Last week I sent an email reply to danah boyd in response to her thoughtful post about the Facebook study. She encouraged me to post it publicly, but I was a bit scared by the viciousness and panic of the reactions. At the same time, I worried that the silence of people who do research …
What does the Facebook experiment teach us?
I'm intrigued by the reaction that has unfolded around the Facebook "emotion contagion" study. (If you aren't familiar with this, read this primer.) As others have pointed out, the practice of A/B testing content is quite common. And Facebook has a long history of experimenting on how it can influence people's attitudes and practices, even …
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Corrupt Personalization
("And also Bud Light.") In my last two posts I've been writing about my attempt to convince a group of sophomores with no background in my field that there has been a shift to the algorithmic allocation of attention -- and that this is important. In this post I'll respond to a student question. My favorite: "Sandvig says that algorithms …
New Report Released: Few Legal Remedies for Victims of Online Harassment
For the last year, I've been working with Fordham's Center on Law and Information Policy to research what legal remedies are available to victims of online harassment. We investigated cyberharassment law, cyberstalking law, defamation law, hate speech, and cyberbullying statutes. We found that although online harassment and hateful speech is a significant problem, there are …
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What Is Music Technology For?
(x-posted on Super Bon!) In late March and early April, I attended three events that together signal some interesting shifts in thinking about music technology and sound. The first, a day-long symposium on March 24th I co-organized with Nancy Baym, was entitled "What Is Music Technology For?" It came after a weekend-long instalment of MusicTechFest, …
A Manifesto For Music Technologists
March 21-23, we held the first Music Tech Fest in North America at Microsoft Research New England. It was a three day bonanza of ideas spanning a mind-bending spectrum of ways to connect music and technology. The day after, 21 scholars met for a symposium we called What is Music Technology For? Our goal was …
Adding the bling: The role of social media data intermediaries
Last month, Twitter announced the acquisition of Gnip, one of the main sources for social media data—including Twitter data. In my research I am interested in the politics of platforms and data flows in the social web and in this blog post I would like to explore the role of data intermediaries—Gnip in particular—in regulating access to social media …
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SMC is hiring a Research Assistant!
UPDATE: At this time we have a great pool for 2014 and are no longer accepting applications. ---- Microsoft Research (MSR) is looking for a Research Assistant for its Social Media Collective in the New England lab, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Social Media Collective consists of Nancy Baym, Mary Gray, Jessa Lingel, and Kevin …
Call For Papers: Studying Selfies: Evidence, Affect, Ethics, and the Internet’s Visual Turn
Studying Selfies: Evidence, Affect, Ethics, and the Internet’s Visual TurnA special section of the International Journal of Communication (IJoC)Guest-edited by:Dr. Theresa SenftMaster Teacher in Global Liberal StudiesNew York University Terri.senft@nyu.eduDr. Nancy BaymPrincipal ResearcherMicrosoft Research baym@microsoft.com OverviewThe fact that “selfie” was Oxford English Dictionary’s word of the year for 2013 indicates that the selfie is a topic …
Matrix Algebra: how to be human in a digital economy
By Sara C. Kingsley and Dr. Mary L. Gray (cross-posted to CultureDigitally and The Center for Popular Economics) Ray and Charles Working on a Conceptual Model for the Exhibition Mathematica, 1960, photograph. Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress (A-22a) “Certainly the cost of living has increased, but the cost of everything else has …
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Social Media Collective 