doctoral_advisor birth_place birth_date image article_title name
john t. riedl virginia , minnesota 27 december 1983 2014-08 wikimania day three -lrb- 05 -rrb- . jpg aaron halfaker
 aaron halfaker
aaron halfaker

aaron halfaker is an american computer scientist who is an employee of the wikimedia foundation .
halfaker earned a ph.d. in computer science from the grouplens research lab at the university of minnesota in 2013 .
he is known for his research on wikipedia and the decrease in the number of active editors of the site .
he has said that wikipedia began a `` decline phase '' around 2007 and has continued to decline since then .
halfaker has also studied automated accounts on wikipedia , known as `` bots '' , and the way they affect new contributors to the site .
he has developed a tool for wikipedia editing called `` snuggle '' , the goal of which is to eliminate vandalism and spam , and to also highlight constructive contributions by new editors .
