Contact Info

Rick Wash
342 Communication Arts and Sciences
Michigan State University
wash@msu.edu

Cell: (734) 730-1188
Office: (517) 355-2381

Rick Wash

Assistant Professor

School of Journalism, and Department of Telecommunications, Information Studies, and Media
Michigan State University

Office

342 Communication Arts and Sciences
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
(517) 355-2381
wash@msu.edu

Home

1819 Clifton Ave
Lansing, MI 48910 (734) 730-1188
rick.wash@gmail.com

Appointments

  • 2010-current: Assistant Professor, Michigan State University.
    • School of Journalism (51%)
    • Department of Telecommunications, Information Studies, and Media (49%)
  • 2009-2010: Visiting Assistant Professor, Michigan State University.
    • Department of Telecommunications, Information Studies, and Media

Education

  • PhD, School of Information, University of Michigan. 2009
  • Masters of Science, Computer Science. University of Michigan. 2005
  • Bachelors of Science, Computer Science. Case Western Reserve University. 2002

Research Grants

  • National Science Foundation, “TC:Collaborative Research:Small:Influencing Mental Models of Security.” CNS-1116544, Rick Wash, PI MSU. Emilee Rader, PI Northwestern. 2011-2014 Total Budget: $499,781; MSU Budget: $258,194
    • REU Supplement 2012: $16,000
  • National Science Foundation, “Socio-technical Design of Crowdfunding Websites.” CCF-1101266, Rick Wash, PI. 2011-2014 Budget $399,511.
    • REU Supplement 2012: $16,000
  • National Science Foundation, “CT-ER: Incentive Centered Technology Design for Home User Security.” CNS 0716196, Jeffrey MacKie-Mason PI. 2007-2009. Budget: $200,000. Rick Wash, Unofficial co-PI

Awards and Fellowships

  • National Science Foundation IGERT Fellowship. University of Michigan STIET program. 2002-2004
  • Gary M. Olson Outstanding PhD Student Award. School of Information, University of Michigan. 2008

Publications

Dissertation

  • “Motivating Contributions for Home Computer Security.” Rick Wash. University of Michigan, 2009.
    Chair: Jeffrey K. MacKie-Mason
    Committee: Judith Olson, Mark Ackerman, Brian Noble

Journal Papers

Conference Proceedings

  • Rick Wash. “The Value of Completing Crowdfunding Projects” Proceedings of the International Conference on Weblogs and Social Media (ICWSM). Boston, MA. July 2013.
  • Emilee Rader, Rick Wash, and Brandon Brooks. “Stories as Informal Lessons About Security” Proceedings of the Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS). Washington, DC. July 2012. DOI 10.1145/2335356.2335364
  • Rick Wash and Cliff Lampe. “The Power of the Ask in Social Media” Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). Seattle, WA. February 2012. DOI 10.1145/2145204.2145381
  • Jacob Solomon and Rick Wash. “Bootstrapping Wikis: Developing Critical Mass in an Fledgling Community by Seeding Content” Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). Seattle, WA. February 2012. DOI 10.1145/2145204.2145247
  • Rick Wash and Emilee Rader. “Influencing Mental Models of Security” Proceedings of the New Security Paradigms Workshop (NSPW). Marshall, CA. September 2011. DOI 10.1145/2073276.2073283
  • Donghee Yvette Wohn, Cliff Lampe, Nicole Ellison, Rick Wash, and Jessica Vitak. “The “S” in Social Network Games: Initiating, Maintaining, and Enhancing Relationships.” Proceedings of the 44th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS). Kauai, HI. January 2011. DOI 10.1109/HICSS.2011.400
  • Rick Wash. “Folk Models of Home Computer Security” Proceedings of the Symposium on Usable Security and Privacy. 2010. DOI 10.1145/1837110.1837125
  • Cliff Lampe, Rick Wash, Alcides Velasquez, and Elif Ozkaya. “Motivations to Participate in Online Communities” Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing (CHI). Atlanta, GA. April 2010. DOI 10.1145/1753326.1753616
  • Emilee Rader and Rick Wash. “Influences on Tag Choices in del.icio.us” Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). San Diego, CA. November 2008. DOI 10.1145/1460563.1460601
  • Rick Wash and Emilee Rader. “Public Bookmarks and Private Benefits: An Analysis of Incentives in Social Computing” Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) Annual Meeting. Milwaukee, WI. October 2007.
  • Rick Wash and Jeffrey MacKie-Mason. “Security When People Matter: Structuring Incentives For User Behavior” Proceedings of the International Conference on Electronic Commerce (ICEC). Minneapolis, MN. August 2007. DOI 10.1145/1282100.1282105
  • Rick Wash, Libby Hemphill, and Paul Resnick. “Design Decisions in the RideNow Project” Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Supporting Group Work (GROUP). Sanibel Island, FL. November 2005. DOI 10.1145/1099203.1099228
  • Thede Loder, Marshall Van Alstyne, and Rick Wash. “An Economic Solution to the Spam Problem” Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Electronic Commerce (EC). New York, NY. May 2004. DOI 10.1145/988772.988780

