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Faculty Profiles

Christine B. Williams
cwilliams@bentley.edu          website
MOR 223
781/891-2655
Professor of Global Studies
Professor of Government

PhD, Indiana University-Bloomington, 1978

Research Interests:

political communication

e-government

American politics and elections

Practice/Consulting Interests:

political communication- Internet

research methods

Teaching Interests:

press and politics

American politics

Christine B. Williams
Selected Publications and presentations:

Journal articles
Gulati, Girish J. "Jeff", Williams, Christine B. "Congressional Candidates' Use of YouTube in 2008: Its Frequency and Rationale," Journal of Information Technology & Politics, vol. forthcoming, 2009.

Fedorowicz, Jane, Gelinas, Ulric J, Gogan, Janis L, Williams, Christine B. "Strategic Alignment of Participant Motivations in e-Government Collaborations: The Internet Payment Platform Pilot," Government Information Quarterly, vol. 26, no. 1, 51-59, 2009.

Williams, Christine B, Dias, Martin, Fedorowicz, Jane, Jacobson, Dax, Vilvovsky, Sonia, Sawyer, Steve. "The Formation of Inter-Organizational Information Sharing Networks in Public Safety: Cartographic Insights on Rational Choice and Institutional Explanations," Information Polity, vol. 14, no. 1-2, 13-29, 2009.

Williams, Christine B, Gulati, Girish J, Foxman, Ellen R. "What's in an Endorsement: An Analysis of Web Site Publicity by Presidential Candidates and Organizations in 2004," Journal of Political Marketing, vol. 8, no. 3, 173-189, 2009.

Willimas, Christine B, Gulati, Girish "Jeff". "The Political Impact of Facebook: Evidence from the 2006 Midterm Elections and 2008 Nomination Contest," Politics & Technology Review, vol. March, 11-21, 2008.

Fedorowicz, Jane, Gogan, Janis L, Williams, Christine B. "A Collaborative Network for First Responders: Lessons from the CapWIN Case," Government Information Quarterly, vol. 24, no. 4, 785-807, 2007.

Gulati, Girish J, Williams, Christine B. "Closing the Gap, Raising the Bar: Candidate Web Site Communication in the 2006 Campaigns for Congress," Social Science Computer Review, vol. 25, no. 4, 443-465, 2007.

Gogan, Janis L, Williams, Christine B, Fedorowicz, Jane. "RFID and Interorganizaitonal Collaboration: Political and Administrative Challenges," E-Government: An International Journal, vol. 5, no. 2, 2007.

Williams, Christine B, Foxman, Ellen R, Gulati, Jeff. "A Comparative Study of Nonprofit and For-Profit Web-based Issue Advocacy," Journal of Political Marketing, 2006.

Gogan, Janis L, Fedorowicz, Jane, Williams, Christine B. "Fatal Flaws in Information Sharing," The International Journal of Technology, Knowledge and Society, vol. 1, 2006.

Williams, Christine B, Gogan, Janis L, Fedorowicz, Jane. "Public Safety And Cross-Boundary Data Sharing: Lessons from the CapWIN Project," IEEE Computer, vol. 38, no. 12, 28-29, 2006.

Berthon, Pierre, Williams, Christine B. "Stages of e-Democracy: Towards an Open Source Political Model," International Journal of Information Technology and Management, no. special, 2006.

Weinburg, Bruce, Williams, Christine B. "When Online and Offline Politics 'Meetup:' An Examination of the Phenomenon, Presidential Campaign and its Citizen Activists," Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice, 2006.

Williams, Christine B, Gordon, Jesse. "The Meetup Presidency," Campaigns & Elections, vol. 25, no. 6, 46-47, 2004.

Saraswat, Satya Prakash, Williams, Christine B. "Charity Begins at Home: A Socio-technical Analysis of Corporate Websites to Study the Response to September 11," Computers and Society, vol. 32, no. 1, 4-15, 2002.

Williams, Christine B, Murphy, Thomas F., III. "Electronic Discussion Groups: How Initial Parameters Influence Classroom Performance," Educause Quarterly, vol. 25, no. 4, 21-29, 2002.

