Does collaboration result in higher quality creative works than individuals working alone? Is working in groups better for functional works like code than for creative works like art? Although these questions lie at the heart of conversations about collaborative production on the Internet and peer production, it can be hard to find research settings where you …
Author: Andrés Monroy-Hernández
Social computing researcher.
Microsoft Research, FUSE Labs Internship Opportunities
FUSE Labs at Microsoft Research is looking for interns for 2013. For these positions, we are looking primarily for graduate students from Computer Science, Information Science, Design, and other multidisciplinary fields with a focus on social computing and social media. FUSE Labs is a research and development lab at Microsoft Research focused on the design, …
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Panel discussion on the #YoSoy132: Mexico’s Networked Social Movement – Sep 20, 5pm at the NERD Center
In collaboration with the MIT Center for Future Civic Media, Microsoft Research New England is hosting a discussion about the #YoSoy132 activist movement. Open to the public. What: #YoSoy132: Mexico's Networked Social Movement When: Thursday September 20 at 5:00 PM Where: Microsoft Conference Center (Barton Room) located at One Memorial Drive, First Floor, Cambridge, MA …
Turn This into That: a Remixing Experiment
Two sides of social production: crowdsourcing and remixing Networked technologies have facilitated two forms of social production: remixing and crowdsourcing. Remixing has been typically associated with creative, expressive, and unconstrained work such as the creation of video mashups or funny image macros that we often see on social media websites. Crowdsourcing, on the other hand, …
The Problem with Crowdsourcing Crime Reporting
There has been some excitement about the idea of using technology to address the problems of the Mexican Drug War. As someone involved in technology, I find it inspiring that other techies are trying to do something to end the conflict. However, I also worry when I read ideas based on flawed assumptions. For example, …
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Socl Data Available… for Science!
The incredible growth and presence of social technologies in all aspects of life translates into large data sets that help researchers understand human behavior, social system design, and the development of digital culture. However, as John Markoff points out in a recent NYT article, most of these data are “forbidden to researchers.” Among the reasons …
Is Anonymous vetting presidential candidates?
Anonymous Hispano, the Spanish-speaking branch of the famous hacker collective, issued a statement a few weeks ago announcing that, despite their efforts, they "could not find any evidence of corruption" to incriminate the Mexican presidential candidate López Obrador. The group prefaced their message by clarifying that they "do not have any partisan agenda and do not support any one" of …
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Are Internet companies using us to fight against SOPA?
Like many of my colleagues I oppose to SOPA and PIPA. I have been a proponent of Free Culture for many years (which I know is funny to say next to the Microsoft logo) and I have studied young people's perceptions of intellectual property because I find the topic fascinating and extremely important. However, there …
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In Defense of Friction
There is no doubt that technology has made my life much easier. I rarely share the romantic view that things were better when human beings used to do the boring tasks that machines now do. For example, I do not think there is much to gain by bringing back the old telephone operators. However, there …
Memes for World Peace?
Today was perhaps the first time a head of state makes reference to an Internet meme in a speech. This is both funny and potentially really interesting. Mexican President Felipe Calderón during a speech given to the national delegation participating in the Panamerican Games made reference to a popular Internet meme known as El Fua. …
Social Media Collective 