About WiredPen
OneLiner:
I’m a college professor, writer and motorcyclist.
Bio:
I’m Kathy Gill, and I teach at the University of Washington in the Digital Media Program, Department of Communication, as well as in undergraduate classes in digital media.
WiredPen supports my classes with tech news and commentary and helps ease the itchy finger “must write!” gene. In 2004, my interest in e-voting and public policy threatened to shift focus away from technology and toward politics. I resisted that switch by becoming the US Politics Guide at About.com.
One day I’ll get my TFM columns moved to blogdom (from plain ole HTML) and renew my writing on usability issues. Motogrrl relates some of my motorcycling adventures and has resources for women riders and those interested in motorcycle training. (The less-expensive alternative to the four-legged beasts I grew up with: my first career goal in life was to be the first woman jockey!)
Education:
Bachelor of Arts, journalism, University of Georgia; Master of Science, agricultural economics, Virginia Tech. PhD? Maybe - being in an academic environment rubs off. However, my roots in applied theory run deep.
Residences:
Native of Georgia; resident of Virginia, Washington D.C, and Pennsylvania before moving to Washington State in 1989. Live in SnoCo with my tester SO (fiance) Mike and our dog, Katie, and cat, Rocko … and four five bikes and a scooter.
Interests:
Impact of social media (blogs, wikis, etc) on participatory journalism, politics and social networks; convergence of digital and analog communication technologies, including e-voting; motorcycles, especially BMW and Ducati (and now Honda TransAlps); Cairn terriers; horses; science fiction books and movies; mysteries; public policy; gardening (but nothing like Howard Rheingold!).
ACM, AWC, Digital Eve, ONA
Guest Authors:
Periodically, there may be posts from guest authors — students or former students.







