Dr. Eric Kansa, the Executive Director of the Information and Service Design (ISD) program at the School of Information, has been awarded a research fellowship by the National Endowment for the Humanities for his project "Cultural Heritage Collections in an Open Context."

In addition to directing the ISD program, Kansa is the co-founder and former executive director of the Alexandria Archive Institute, where he led development of Open Context, an online system for publishing collections and field research in archaeology and natural history. His research interests include knowledge sharing and collaboration in expert communities; tourism, heritage, and location-based information services; and intellectual property frameworks for field-based research.

The Information and Service Design (ISD) program provides a focus for teaching and research on the skills and concepts required by a service-led and information-powered economy. The ISD program also runs a clinic where students gain hands on experience in information service design and consultant practice.