Welcome to a new semi-regular feature where I update what various SMC members have been up to lately (think of this like the class notes in your alumni magazine, without the weddings and with less babies). Kate Crawford joined SMC as a Principal Researcher in February. She has a number of new papers out: danah …
The case for a social study of technical departure
Hello there. My name is Jed Brubaker and I am one of the very fortunate interns working with the Social Media Collective this year -- a perk of which is a return to blogging here on the SMC blog. Typically you will find me in California where I am a PhD candidate in the school of Information and Computer Sciences at UC …
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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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Teens Text More than Adults, But They’re Still Just Teens
danah and I have a new piece in the Daily Beast. Summary: the more things change, the more they stay the same. In the last decade, we’ve studied how technology affects how teens socialize, how they present themselves, and how they think about issues like gender and privacy. While it’s true that teens incorporate social …
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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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Microsoft Research opens New York City lab
I am giddy with pleasure to share Jennifer Chayes' announcement that Microsoft Research is opening a new lab in New York City that will be filled with computational social science types. The New England lab that I call home combines qualitative social science, empirical economics, machine learning, and mathematics. We've long noted the need for …
Is Anonymous vetting presidential candidates?
Anonymous Hispano, the Spanish-speaking branch of the famous hacker collective, issued a statement a few weeks ago announcing that, despite their efforts, they "could not find any evidence of corruption" to incriminate the Mexican presidential candidate López Obrador. The group prefaced their message by clarifying that they "do not have any partisan agenda and do not support any one" of …
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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 …
Reflections on Fear in a Networked Society
I've been trying to work through some ideas on how fear operates in a networked society. At Webstock in New Zealand, I gave a talk called "Culture of Fear + Attention Economy = ?!?!" Building on this, I gave a talk at SXSW called "The Power of Fear in Networked Publics." While my thinking in …
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 …