Book Chapters

  • Rick Wash and Emilee Rader. “Folk Models of Home Computer Security.” In The Death of the Internet, Edited by Markus Jacobsson. Wiley. June 2012. ISBN 978-1118062418

Magazine Articles

  • Rick Wash. “Folk Security” IEEE Security and Privacy. Vol. 10 No. 6 pp. 88-90. November/December 2012.

Workshop Papers

  • Jeffrey Proulx and Rick Wash. “An Analysis of Advice Giving in an Online Health-Support Community.” Kentucky Conference on Health Communication. Lexington, Kentucky. April 2012.
  • Cliff Lampe, Nicole Ellison, Jessica Vitak, Yvette Wohn, and Rick Wash. “Social Sensemaking: Propensity to use Facebook to reduce classroom equivocality.” 60th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association. Singapore, Singapore. June 2010.
  • Rick Wash and Emilee Rader. “Using Economic Modeling to Predict User Behavior.” Understanding Online Behavior, at CHI 2010. April 2010.
  • Rick Wash and Jeff MacKie-Mason. “A Social Mechanism for Home Computer Security.” Workshop on Information Systems and Economics (WISE). December 2008.
  • Rick Wash. “Folk Models Security Soups Poster.” Extended Abstract in Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS), Poster Session. July 2008.
  • Rick Wash. “Incentive Design for Home Computer Security.” iConference, Doctoral Colloquium. March 2008.
  • Rick Wash and Jeffrey K. MacKie-Mason. “Incentive Design for Home Computer Security.” Poster in iConference, Poster Session. March 2008.
  • Rick Wash and Emilee Rader. “Understanding del.icio.us Tag Choice using Simulations.” Full Paper in iConference, Papers Track. March 2008.
  • Rick Wash. “Incentive Design for Home Computer Security.” Extended Abstract in Doctoral Colloquium, at ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing (CHI). May 2007.
  • Emilee Rader and Rick Wash. “Tagging with del.icio.us: Social or Selfish?.” Extended Abstract in Poster Session, at ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). November 2006.
  • Rick Wash and Jeffrey MacKie-Mason. “Incentive Centered Design and Information Security.” First Workshop on Hot Topics in Security (HotSec). July 2006.
  • Thede Loder, Marshall van Alstyne, and Rick Wash. “An Economic Response to Unsolicited Communications.” Workshop on Information Systems and Economics (WISE). December 2004.
  • Thede Loder, Marshall van Alstyne, and Rick Wash. “An Economic Solution to the Spam Problem.” MIT Spam Conference. January 2004.
  • Jose Nazario, Jeremy Anderson, Rick Wash, and Chris Connelly. “The Future of Internet Worms.” Blackhat Briefings. July 2001.

Working Papers

  • Rick Wash and Jacob Solomon. “Crowdfunding and the Return Rule: Reducing Risk but Increasing Spread” Under review. February 2013.
  • Jacob Solomon and Rick Wash. “An Immediacy-Based Model of Source Orientation” Working Paper. March 2012.
  • Rick Wash and Jeff MacKie-Mason. “Using a Minimum Threshold to Motivate Contributions to Social Computing” Working paper. June 2009.
  • Rick Wash. “Content Provision and Digital Rights Management” Working paper. December 2005.
  • Rick Wash. “Lecture Notes on Stream Ciphers and RC4” Working paper. September 2001.

