We're a diverse bunch here at the SMC, but what we have in common is that we are nerds who read a lot. I went on office patrol to find out what my compatriots have selected as their August summer reading. danah boyd Parenting out of Control: Anxious Parents in Uncertain Times, by Margaret Nelson …
Category: Uncategorized
Real name sites are necessarily inadequate for free speech
Recently on this blog, danah boyd set off a firestorm by suggesting that the imposition of real names on social media sites is an abuse of power...or even authoritarian. The obvious retort is “don’t like it, don’t use it”, or learn how to segement one's network (i.e. bend to the system, because its your problem). …
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Expecting? Intimate life and human-machine interaction
I am deeply interested in human-machine interaction in intimate life and how this results in a new sort of human-machine intimacy. Today I stumbled upon the new Facebook feature which allows users to add "I'm expecting" under the family members section, announcing a pregnancy to others. This shows up under 'family members' on the profile …
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Setting Norms
We have a mailing list set up for current and former members of the SMC, where some very productive conversations take place. Recently, danah asked for recommendations for academic work about how social norms are created and maintained (preferably involving technology, but not necessarily). "Norms" are the behaviors and standards considered acceptable by a particular …
Blog reading and writing by gender, 2000-2010
Gender and blogging Why is food blogging so dominated by women? I don't have exact results on this question back yet so I cannot tell you precisely how female-dominated the food blogs are, but I would confidently bet that 85% or more are written by women. So that got me thinking: are blogs in general …
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Infographics as research tools
I have a potentially unhealthy obsession with information graphics. It took me a good chunk of the day to make the graphics in this post and while part of the motivation behind making them was to have something visual to post on this blog (which could have been accomplished in *much* less time), there was …
Nicole Ellison at Berkman tomorrow (6/7/11)
Our very own Nicole Ellison will be speaking at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University tomorrow. 12:30 pm Berkman Center, 23 Everett Street, second floor RSVP required for those attending in person to Amar Ashar (ashar@cyber.law.harvard.edu) The benefits of Facebook “Friends”: The social capital implications of Facebook-enabled communication practices This talk …
Continue reading Nicole Ellison at Berkman tomorrow (6/7/11)
Welcome to our group blog
This is a group blog for the members, past present and future, of the social media collective at Microsoft Research New England, run by danah boyd. We are a group of academics from diverse disciplinary and methodological backgrounds who study a broad array of social technologies and practices. We're going to use this blog to …
Social Media Collective 