is an interaction designer and researcher at IBM's T. J. Watson
Research Center in New York. His central interest is in designing
systems that make it possible for groups of people to interact
coherently and productively over networks. Other interests include
telecommuting (he telecommutes a thousand miles from his home
in Minnesota to his lab at Watson), computer-mediated communication,
and pattern languages. More generally, his approach to system
design draws on work in
architecture, urban design, rhetoric and the sociology of human-human
interaction.
Thomas Erickson is a frequent speaker at conferences in the field
of Human-Computer Interaction. He has published about three dozen
articles and book chapters on various aspects of human-computer
interaction, interaction design, and computer-supported co-operative
work. He founded and co-chairs the workshop and minitrack on Persistent
Conversation (AKA Computer-Mediated Conversation) at the HICSS
conference, now in its fourth year.