At the ASTD TechKnowledge conference, I was asked to reflect on networked learning and how tomorrow's workers will challenge today's organizations. I did some reflecting on this topic and decided to draw on two strands of my research over the last decade - startup culture and youth culture - to talk about how those outside of traditional …
Author: danah boyd
MSR Social Media Collective 2013 Summer Internships
** APPLICATION DEADLINE: JANUARY 30, 2013 ** Microsoft Research New England (MSRNE) is looking for PhD interns to join the social media collective for Summer 2013. For these positions, we are looking primarily for social science PhD students (including communication, sociology, anthropology, media studies, information studies, etc.). The Social Media Collective is a collection of …
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Microsoft Research, Social Media Collective Postdoc Opening
The Social Media Collective at Microsoft Research New England (MSRNE) is looking for a social media postdoctoral researcher (start date: 1 July, 2013). This position is an ideal opportunity for a scholar whose work draws on anthropology, communication, media studies, sociology, and/or science and technology studies to bring empirical and critical perspectives to complex socio-technical …
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Free Speech, Context, and Visibility: Protesting Racist Ads
On Tuesday, Egyptian-American activist Mona Eltahawy was arrested for "criminal mischief" - or "the willful damaging of property" - when she responded to disturbingly racist ads that were posted in the New York City subway system with spray paint. Her act of political resistance went beyond spray paint however. In some ways, it was intentionally …
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“Socially Mediated Publicness”: an open-access issue of JOBEM
I love being a scholar, but one thing that really depresses me about research is that so much of what scholars produce is rendered inaccessible to so many people who might find it valuable, inspiring, or thought-provoking. This is at the root of what drives my commitment to open-access. When Zizi Papacharissi asked Nancy Baym …
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Participatory Culture: What questions do you have?
Henry Jenkins, Mimi Ito, and I have embarked on an interesting project for Polity. Through a series of dialogues, we're hoping to produce a book that interrogates our different thoughts regarding participatory culture. The goal is to unpack our differences and agreements and identify some of the challenges that we see going forward. We began …
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Bringing Research to Bear on the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Minors (a.k.a. “child sex trafficking”)
I believe that technology can be leveraged to empower people in amazing ways, but I also recognize that it can also be used in deeply disturbing ways. All too often, when we as a society see technology being used in horrible ways, we want to blame and ban the technology. As a researcher invested in …
Microsoft Research opens New York City lab
I am giddy with pleasure to share Jennifer Chayes' announcement that Microsoft Research is opening a new lab in New York City that will be filled with computational social science types. The New England lab that I call home combines qualitative social science, empirical economics, machine learning, and mathematics. We've long noted the need for …
Reflections on Fear in a Networked Society
I've been trying to work through some ideas on how fear operates in a networked society. At Webstock in New Zealand, I gave a talk called "Culture of Fear + Attention Economy = ?!?!" Building on this, I gave a talk at SXSW called "The Power of Fear in Networked Publics." While my thinking in …
Reflecting on Dharun Ravi’s conviction
On Friday, Dharun Ravi - the Rutgers student whose roommate Tyler Clementi killed himself - was found guilty of privacy invasion, tampering with evidence, and bias intimidation (a hate crime). When John Palfrey and I wrote about this case three weeks ago, I was really hopeful that the court proceedings would give clarity and relieve …