" in ...
s TR35
The Innovators Under 35 is a peer-reviewed annual award and listicle published by ''MIT Technology Review'' magazine, naming the world's top 35 innovators under the age of 35. at ''Technology Review'' with lists of winners at technologyreview.com
...
, a list of the world's top innovators under the age of 35.
In 2010, he reconstructed the first ten thousand contributions to Wikipedia from a previously lost data dump as a simple website.
In 2011, Reagle published a journal article with Lauren Rhue that examined gender bias in Wikipedia, using gendered pronouns to detect articles about women and comparing and contrasting their findings against female coverage in other encyclopedias. The article concluded "that Wikipedia provides better coverage and longer articles, that Wikipedia typically has more articles on women than Britannica in absolute terms, but Wikipedia articles on women are more likely to be missing than articles on men relative to Britannica".[
Reagle is a supporter of ]open access
Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre op ...
and all of his books are available online.
Selected publications
Books
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Reviews of ''Hacking Life'':
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* See also: meta:Wikipedia@20
Articles
About Wikipedia
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About culture
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Policy and technical specifications
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References
External links
Joseph M. Reagle Jr.
at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reagle, Joseph
Date of birth missing (living people)
Living people
World Wide Web Consortium
American technology writers
Northeastern University faculty
Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni
University of Maryland, Baltimore County alumni
Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development alumni
1972 births