Invited Talks

  • Rick Wash. “Folk Security.” At Indiana University, School of Informatics. (2013)
  • Rick Wash. “Thinking and Talking About Security.” At Indiana University, School of Informatics. (2012)
  • Rick Wash. “Thinking and Talking About Security.” At Cornell University, Information Science Colloquium. (2012)
  • Rick Wash. “Socio-technical Influence on Behavior in Social Media.” At Michigan State University, School of Journalism and Department of Telecommunications, Information Studies, and Media. (2010)
  • Rick Wash. “Socio-technical Influence on Behavior in Social Media.” At University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Information and Library Science. (2010)
  • Rick Wash. “Socio-technical Influence on Behavior in Social Media.” At Northwestern University, SONIC lab. (2010)
  • Rick Wash. “Is ‘Social Tagging’ an Oxymoron? Understanding Incentives on del.icio.us.” At Drexel University, the iSchool at Drexel. (2009)
  • Rick Wash. “Is ‘Social Tagging’ an Oxymoron? Understanding Incentives on del.icio.us.” At Michigan State University, Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media. (2009)
  • Rick Wash. “Is ‘Social Tagging’ an Oxymoron? Understanding Incentives on del.icio.us.” At Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Media Lab. (2009)
  • Rick Wash. “Is ‘Social Tagging’ an Oxymoron? Understanding Incentives on del.icio.us.” At Rutgers University, Department of Library and Information Science. (2009)
  • Rick Wash and Jeffrey MacKie-Mason. “Incentive-Centered Design for Information Security.” At DIMACS Workshop on Information Security Economics (2007).
  • Rick Wash and Jeffrey MacKie-Mason. “Incentive-Centered Design for Information Security.” At Ford Information Technology Seminar (2007).
  • Rick Wash. “The Economics of Malevolence in Cyberspace.” (Mar. 2005). Invited Talk at Case Western Reserve University.
  • Rick Wash. “The Security of Trusted Computing.” (February 2004). Invited Talk at Case Western Reserve University.
  • Rick Wash. “The Digital Millenium Copyright Act.” (February 2002). Given at the CWRU Chapter of the ACM.

Patents

  • US Patent #7,890,338: Method for Managing a Whitelist. Inventors: Theodore C Loder, Marshall van Alstyne, Richard L Wash. Issued February 15, 2011

Teaching Experience

Classes Taught

Instructor of Record

  • Spring 2013. MSU TC 985: Analysis for Media
  • Spring 2013. MSU JRN 821: Social Media News and Information
  • Fall 2012. MSU TC 359: Server-Side Web Development
  • Spring 2012. MSU TC 359: Server-Side Web Development
  • Spring 2012. MSU TC 985: Analysis for Media
  • Fall 2011. MSU CAS 992: Special Topics: Large-Scale Data and Exploratory Data Analysis
  • Spring 2011. MSU JRN 492: Special Topics: Computing and Journalism
  • Spring 2011. MSU TC 449: Server-Side Web Development
  • Fall 2010. MSU TC 861: Information Networks and Technologies
  • Spring 2010. MSU TC 449: Server-Side Web Development
  • Spring 2010. MSU TC 458: Project Management

As Assistant

  • Facilitator, “Getting Started: GSIs Teaching Graduate Students.” GSI Teaching Orientation, University of Michigan. Fall 2007, Winter 2008, and Fall 2008
  • Graduate Student Instructor: SI 540 Understanding Networked Computing, School of Information, University of Michigan. Fall 2006.
  • Graduate Student Instructor: SI 502 Choice and Decision Making, School of Information, University of Michigan. Winter 2006.
  • Graduate Student Instructor: EECS 381 Advanced Object Oriented Programming, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan. Fall 2004.
  • Teaching Assistant: ECES 381 Intro to Operating Systems, Computer Engineering and Science, Case Western Reserve University. Spring 2001.
  • Teaching Assistant: ENGR 101 Intro to Computer Science, College of Engineering, Case Western Reserve University. Fall 1999.

Independent Study Projects Supervised

  • Michael Friedman (PhD): Spring 2012
  • Andrew Rockwell (UG): Spring 2012
  • Jacob Solomon (PhD): Fall 2011
  • Jeff Proulx (MA): Fall 2011
  • Aaron Robinson (UG): Fall 2011
  • Tor Bjornrud (PhD): Spring 2010

Students Advised

Postdoctoral Researchers

  • Kami Vaniea. 2012-2013

PhD Advisor

  • Chankyung Pak. MSU MIS. 2013-Present
  • Jacob Solomon. MSU MIS. 2010-Present
  • Jan-Hendrik Boehmer. MSU MIS. 2011-Present
  • Laeeq Khan. MSU MIS. 2012-Present
  • Tor Bjornrud. MSU MIS. 2011-2012

