Who is Spartakan?


Hi, I am Peter Cruickshank (not Cruikshank, though it’s an easy mistake to make, and I forgive you). This is my personal but work-oriented blog, and here’s a picture of me too.

I am a lecturer in Information Systems at Edinburgh Napier University. I have also been a Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Informatics (and before that the International Teledemocracy Centre) so I’m often having to think about issues relating to information and e-participation in all its forms and implications.

Areas where I have research interests include:

  • How people and organisations learn to use teachnology – in general, and in a democratic context
  • Evaluation techniques to measure overall acceptability of a system: systems will not be adopted if they do not meet the needs of key stakeholders (and these needs are not always well understood). This has also  taken me into the area of self-efficacy, both computer and political (and especially where they combine).
  • The relationship between privacy and identity and how together they can create an information governance structure that is understandable to users and managers.

I’ve a history of working in the IS Audit field and I teach informtion security at final year / postgrad level so this blog also sometimes covers compliance, audit and security.

I also occasionally get my hands dirty as a web developer – using Python, PHP and MySql, but but I have bene kown to use C# and ASP.NET skills to my repertoire.

Feedback is moderated (the first time you post only), and greatly appreciated always. I also tweet under the ‘nym @spartakan: follow me there too if you want.

This blog reflects my personal thoughts and opinions, and does not reflect those of anyone else who may know or employ me, except by coincidence.

FAQ

Q: Spartakan is a silly name isn’t it?
A: Yes it is, dammit. But I’m stuck with it now.

Contact me

… using the simple form below. I will reply to you as soon as I can.

But you can also comment on individual stories. This is a blog after all.