Jonathan A. Obar is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media at Michigan State University, and Associate Director of the Quello Center for Telecommunication Management and Law. Dr. Obar also currently holds three fellowship positions, one with the Wikimedia Foundation, one with the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (Canada) and another with the Center for Advanced Microbial Risk Assessment at MSU. His research explores and evaluates the impact that traditional and new/social media technologies have on civic engagement, communication policymaking and the inclusiveness of public culture. His research has been published in the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, Communication Law and Policy, Journalism Studies, Academic Exchange Quarterly, the Free Speech Yearbook and Harvard's Program on Information Resources Policy.

Current/Recent Projects:

Current work with the Quello Center includes the organization of an event hosted at Georgetown University called the “Governance of Social Media Workshop” (http://gsm.tism.msu.edu/).

With the Wikimedia Foundation, Dr. Obar currently works as a Public Policy Teaching Fellow as well as a Wikipedia Education Programs Coordinator for the Wikipedia Global Education Program (http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_Education_Program).

As a CAMRA Wiki Fellow, Dr. Obar serves as a PI on a $160,000 grant funded by the Department of Homeland Security, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Center for Advanced Microbial Risk Assessment (CAMRA). The focus of the project is to build and study a CAMRA Wiki and related mobile apps that can facilitate communication in the event of a national crisis.

Dr. Obar holds a Ph.D. from Penn State University (Mass Communications), an M.A. from Syracuse University (Media Studies), and a B.A. from York University (Communication Studies and Humanities).

Recent papers:

- Obar, J.A., Zube, P. & Lampe, C. Advocacy 2.0: An analysis of how advocacy groups in the United States perceive and use social media as tools for facilitating civic engagement and collective action Available on SSRN: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1956352
- Lampe, C., Obar, J.A., Velasquez, A., Yilmaz, E. & Zube, P. (In press). The Wikipedia Public Policy Initiative: Classroom exercises as introductions to peer production. Proceedings of the Computer-Supported Cooperative Work Conference, 2012.*Nominated for best paper
- Obar, J.A. & Roth, A. (In press). The Wikipedia Public Policy Initiative: Exploring the potential benefits of using Wikipedia in the classroom as a tool for innovative e-pedagogy.