Williams, Christine B, Aylesworth, Andrew, Chapman, Kenneth J. "The 2000 e-Campaign for U.S. Senate," Journal of Political Marketing, vol. 1, no. 4, 39-63, 2002.

Book chapters
Williams, Christine B. "24-7 Government, the Permanent Campaign, and e-Democracy: Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick's Interactive Website," in Politics, Democracy and E-Government: Participation and Service Delivery, pages chapter 10, IGI Global, Hershey, PA, 2009

Willimas, Christine B, Gulati, Girish "Jeff". "The Political Impact of Facebook: Evidence from the 2006 and 2008 Elections and Nomination Contest," in Politicking Online: The Transformation of Election Campaign Communications, Rutgers University Press, Piscataway, New Jersey, 2008

Conference papers
Williams, Christine B, Gulati, Girish J. "Jeff". "Communicating with Constituents in 140 Characters or Less: Twitter & the Diffusion of Technology Innovation in the United States Congress," in Midwest Political Science Association, April 2010.

Gulati, Girish J. "Jeff", Williams, Christine B. "Congressional Candidates' Use of YouTube in 2008: Its Frequency and Rationale," in YouTube and the 2008 Election Cycle in the United States, April 2009.

Williams, Christine B, Gulati, Girish J. "Jeff". "Explaining Facebook Support in the 2008 Congressional Election Cycle," in Harvard Networks in Political Science, June 2009.

Williams, Christine B, Gulati, Girish J. "Jeff". "Facebook Grows Up: An Empirical Assessment of its Role in the 2008 Congressional Elections," in Midwest Political Science Association, April 2009.

Williams, Christine B, Gulati, Girish J. "Jeff". "Social Networks in Political Campaigns: Facebook and Congressional Elections, 2006, 2008," in American Political Science Association, September 2009.

Williams, Christine B, Fedorowicz, Jane. "State-specific Governmental Factors Associated with Interagency Collaboration," in International Conference on E-Government, October 2009.

Williams, Christine B, Sawyer, Steve, Fedorowicz, Jane, Markus, M. Lynne, Tyworth, Michael. "Mapping Theory to Practice: A Cartographic Analysis of Public Safety Networks," in National Conference on Digital Government Research, May 2008.

Willimas, Christine B, Gulati, Girish "Jeff". "What is a Social Network Worth? Facebook and Vote Share in the 2008 Presidential Primaries," in American Political Science Association, August 2008.

Williams, Christine B, Gulati, Girish "Jeff". "Your Money or Your Network: Indicators of Presidential Candidate Viability in the 2008 Nomination Contest," in Midwest Political Science Association, April 2008.

Williams, Christine B. "24-7 Government, the Permanent Campaign, and e-Democracy:An Analysis of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick's Interactive Website," in International Conference on E-Government, September 2007.

Gogan, Janis L, Fedorowicz, Jane, Williams, Christine B. "Champions of Collaboration," in AMCIS, August 2007.

Williams, Christine B, Gulati, Girish "Jeff" Gulati. "Social Networks in Political Campaigns: Facebook and the 2006 Midterm Elections," in American Political Science Association annual meeting, August 2007.

Williams, Christine B, Fedorowicz, Jane, Gogan, Janis L. "Interagency Collaboration Challenges in Emergency Response," in International Conference on E-Government, October 2006.

Williams, Christine B, Gulati, Girish J. (Jeff). "The Evolution of Online Campaigning in Senate Elections, 2000-2004," in Midwest Political Science Association, April 2006.

Gulati, Girish J. (Jeff), Williams, Christine B. "The Evolutionary Development of Campaign Web Sites: The U.S. Senate, 2000-2004," in American Political Science Association, September 2006.

Williams, Christine B, Foxman, Ellen R, Gulati, Jeff. "A Comparative Study of How Presidential Candidates and Organizations Treated Their Endorsements in 2004," in Midwest Political Science Association, April 2005.

