Wired recently selected its 21 "must-follow" feeds in the world of business, and the Social Media Collective blog was among them! See the entire list here. We're thrilled, as so much of our goal is to span both scholarly and industry conversations around social media and its critical cultural implications. Stay tuned for more from this blog in the coming months.
Category: Uncategorized
Moderator Solidarity on Reddit: Predicting Participation in the Blackout of July 2015
For the last 40 years or more, online platforms have relied on people to facilitate and support our online communities. In the early 70s, they were the librarians and shopkeepers of Community Memory. In the 80s, they were the WELL's "conference hosts." In the 90s, they were AOL's "community leaders." In 2015, they are Wikipedia's "administrators," Facebook's "admins," Slashdot's "moderators," …
Reading list on the digital divide/digital inclusion
The Social Media Collective extended family compiled a bibliography on the digital divide (including gender gaps) and ICTD. Thanks to all of those who contributed! Allen, Steven G. 2001. "Technology and the Wage Structure." Journal of Labor Economics 19:440-483. Anderson, B. 2005. "The value of mixed-method longitudinal panel studies in ICT research." Information, Communication & Society 8:343-367. …
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What Just Happened on Reddit? Understanding The Moderator Blackout
Last Thursday and Friday, moderators of many of Reddit's most popular discussion groups "blacked out" their subreddits, preventing access to parts of the site by Reddit subscribers and cutting off some of the company's advertising revenue for half a day. What may not have started as a protest quickly became one, with many moderators complaining …
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Today– Online event with Mary L. Gray @3pm (ET) on labor and the sharing economy
Join us today, Thursday July 9 at 3pm ET (9pm CET), to listen to SMC's Mary L. Gray on a special Theory of Everything's online discussion on life in the sharing economy. Benjamen Walker and Andrew Callaway, the official Theory of Everything instapoder, will also be hosting. Mary is currently researching labor and the sharing economy in the Social …
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Imagining a Sustainable and Inclusive Approach to Child Safety Online
What would be a sustainable and inclusive approach to child safety online? Today at the Berkman Center, Mitali Thakor presented her research on human trafficking and moderated a discussion of how we see and respond to issues of child safety. Mitali Thakor is a PhD student at MIT's history and science of technology program, who studies …
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The Quantified Self; Newsfeed: Created by you?; Holding Crowds Accountable To The Public; EVE Online and World of Darkness
Today at the Berkman Center, our summer PhD Interns gave a series of short talks describing our research and asking for feedback from the Berkman community. This liveblog summarizes the talks and the Q&A (special thanks to Willow Brugh for collaborating on this post). Mary Gray, senior researcher at Microsoft Research, opened up the conversation …
Recognizing the Work of Reddit’s Moderators: Summer Research Project
What does it take to keep online communities going? With over 550,000 public subreddits, many of which are active, the communities on the site rely on ongoing effort by a large number of volunteer moderators. In my research, I'm excited to learn more from redditors how they see the work of moderation and why they do it.
Discourse Matters: Designing better digital futures
A very similar version of this blog post originally appeared in Culture Digitally on June 5, 2015. Words Matter. As I write this in June 2015, a United Nations committee in Bonn is occupied in the massive task of editing a document overviewing global climate change. The effort to reduce 90 pages into a short(er), …
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MSR’s Social Media Collective is looking for a 2015-16 Research Assistant (to start 15 July)
Microsoft Research (MSR) is looking for a Research Assistant to work with the Social Media Collective in the New England lab, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The MSR Social Media Collective consists of Nancy Baym, Sarah Brayne, Kevin Driscoll, Tarleton Gillespie, Mary L. Gray, and Lana Schwartz in Cambridge, and Kate Crawford and danah boyd in …
Social Media Collective 