Last night, I went to parent-teacher night at my daughter's school. Here is a list of things I wrote down that differ from when I went to middle school. Since I'm a social media researcher, many of them have to do with technology and social media. I thought someone else might find them of interest. …
Category: Commentary
Legal Portraits of Web Users
This Summer I became very interested in what I think I will be calling “legal portraits of digital subjects” or something similar. I came to this through doing a study on MOOCs with SMC this summer. The title of the project is “Students as End Users in the MOOC Ecology” (the talk is available online). …
When communication is not free
In the wake of so many news stories related to issues of surveillance and privacy, it’s perhaps particularly important to note that tomorrow, the FCC will consider an action that has the potential to reshape access to ICTs for one of the most heavily surveilled populations in the world – those who are incarcerated. While …
Why Digital Inequality Scholarship Needs Ethnography
Digital inequality scholarship is well-intentioned. It debunks myths about digital media’s inherent egalitarianism and draws attention to the digital dimensions of social inequalities. Digital inequality scholars have shown, for example, that people with access to networked media use those technologies in different ways, some of which are thought to be more beneficial than others. They …
Continue reading Why Digital Inequality Scholarship Needs Ethnography
Thoughts on the engagement of 6 million Facebook users
June 21, 2013 Facebook reported that a bug had potentially exposed 6 million Facebook users’ contact details. While this security breach is a huge at any scale and raises concerns regarding online privacy what I want to bring forward is that it also illuminates how our data is currently used by social media sites. In …
Continue reading Thoughts on the engagement of 6 million Facebook users
Big Data Thoughts
401 Access Denied , 403 Forbidden , 404 Not Found , 500 Internal Server Error & the Firehose There is this thing called the firehose. I've witnessed mathematicians, game theorists, computer scientist and engineers (apparently there is a distinction), economists, business scholars, and social scientist salivate over it (myself included). The Firehouse, though technically reserved …
Data Dealer is Disastrous
(or, Unfortunately, Algorithms Sound Boring.) Finally, a video game where you get to act like a database! This morning, the print version of the New York Times profiled the Kickstarter-funded game "Data Dealer." The game is a browser-based single-player farming-style clicker with a premise that the player "turns data into cash" by playing the role of …
Writing the Casual Games Syllabus
(or, "I don't know how to skim a game.") Here's my question: What is the ideal list of 16 games that, if you played them, would give you a picture of all that is possible in gaming? Oh, yeah, and they have to be fast, quick-to-learn, and mostly free (hence the "casual" in the title). …
Get Over IT! Social @Work is Smart (and Inevitable)
Practically everyone uses social media, and most workers use them at work. In fact, as a Microsoft study revealed this week, 84 percent of information workers use non-work social networks, and 60 percent of them use them from work at least once a day. At the same time, the survey found that more than 30 …
Continue reading Get Over IT! Social @Work is Smart (and Inevitable)
Is Facebook Destroying the American College Experience?
Sitting with a group of graduating high school seniors last summer, the conversation turned to college roommates. Although headed off to different schools, they had a similar experience of learning their roommate assignment and immediately turning to Facebook to investigate that person. Some had already begun developing deep, mediated friendships while others had already asked …
Continue reading Is Facebook Destroying the American College Experience?
Social Media Collective 