Dr David Kreps

• Maxwell 323
• T: 0161 295 5884
• E: d.g.kreps@salford.ac.uk
• SEEK: Research profile

Monday 2.00pm - 4.00pm

Dr David Kreps, former Director of Information Systems, Organisations and Society Research Centre (ISOS) 2009-12, is an 'early adopter', pioneering thinker and commentator, with a fascination for technology and its impact upon society. A web developer since 1995, (making probably the first Arts Centre Website in the UK) he did his PhD thesis on Cyborgism, and has become an expert in Web Accessibility, and explorer into the philosophy of Virtuality, and Cultural Identity in the Socially Networked society.

David is Vice-Chair of the IFIP WG 9.5 on Virtuality and Society. He was Programme Chair of the 'Virtual Technologies and Social Shaping' track of the 9th Human Choice and Computers Conference (HCC9) which was part of the World Computer Congress in Brisbane in September 2010, and as a founder member of the Association of Information Systems’ Special Interest Group on Social Inclusion (SIGSI), was Programme Chair of the 'Masculinities and ICT' Minitrack of the Americas Conference on Information Systems in Lima, Peru August 2010.

Alongside delivering Web Standards based Web Development modules for undergraduates in the Information Systems section of the Salford Business School for many years, Dr Kreps was creator and deliverer of the first MSc eGovernance in the UK (which ran between 2004/05 and 07-08), and was founding Director of the Development & Enterprise Unit for the Faculty of Business, Law and the Built Environment between Aug 06 and Jan 08.  Dr Kreps was the Postgraduate Programme Leader for the Information Systems Masters programmes in the Salford Business School from Feb 08 to Sept 10.

As well as writing about the philosophical and political issues around Social Networking Sites and Virtual Environments, Dr Kreps has written a number of academic papers on the ethical and social dimensions of Web Accessibility, and was recently one of two speakers at the Parliamentary IT Committee (PITCOM) on "ICT for the Socially Excluded" at the House of Commons, London.

In 2006 Dr Kreps was awarded over £80,000 by the European Social Fund to undertake a research project entitled "Combating eDiscrimination in the North West."

In 2008 David helped to win £300k for Salford joining a consortium for a Europe-wide project, DEHEMS led by Manchester City Council, aimed at improving awareness of home energy usage, and bringing about behaviour change for a reduced carbon footprint.

David has been a keen member of Salford's Digital Cluster for some years.

Manchester Digital, the region's trade association for New Media and IT organisations, has appointed Dr Kreps as Accessibility and Web Standards expert on the Judges Panel for the Big Chip Awards, the regional awards for the Digital Industry, for the last several years. David works with a number of the companies in the region's Digital Sector

Background: In the 1980s, David worked as a jobbing actor in fringe and community theatre. See kreps.org for a retrospective.

During the 1990s, as an Arts Centre Director for Tamworth Borough Council, and then Portsmouth City Council, and as Chairman of Kaos Theatre UK from 1997 to 2008, and of Horse and Bamboo Theatre company since 2009, David has gained invaluable experience in leading a wide range of projects in the public sector.

As a technician, he has been making websites for not-for-profit organisations since 1995 and in 2000 began to do so commercially. David has been responsible over the last decade for the production of a range of websites for clients in both Manchester and further afield, and has provided CSS and Accessibility expertise to many other Web Developers through Training courses and seminars.

Alongside his arts management, web development, and business interests, building on a Bachelors in Theatre and Arts Management, David undertook a part-time Masters in Cultural Theory during the mid 90s, specialising in Cybersociety, and between 1998 and 2003 undertook extensive research in this field, culminating in the award in January 2004 of a PhD from the University of Salford, for his doctoral thesis on Cyborgs. In the same month, he joined the Information Systems Institute (now part of the Salford Business School) full time, after several years working part-time for them.

• Dynamic Web Development (module for 2nd year undergraduates)
• Information Architecture and eCommerce - PG

David's areas of research interest fall broadly under the umbrella of Information Society. He is interested in all aspects of virtuality, and has established a reputation in eAccessibility . His background in Cultural Studies and Sociology bring a critical and philosophical approach to his research in IS. His doctoral thesis focused on the phenomenon of Cyborgism in contemporary society, through interviews with disabled and performance and interactive artists exploring this field, and with reference to the exoskeletal ambitions of the US military.

David recently completed an EU FP7 funded Environmental Informatics project - DEHEMS. David is also currently pursuing a number of research directions focused upon LGBTQ In/visibility in the Middle East and North Africa, the nature of Virtuality, issues around Social Networking and Virtual Environments, with the personal project to bring poststructuralist thought to bear upon contemporary global social information systems. He has also been pursuing research into contemporary Masculinities, and co-chaired the mini-track on Masculinities and ICTs at AMCIS 2010.