PhD Committee Member

  • Sang Yup Lee. MSU MIS. 2012-Present
  • Wenjuan Ma. MSU MIS. 2012-Present
  • Sonya Yan Song. MSU MIS. 2012-Present
  • Ryan Feywin-Bliss. MSU MIS. 2011-Present
  • Michael Friedman. MSU MIS. 2011-Present
  • Brandon Brooks. MSU MIS. 2011-Present
  • Jason Watson. UNC-Charlotte. 2011-Present
  • Tor Bjornrud. MSU MIS. 2010-2011; became chair in 2011

MA Advisor

  • Craig Tucker. MSU TC Masters Project. 2012
  • Ian Hewlett. MSU TC Masters Thesis. 2012

MA Committee Member

  • Maggie Vandura. MSU TC Masters Project. 2011
  • Jeff Gillies. MSU Journalism Masters Thesis. 2011
  • Xi (Mickey) Yue. MSU TC Masters Thesis. 2011
  • Chris Hamrick. MSU TC Masters Thesis. 2011
  • Korey Scott. MSU TC Masters Project. 2010

Masters-level Research Assistants

  • Benoit Bonnet-Madin. Fall 2011
  • Craig Tucker. Fall 2011

Undergraduate Research Assistants

  • Grayson Wright, MSU. Spring 2013
  • Nick Saxton, MSU. Fall 2012, Spring 2013
  • Tyler Olsen, MSU. Fall 2012, Spring 2013
  • Leanarda Gregordi, MSU. Fall 2012
  • Howard Akumiah, MSU. Fall 2012, Spring 2013
  • Michelle Rizor, MSU. Fall 2012, Spring 2013
  • Zack Girouard, MSU. Fall 2012, Spring 2013
  • Jake Wesorick, MSU. Summer 2012
  • Sam Mills, MSU. Summer–Fall, 2012
  • Alison Thierbach, MSU. Summer 2012 REU
  • Kyle Safran, MSU. Summer 2012 REU, Fall 2012
  • Nate Zemanek, MSU. Summer 2012 REU
  • Kim Setili, MSU. Spring 2012, Summer 2012 REU
  • Lauren McKown, MSU. Spring 2012-Summer 2012
  • Mitchell Thelen, MSU. Spring 2012
  • Andrew Rockwell, MSU. Spring 2012
  • Aaron Robinson, MSU. Fall 2011
  • Rachel Lipson. UMich NSF REU, Summer 2008

Scholarly Service

Service to the Research Community

Conference Program Committees:

  • SOUPS (Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security): 2011, 2012, 2013
  • WEIS (Workshop on Economics and Information Security): 2012, 2013
  • CHI (ACM Conference on Computer-Human Interaction) Associate Chair: 2010 (Interaction Beyond the Individual subcommittee)
  • STAST (Workshop on Socio-Technical Aspects in Security and Trust): 2012
  • CSCW (ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work): 2013
  • WikiSym: 2013 (track on open collaboration)
  • ICWSM (AAAI International Conference on Weblogs and Social Media): 2013

I was Student Volunteer Coordinator for ACM E-Commerce 2006.
I was an external reviewer (panelist) for the NSF in 2011 and 2012.

Reviewer for:

  • Journal of Electronic Commerce
  • ICIS 2006, 2011
  • ACM E-Commerce 2007 & 2008
  • CHI 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013
  • iConference 2008
  • CSCW 2008, 2010, 2011 & 2012
  • WWW 2008
  • ACM GROUP 2009.

University Service

  • MSU Social Media Seminar Series. Organizer, Fall 2010, Fall 2011, Fall 2012
  • MSU Journalism Research Committee 2010-2012
  • MSU TISM PhD Advisory Committee 2010-2011
  • MSU MIS PhD Program Steering Committee. 2011-2013
  • MSU TISM Search Committee – ICT4D. 2011-2012
  • MSU JRN Search Committee – Innovative Journalism. 2011-2012
  • MSU TISM Search Committee – Socio-Technical Researcher. 2012-2013

Previous Work Experience

  • Cigital Labs. Research Intern. Summer 2001. Developed a research prototype intrusion detection system.
  • Microsoft. Software Development Engineer in Test Intern. Summer 1999 and Summer 2000. Developed automated tests for Microsoft Commerce Server. Developed an automated stress testing system.

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