Past Events

This page includes notes and videos from past events.

danah boyd on Embracing a Culture of Connectivity
Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, May 12, 2011
Many young adults have incorporated social media into their daily practices, both academically and personally. They use these tools to connect, collaborate, communicate and create. In this talk, danah boyd — Social Media Researcher at Microsoft Research New England and affiliate of the Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society — examines the different social media practices common among young adults, clarifying both the cultural logic behind these everyday practices, and the role of social media in academia.

She is introduced by Judy Singer, Senior Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity at Harvard University, and John Palfrey, Faculty co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

Alice Marwick on Celebrity, Publicity and Self-Branding in Web 2.0
Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, Mar 31, 2011
In the mid-2000s, journalists and businesspeople heralded “Web 2.0″ technologies such as YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook as signs of a new participatory era that would democratize journalism, entertainment, and politics. But user status and popularity has become a primary use of social media, maintaining hierarchy rather than diminishing it. In this talk Alice Marwick — a postdoctoral researcher in social media at Microsoft Research New England and a research affiliate at the Berkman Center — examines interactions between social media and social life in the San Francisco “tech scene” to show that Web 2.0 has become a key aspect of social hierarchy in technologically mediated communities.