Discussed in this post: Race, Policing, and Detroit's Project Green Lighthttp://esc.umich.edu/project-green-light/ Yesterday the Wayne County Prosecutor publicly apologized to the first American known to be wrongfully arrested via facial recognition algorithm: a black man arrested earlier this year by the Detroit Police. The statement cited the unreliability of software, especially as applied to people of …
Continue reading Race, Policing, and Computing: Project Green Light
(or: "I will get back to you on that, Senator.") Here is an early response to Zuckerberg's testimony before the US Senate today. If you want my overall score, as of 3:30 ET I think Zuckerberg is doing quite well, but some of the things being discussed need a lot of unpacking. Those Poor Fools …
(or: Research Online Should Not Be Illegal) I’m a college professor. But on Friday morning I won't be in the classroom, I'll be in courtroom 30 in the US District Courthouse on Constitution Avenue in Washington DC. The occasion? Oral arguments on the first motion in Sandvig v. Sessions. You may recall that the ACLU, …
Continue reading Heading to the Courthouse for Sandvig v. Sessions
(or, "Hopefully 4chan Won't Hear About This Contest") The social-media-ification of everything continues. If you've got time for some late-summer procrastination, thanks to the Internet you can choose the design of my house. As you may have read here two weeks ago, I'm crowdsourcing it. The first competition is over and I received 16 entries -- …
(or, "The Social-Media-ification of Everything") The architecture crowdsourcing Web site Arcbazar has been called "The Worst Thing to Happen To Architecture Since the Internet Started." The site also got some press recently by running a parallel, unauthorized architecture competition for the "people's choice" for the design of the Obama Presidential Library. I've decided to use arcbazar.com …
[This is an old post. SEE ALSO: The most recent blog post about this case.] Last month I joined other social media researchers and the ACLU to file a lawsuit against the US Government to protect the legal right to conduct online research. This is newly relevant today because a community of devs interested in public policy started …
(or: I write scripts, bots, and scrapers that collect online data) [This is an old post. SEE ALSO: The most recent blog post about this case.] I never thought that I would sue the government. The papers went in on Wednesday, but the whole situation still seems unreal. I’m a professor at the University of Michigan and a social …
I was delighted to give the Robert M. Pockrass Memorial Lecture at Penn State University this year, titled "Awakenings of the Filtered: Algorithmic Personalization in Social Media and Beyond." I used the opportunity to give a broad overview of recent work about social media filtering algorithms and personalization. Here it is: https://youtu.be/ZxS15iIK2JA I tried to argue that …
A few months ago, I asked how we might reconsider Ph.D. education in light of digital media, social media, and the changing landscape of scholarly publishing. No matter what your Ph.D. aspirations are, all Ph.D.s are sort-of about publishing and dissemination of research and also reading research, and these activities are being transformed by digital media. …
(or, interactive art & entertainment: a short tour) OK, dear readers, it's time for some BuzzFeed-style content here on the Social Media Collective. You want to understand digital media, right? You occasionally like to play a game, right? I'm pleased to revisit and refresh my list of games that quickly demonstrate what is possible in digital gaming. Sort …
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