Scott Counts

I am a Researcher in the VIBE Group and also a member of the Social Computing Group. My research focuses on building social software based on social psychological principles in order to facilitate online social interactions and networks.

Current projects focus on social-cognitive aspects of social software, mobile social software, and enabling social collection and analysis of data.

I received my Ph.D. in Social and Personality Psychology from the University of Washington in 2002. There I studied personality and the unique and stable patterns of emotion and behavior each person shows in response to social situations.

In my spare time I enjoy outdoor sports, particularly skiing and snowboarding.

Links of Interest

Research Directions for Social Computing workshop at GROUP 2007 - Co-organized with Cliff Lampe from Michigan State
Mobile Social Software Workshop at CHI 2006 - Co-organized with Henri ter Hofte from Telematica Institute and Ian Smith from Intel Research.
	SLAM - Working prototype social software for Windows Smartphones, Slam supports flexible group formation and group-based communication for coordination, messaging, and photo sharing. Slam is also backward compatible with SMS.
	SlamXR - a social system based on GPS routes, SlamXR allows users to upload routes (via our custom hardware or off-the-shelf GPS) for logging, categorizing, viewing, and sharing. Routes are uploaded over the air via a Windows Mobile device, then are auto-categorized for activity and difficulty level. Routes and people can be searched for in a number of ways, and routes can be viewed color coded by any available data, such as by speed or heart rate. Route types (e.g., runs of moderate difficulty tagged with 'BurkeGillmanTrail' or 'SeattleRunnersClub') can be subscribed to via RSS.
Social Computing Research Wiki

Selected Publications

Stecher, K. & Counts, S. (2008) Spontaneous Inference of Personality Traits and Effects on Memory for Online Profiles. ICWSM '08.

Stecher, K. & Counts, S. (2008) Thin Slices of Online Profile Attributes. ICWSM '08.

Counts, S., & Fisher, K. (2008) Mobile Social Networking as Information Ground. HICSS '08.

Counts, S., & Smith, M. (2007) Where Were We: Communities for Sharing Space-Time Trails. ACM GIS '07.

Counts, S. (2007) Group-Based Mobile Messaging in Support of the Social Side of Leisure. CSCW Journal.

Riegelsberger, J., Counts, S., Farnham, S., & Philips, B. (2007). Personality Matters: Incorporating Detailed User Attributes and Preferences into the Matchmaking Process.HICCS '07.

Riegelsberger, J., Counts, S., Farnham, S., & Philips, B. (2006). Sounds Good to Me: Effects of Photo and Voice Profiels on Gamer Partner Choice. CSCW '06.

Best Note Award Fono, D., & Counts, S. (2006). Sandboxes: Supporting Social Play through Collaborative Multimedia Composition on Mobile Phones. CSCW '06.

Grudin, J., Tallarico, S, and Counts, S. (2005). As Technophobia Disappears: Implications for Design. Group05 Short Paper.

Counts, S.J., & Geraci, J. (2005). Incorporating Physical Co-presence at Events into Digital Social Networking. CHI05 Extended Abstracts.

Counts, S.J., & Fellheimer, E. (2004). Supporting Social Presence through Lightweight Photo Sharing On and Off the Desktop. Proceedings of CHI '04, (Vienna, Austria, April 27-29, 2004), ACM Press.

LeeTiernan, S.J., Farnham, S.D., Cheng, L. (2003). Two Methods for Auto-Organizing Personal Web History , In Proceedings of CHI '03, (Ft. Lauderdale, FL, April 7 - 10, 2003), ACM Press.

LeeTiernan, S.J. & Grudin, J. (2003). Supporting Engagement in Asynchronous Education , CHI2003 Extended Abstracts.

Fiore, A., LeeTiernan, S., & Smith, M. (2002). Observed Behavior and Perceived Value of Authors in Usenet Newsgroups: Bridging the Gap , In Proceedings of CHI '02, (Minneapolis, MN, April 20-25, 2002), ACM Press.

LeeTiernan, S.J., & Grudin, J. Fostering Engagement in Asynchronous Learning through Collaborative Multimedia Annotation , In Proceedings of Eighth IFIP TC.13 Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, Tokyo, Japan, July 9-13, 2001 (Interact 2001).

LeeTiernan, S.J., Cutrell, E., Czerwinski, M.P., & Hoffman, H. Effective Notification Systems Depend On User Trust , In Proceedings of Eighth IFIP TC. 13 Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, Tokyo, Japan, July 9-13, 2001 (Interact 2001).

Recent Professional Activities

Conference Reviewing: AC for CSCW 2008; CHI 2007; CHI 2006; CHI 2005; CHI 2004;

Journal Reviewing: HCI Journal; IJHCS

Social Computing Group's home page.