• PhD Sociology of Technology
  University of Salford 1998-2004
• MA Cultural Studies
  University of Salford 1995-1998
• BA (Hons) Theatre & Arts Management
  Dartington College of Arts (University of Plymouth) 1991-1994
• Member of British Computer Society (MBCS)

Journals

• Kreps, D (2011) Social Networking and Transnational Capitalism tripleC - Cognition, Communication, Co-operation, 9(2): 689-701
• Emmanouilidou, M & Kreps, D (2010) A framework for accessible m-government implementation Electronic Government, an International Journal 7(3)
• Kreps, D (2010) My Social Networking Profile: Copy, Resemblance, or Simulacrum? A Poststructuralist Interpretation of Social Information Systems, European Journal of Information Systems 19 p104-115
• Adam, A & Kreps, D (2009) 'Disability and Discourses of Web Accessibility' Information Communication and SocietyTaylor and Francis [InformaWorld]
• Wheeler, P & Kreps, D (2008) 'User Testing is Not a Luxury'Electronic Markets - The International JournalRoutledge, London Vol. 18, Issue 4 InformaWorld
• Kreps, D & Richardson, H (July 2007) 'IS Success and Failure: The Problem of Scale', in Political QuarterlyVol 78 Issue 3 Blackwell
• Adam, A & Kreps, D (Sept 2006) 'Enabling or Disabling Technologies?: A Critical Approach to Web Accessibility' inInformation Technology and People[pdf]

Book Chapters

• Kreps, D (2012) 'Virtuality and Humanity' Chapter in Grimshaw, M (Ed.) Oxford Handbook of VirtualityOxford: Oxford University Press
• Kreps, D (2012) 'Performing the Discourse of Sexuality Online' Chapter in Warburton, S. & Hatzipanagos, S (Eds.) Digital Identity and Social Media London: Information Science Reference, an imprint of IGI Global
• Kreps, D and Pearson, E (2009) 'Community as Commodity: Social networking and transnational capitalism' Chapter in Virtual Social Networks: Mediated, Massive and Multiplayer sites Ed: Niki Panteli (Palgrave) Amazon
• Kreps, D (2008) 'Virtuality: Time, Space, Conciousness and a Second Life' Chapter in Exploring Virtuality: Social, Global and Local Dimensions Eds: Niki Panteli and Mike Chiasson (Palgrave) Amazon
• Kreps, D & Adam, A (Oct 2006) 'Failing the Disabled Community?: The Continuing Problem of Web Accessibility' inAdvances in Universal Web Design Idea Group [pdf]|Amazon
• Adam, A & Kreps, D (July 2006) 'Web Accessibility: A Digital Divide for the Disabled?' Transactions of IFIP 8.2, Social Inclusion: Societal & Organizational Implications for Information Systems, Volume 208 Springer[pdf]

Books

• Kreps, D, Cyborgs: Cyborgism, Performance and SocietyLulu.com(2007) ISBN: 978-1-84753-721-8

Conference appearances include:

• Kreps, D (2012) 'In/visibility of LGBTQ People in the Arab Spring'. Paper delivered at CATaC'12 Aarhus, Denmark, June 2012 [Presentation]
• Kreps, D (2011) 'Virtual, Phenomenal, Real and Mobile'. Paper delivered at 17th Society for Philosophy and Technology Denton, Texas, May 2011 [Presentation]
• Kreps, D (2011) ‘Socialmedia and Transnational Capitalism’. Paper delivered at Media Communications & Cultural Studies Association conference (MeCCSA) Salford, UK, Jan 2011.
• Kreps, D & Fletcher, G (2010) #uksnow: webscience weather watch. IR11 Gothenberg, Sweden.[Presentation]
• Kreps, D (2010) Introducing Eco-Masculinities: 'How a masculine discursive subject approach to the Individual Differences Theory of Gender and IT impacts an environmental informatics project' Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS)Nominated for Best Paper [Presentation]Lima, Peru, August 2010
• Kreps, David; Sundramoorthy, Vasughi; Cooper, Grahame; Takruri-Rizk, Haifa; and Linge, Nigel, "Harnessing the Link between ICT Domestication and Behaviour Change for Carbon Footprint Reduction in the Home" (2010). AMCIS 2010 Proceedings. Paper 279.poster at AMCIS 2010, Lima, Peru
• Kreps, D (2010) 'Grindr: immoderation vs. sin in the global virtual gay bar' Digital Cultures - July 2010, Manchester [Presentation]
• Kreps, D (2010) 'Foucault, Exhibitionism and Voyeurism on ChatRoulette' Cultural Attitudes Towards Technology and Communication (CATaC'10) Vancouver, Canada, June 2010.[Presentation]
• Kreps, D (2009) 'Performing the Discourse of Sexuality Online: Foucault, Butler, and Video-sharing on Sexual Social Networking Sites' Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS) San Francisco Aug 09 [usir]
• Kreps, D (2009) Virtual Oversight Over Transnational Capitalism: XBRL metadata and renewed government control of the global economy. IFIP 9.5 WG Workshop, 'Images of Virtuality', Athens, Greece [usir]
• Kreps, D (2009) 'user_id: cultural theory and information systems' poster at WebSci09, Athens, Greece
• Kreps, D (2008) 'How the Web Continues to Fail People with Disabilities' paper at ALT-C Leeds, UK [pdf]
• Kreps, D and Pearson E (2008) 'Community as Commodity' paper at IFIP9.5 Leuphana, Germany [pdf]
• Kreps, D (2008) 'My Facebook Profile: Copy, Resemblance or Simulacrum' paper at ECIS, Galway, Ireland[pdf]
• Kreps, D & Wheeler, P (Dec 07) 'Language, Technology & the Body: Critical Research into Disability, Impairment & Web Accessibility for UK JobSeekers' paper at ICIS, Montreal, Canada[pdf]
• Adam, A & Kreps, D (Sept 06) 'Inscribing Disability: Web Accessibility and Discourses of Social Inclusion' paper at ICS Symposium, York, UK
• Kreps, D (July 05) 'The Visually Impaired Website: Representing Disability on the World Wide Web' paper at Disability Studies conference, Lancaster, UK