Last week I tried to get a group of random sophomores to care about algorithmic culture. I argued that software algorithms are transforming communication and knowledge. The jury is still out on my success at that, but in this post I'll continue the theme by reviewing the interactive examples I used to make my point. I'm sharing them …
Why Snapchat is Valuable: It’s All About Attention
Most people who encounter a link to this post will never read beyond this paragraph. Heck, most people who encountered a link to this post didn't click on the link to begin with. They simply saw the headline, took note that someone over 30 thinks that maybe Snapchat is important, and moved onto the next …
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A “pay it back tax” on data brokers: a modest (and also politically untenable and impossibly naïve) policy proposal
I've just returned from the "Social, Cultural, and Ethical Dimensions of Big Data" event, held by the Data & Society Initiative (led by danah boyd), and spurred by the efforts of the White House Office of Technology and Policy to develop a comprehensive report on issues of privacy, discrimination, and rights around big data. And …
Welcoming the SMC interns for 2014!
This was an incredible, overwhelming year for internship applications. We had well over 200 PhD students apply, and we were deeply impressed by the quality of suggested projects. Thanks to everyone for your submissions. Here are the four people who will be joining us over the summer – congratulations to you all. We’re looking forward …
Facebook “Courage” Page versus the Knights Templar’s Cartel
Organized as self-defense forces, some residents of the Mexican state of Michoácan have been attempting to regain control of their towns from powerful organized criminals. Although these Mexican militias have received a fair amount of media coverage, its fascinating social media presence has not been examined. Saiph Savage, a grad student at UNAM/UCSB, and I have started …
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New anthology on media technologies, bringing together STS and Communication perspectives
I'm thrilled to announce that our anthology, Media Technologies: Essays on Communication, Materiality, and Society, edited by myself with Pablo Boczkowski and Kirsten Foot, is now officially available from MIT Press. Contributors include Geoffrey Bowker, Finn Brunton, Gabriella Coleman, Gregory Downey, Steven Jackson, Christopher Kelty, Leah Lievrouw, Sonia Livingstone, Ignacio Siles, Jonathan Sterne, Lucy Suchman, and Fred Turner. We’ve secured permission to share the …
What Came Before Social Media?
(or, Social Media circa 1994) (or, Happy 20th Birthday, My Home Page!) Thanks to the rigorous use of backups, I've just noticed that it is the twentieth anniversary of my personal home page. In the spirit of commemoration, I've uploaded the original version (c. 1994). For reasons I don't remember now, I named it "booger.html." …
Reddit, Mathematically the Anti-Facebook (+ other thoughts on algorithmic culture)
(or, Are We Social Insects?) I worried that my last blog post was too short and intellectually ineffectual. But given the positive feedback I've received, my true calling may be to write top ten lists of other people's ideas, based on conferences I attend. So here is another list like that. These are my notes …
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Are there feminist data? (+ other questions)
Here's a quick post containing eight ideas that made it into my notes from today's "Feminism, Technology, and the Body" FemTechNet dialogue at the University of Michigan. It featured Alondra Nelson, Jessie Daniels, Lisa Nakamura, Sidonie Smith, Carrie Rentschler, Sharon Irish, and a bunch of other people I didn't write down. What a crew! Eight Ideas …
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Lectio Precursoria: Interpersonal Boundary Regulation in the Context of Social Network Services
Interpersonal boundary regulation constitutes of the efforts needed to make the world work, that is, for people to achieve contextually desirable degrees of social interaction and to build and sustain their relations with others and with the self. In my dissertation, I examined the topic in the context of social network services. I defended the …
Social Media Collective 