I am a post-doctoral researcher studying social media as a platform of civic participation and influencing. I am interested in how information technology shapes and creates groups, social practices and boundaries. In my doctoral dissertation I studied online community formation and the value of social connection in technology use. My background is in social psychology (M.Soc.Sc.) and information studies (PhD). I have also a long experience of projects creating more user-friendly technology and applying user-centric research and evaluation methods. Currently, my work focuses on social influence and information gatekeeping in online social networks.