At SMC, we regularly meet to discuss interesting books in our field. These discussions tend to spark conversations about a variety of related topics. In an effort to be more inclusive, we thought we’d share the questions that our conversation sparked in the hopes that the SMC community would share your thoughts about these issues …
Category: Uncategorized
Elephants and Murky Waters: Why We Need to Examine Multiple Social Media Sites
Elephants and Murky Waters: Why We Need to Examine Multiple Social Media Sites In her recent post on the Cyborgology blog, Jenny Davis brought the pervasive use of Facebook as a study site back into conversation. In brief, she argued that “studying Facebook—or any fleeting technological object—is not problematic as long as we theorize said object”. The …
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Big Data, Big Questions, or, Accounting for Big Data
In exciting news, Mary L. Gray and I are kicking off a special section for IJoC that takes a critical look at big data: from the disciplinary perspectives and methods, to issues of access and epistemology. Please pass on to your networks, or even better, send us an abstract. Call for Papers “Big Data, Big …
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Is Twitter us or them? #twitterfail and living somewhere between public commitment and private investment
This is about the fourth Olympics that's been trumpeted as the first one to embrace social media and the Internet -- just as, depending on how you figure it, it's about the fourth U.S. election in a row that's the first to go digital. It may be in the nature of new technologies that we …
What goes on at the Oxford Internet Institute’s Summer Workshop?
Several SMC'ers are also alum of the Oxford Internet Institute's fabulously dynamic summer workshop for emerging scholars. Here's a taste of the sense of humor and, I'd argue, intellectual richness you'll find at OII (courtesy of 2012 SMC PhD intern, Shawn Walker!): The MethodsGuestTour: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-c2AWWw65s&feature=youtu.be
The Ethics of Attention (Part 2): Bots for Civic Engagement
Cross-posted from the Department of Alchemy blog. Last month, Ethan Zuckerman of the Center for Future Civic Media (MIT Media Lab) posted a great article on his blog called The Tweetbomb and the Ethics of Attention (constituting Part I to this story, so make sure you read it!), in which he calls into question the …
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Institutions, Infrastructure and Information
I’m not exactly sure when in the last few months I first noticed Google’s subway advertising campaign, but whenever it was, I was immediately confused. The ads relate to Google’s Good to Know initiative and focus on privacy, security and netiquette. More than anything, the ads reminded me of seemingly well-intentioned and yet always-already …
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Why Data Havens Don’t Work
Seven miles off the English coast in the North Sea stands a steel and concrete platform that was, for a time, the world's most impractical data center. A pair of American entrepreneurs launched HavenCo in 2000 as a "data haven"--a place for gamblers, freethinkers, and dissidents to put their bits far beyond the reach of …
Doubting the Impossible: Mike Daisey, the Pragmatists, and Networked Ways of Knowing
Mike Daisey lied to us – but how much you think he lied depends on how you think about ‘truth’. Some background: in his one-man show ‘The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs,’ and a highly popular This American Life episode, Daisey tells several stories about how Apple manufactures products in China. He presents …
A Message to the “First Responders” in Gay Kids’ Lives: Why We Need to Ditch the Politics of Blame, Stop Talking About “Cyberbullying,” and Move Toward Sharing Responsibility for the Loss of Tyler Clementi
2 March 2012 A Message to the “First Responders” in Gay Kids’ Lives: Why We Need to Ditch the Politics of Blame, Stop Talking About “Cyberbullying,” and Move Toward Sharing Responsibility for the Loss of Tyler Clementi By Mary L. GrayCross posted on HuffingtonPost; maryLgray.org; Cultural Digitally Senior Researcher Microsoft Research New England, Cambridge, MAAssociate Professor of …
