Kraut's research focuses on five areas: online communities, everyday use of the Internet, technology and conversation, collaboration in small work groups, and computers in organizations. He has published more than 100 articles, papers and books. He first examines the challenges that individuals, groups, and organizations face when performing social tasks. Working with computer scientists and engineers to create and determine the usefulness of the new technology, he believes his findings can lead to the design of new technology to meet some of these challenges.
Online Communities His most recent work examines factors influencing the success of online communities and ways to apply psychology theory to their design. This includes
academic studies about Wikipedia, for example, research with
Aniket Kittur on the condition that lead to better quality in Wikipedia articles and with
Moira Burke in predicting successful candidates for
Wikipedia administrators. Kraut focuses on determining what motivates people to commit and contribute to online communities and designing these communities to be more successful. He also works with Aniket Kittur to understand coordination in online communities, with
John Levine to understand socialization between newcomers and these communities, and with
Laura Dabbish and
Tom Postmes to design for commitment purposes. The results of much of this research are summarized in the book,
Building Successful Online Communities: Evidence-Based Social Design.
Everyday use of the Internet Kraut investigates how people use the Internet daily and the effects it is having on them and their social relationships. In 1995, Kraut and
Sara Kiesler documented individuals and families’ usage with electronic communication and information services and the integration of and the impact these services are having on their social and psychological well-being. Recently with
Jonathon Cummings and
Irina Shklovski, Kraut has looked into how people who are moving around to different locations use the Internet to build and maintain social connections. He also worked with
Moira Burke and examined how various uses of Facebook influence users’ social capital, health, and psychological well-being.
Technology and conversation Since 1979, Kraut has been examining how pairs coordinate their conversation because it has been shown that working in the same location enhances collaboration, which improves communication efficiency. Recently, he,
Susan R. Fussell,
Susan Brennan, and
Darren Gergle are looking into how a shared visual space influences collaboration, how the usefulness of visual information interacts with tasks, and identify ways to build communication systems for remote collaborative work. Although it substantiated theories in the emerging field of
evolutionary psychology, Wisconsin Senator
William Proxmire identified this federally sponsored research as an instance of wasteful government spending and highlighted it in March 1980 with a "
Golden Fleece Award".
Coordination in groups Performing the same task as a group is inherently different than individuals doing so because coordination is needed when working with others. Working with
Susan Fussell,
Javier Lerch, and
Alberto Espinosa, Kraut has been observing coordination in groups in laboratory and field settings as well as in a variety of groups, including research collaborations, managerial teams, military crews at
NORAD, pick up groups in World of Warcraft, and software development teams. They found that one effective method teams use to coordinate is developing mental models of one another, their goals, the tasks that need to be done, and their environment. Such models improve coordination with less communication. ==Curriculum==