Michael Twidale is a Professor of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research interests include computer supported cooperative work, computer supported collaborative learning, human computer interaction, information visualization, and museum informatics. Current projects include studies of informal social learning of technology, technological appropriation, the use of mashups to create lightweight applications, collaborative information retrieval, ubiquitous learning and the usability of open source software. His approach involves the use of interdisciplinary techniques to develop high speed low cost methods to better understand the needs of people, and their difficulties with existing computer applications as part of the process of designing more effective systems.