Williams, Christine B, Fedorowicz, Jane. "A Framework for Analyzing Cross-Boundary e-Government Projects: The CapWIN Example," in Digital Government Research, May 2005.

Williams, Christine B, Berthon, Pierre. "An Open Source Model for Democratic Politics," in International Conference of e-Government, October 2005.

Fedorowicz, Jane, Gelinas, Ulric J., Jr, Gogan, Janis, Williams, Christine B. "E-Government, E-Procurement, and E-Payments: Data Sharing Issues Associated with an Appreciating Database," in Tenth Americas Conference on Information Systems, August 2004.

Fedorowicz, Jane, Gelinas, Ulric J., Jr, Gogan, Janis L, Williams, Christine B. "Strategic Alignment of Key Partners in e-Government Initiatives: The Internet Payment Platform Pilot," in National Conference on Digital Government Research, May 2004.

Williams, Christine B, Foxman, Ellen R, Saraswat, Satya Prakash. "A Comparative Study of Nonprofit and For-Profit Web-based Issue Advocacy," in American Political Science Association, August 2003.

Williams, Christine B. "An Assessment of Candidate Web Site Performance and Effectiveness," in Midwest Political Science Association, April 2003.

Professional presentations
Williams, Christine B, Weinberg, Bruce. "Co-Creation and Open Source Politics: Meetup Communities in the 2004 Presidential Campaign," to the campaign professionals, Washington, D.C, March 2005.

Williams, Christine B. "2004 Presidential Candidate Meetups," to the political campaign professionals, Washington, D.C, March 2004.

Industry reports
Fedorowicz, Jane, Gogan, Janis L, Williams, Christine B. "The E-Government Collaboration Challenge: Lessons from Five Case Studies." Sponsored by The IBM Center for the Business of Government. Washington, D.C.

Other
Williams, Christine B. "Online campaigns are no cash cow for presidential hopefuls".

Professional Memberships:
American Political Science Association
Midwest Political Science Association
Digital Government Society

Honors and Awards:
2009, Best Paper Award, YouTube and the 2008 Election Cycle in the United States

2008, Bentley College Excellence in Scholarship Award

2006, National Science Foundation, Digital Government Program, "Design Principles for Effective Interorganizational Public Safety Response Infrastructures (with Jane Fedorowicz and M. Lynne Markus)

2005, The IBM Center for the Business of Government, "The Challenges of Interorganizational Information Sharing" (with Jane Fedorowicz and Janis L. Gogan)

2002, Bentley College Faculty Publication Award 2002

2002, Faculty Development Grant "Information Visibility in Cyber Chain Management," 2002-2005 with Jane Fedorowicz, et al.

2002, Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

1999, Joseph M. Cronin 1999 Award for Excellence in Faculty Advising

1996, Gender Issues Council 1996 Achievement Award

Scholarly Work in Progress:
Governmental Factors Associated with State-wide Interagency Collaboration Initiatives.
conference paper co-authors Jane Fedorowicz and Arthur Tomasino

Social Networks in Political Campaigns: Facebook and the 2006 Midterm Elections.
research paper, under review co-author Jeff Gulati

Web 2.0 and Politics: The 2008 U.S. Presidential Election and an e-Politics Research Agenda.
research paper, under review co-authors Munir Mandviwalla, Sunil Wattal, David Schuff

Other Activities:
Board of Directors, Digital Government Society of North America

International Advisory Board, International Journal of E-Politics

Managing Editor, North America, Journal of Politica Marketing

Associate Editor and Member of Editorial Board, Journal of Information Technology & Politics

Member of Advisory Board, Bentley College Institute for Women in Leadership

Member of Advisory Council, Meetup Politics and Governance

Visiting Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet, George Washington University

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Teaching interests include American national elections, parties and interest groups and the media. Publications and research interests include political socialization, women and politics, media and politics, teaching with the World Wide Web, and curriculum issues (reform, process, content, assessment). Formerly taught at Mount Holyoke College and State University of New York, College at Fredonia. Recipient of the Joseph M. Cronin Award for Excellence in Academic Advising. Recipient of a research grant from the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University.