Today at ECSCW 2017 in Sheffield the EUSSET-IISI Lifetime Achievement Award was awarded to Mark Ackermann.
Mark Ackerman‘s influence in the CSCW community can be traced back to his work in the Answer Garden projects and the seminal papers related to it. This work opened the research field of knowledge sharing from a CSCW/practice perspective, with a distinct socio-technical approach which was not only sensitive to but also able to overcome many problems of the mainstream positivist approach to Knowledge Management. Already the Answer Garden work show features that have characterized his whole career: development of novel concepts to describe and understand a new phenomenon; construction of innovative computer systems based on those concepts and experimenting with them; and high-quality ethnographies of real-life complex settings both to inform the concept formation and to see what happens in real life when new systems are actually used. Such a “complete” approach is not for reaping rapid benefits; it needs long-term committment and resources. Correspondingly, the development of such an approach needs both a vision and skills, capability and dedication to realize the vision, and such a combination is scarce.
Mark has been publishing actively, and a significant number of his papers are been well received and cited around the world, making him one of the most cited researchers within the CSCW community. His influence is not limited to CSCW, but he can be seen in general as one of the best known academics pursuing a practice-based approach to human-centered computing.
Mark has also been working tirelessly for the research community both in editorial and chairing roles in a number of central journals and conferences, and as a permanent reviewer and PC member for all central publication forums. In particular he has served as an important bridge between European and US research communities.