[CITASA] Microsoft Makes Key Hire in Researcher danah boyd (fwd)

Mon Sep 22 22:39:03 EDT 2008

::blush:: Yes, it is true...

On Sep 22, 2008, at 6:00 PM, Barry Wellman wrote:

> This is from a newsreader, but from the hint danah gave me last  
> week, I
> assume it is true. (see below my sig).
>
> PS: danah needs help in Wikipedia in getting them to accept her  
> lower case
> name usage. Go to the Danah Boyd article and see the Talk discussion.
>
> Barry Wellman
> _______________________________________________________________________
>
> S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC              NetLab Director
> Department of Sociology                        University of Toronto
> 725 Spadina Avenue, Room 388                  Toronto Canada M5S 2J4
> http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman            fax:+1-416-978-3963
>
> Updating history:     http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php
>
> _______________________________________________________________________
>
> via Google Reader: Microsoft Makes Key Hire in
> Researcher Danah Boyd via ReadWriteWeb by Marshall Kirkpatrick on
> 9/22/08
> Microsoft Research has hired social network researcher danah boyd,
> probably the most high profile academic in the world focused on the
> emerging web and its social consequences.
>
> Who is danah boyd? (She spells her own name with lower case letters.)
> You may have seen her when she hit the international spotlight for
> writing about the shift from MySpace to Facebook. She wrote that her
> research leads her to conclude that "The goodie two shoes, jocks,
> athletes, or other 'good' kids are now going to Facebook. ...MySpace  
> is
> still home for Latino/Hispanic teens, immigrant
> teens, 'burnouts,' 'alternative kids,' 'art fags,' punks, emos, goths,
> gangstas, queer kids, and other kids who didn't play into the dominant
> high school popularity paradigm."
>
> That paper was very controversial and widely misunderstood. It also
> argued what many people may were thinking quietly, though often not
> within a context sympathetic with underprivileged youth.
>
> None the less, that was only one of boyd's many writings on the  
> subject
> of youth and social networking. Youth and social networking is a nexus
> point for one of the most significant cultural changes of our era and
> as the leading expert on the topic, boyd's work warrants the attention
> it gets. If Microsoft is going to be relevant to the next generation  
> of
> computer users, who better to pay attention to than the leading expert
> on how the next generation is using social networks?
>
> Boyd's new position will be at Microsoft Research's newest facility,  
> in
> Boston, which was just opened this summer. You can read boyd's
> discussion of her new position in a blog post she wrote last night.
> What Boyd Writes About
> In addition to topics like socio-economic class and social networks,
> boyd also writes, for example, about early social networks like
> Friendster acting as "tools for scaling up social networks rooted in
> proximate social relations and--equally significantly--for  
> representing
> this dynamic to the community in new ways."
>
> Her recent work in general might best be described with these lines
> from Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked
> Publics in Teenage Social Life:
> While particular systems may come and go, how youth engage through
> social network sites today provides long-lasting insights into  
> identity
> formation, status negotiation, and peer-to-peer sociality...I argue
> that social network sites are a type of networked public with four
> properties that are not typically present in face-to-face public life:
> persistence, searchability, exact copyability, and invisible  
> audiences.
> These properties fundamentally alter social dynamics, complicating the
> ways in which people interact. I conclude by reflecting on the social
> developments that have prompted youth to seek out networked publics,
> and considering the changing role that publics have in young people's
> lives. Boyd's Fascinating Gigs
> Boyd is currently a doctoral candidate in the School of Information at
> the University of California-Berkeley and a Fellow at the Harvard
> University Law School Berkman Center for Internet and Society. She's
> also on the Board of Advisors of LiveJournal, along with Lawrence
> Lessig and Esther Dyson.
>
> Previously boyd worked as a researcher at Yahoo! and did a year long
> internship at Google studying the ethnography of blogging at Blogger.
>
> Now she'll join Microsoft Research New England in January. She says
> she'll be directing her own research, publishing frequently and doing
> pure, interdisciplinary science instead of focusing directly on the
> Microsoft bottom line. We hope that Microsoft can prioritize long term
> analysis and support more inspiring work by this trailblazing
> researcher.
>
> Cartoon of boyd by Marc Scheff
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Sent to you by Marcos via Google Reader:
>
>
> Microsoft Makes Key Hire in Researcher Danah Boyd
> via ReadWriteWeb by Marshall Kirkpatrick on 9/22/08
>
> Microsoft Research has hired social network researcher danah boyd,  
> probably the most high profile academic in the world focused on the  
> emerging web and its social consequences.
>
> Who is danah boyd? (She spells her own name with lower case  
> letters.) You may have seen her when she hit the international  
> spotlight for writing about the shift from MySpace to Facebook. She  
> wrote that her research leads her to conclude that "The goodie two  
> shoes, jocks, athletes, or other 'good' kids are now going to  
> Facebook. ...MySpace is still home for Latino/Hispanic teens,  
> immigrant teens, 'burnouts,' 'alternative kids,' 'art fags,' punks,  
> emos, goths, gangstas, queer kids, and other kids who didn't play  
> into the dominant high school popularity paradigm."
>
> That paper was very controversial and widely misunderstood. It also  
> argued what many people may were thinking quietly, though often not  
> within a context sympathetic with underprivileged youth.
>
> None the less, that was only one of boyd's many writings on the  
> subject of youth and social networking. Youth and social networking  
> is a nexus point for one of the most significant cultural changes of  
> our era and as the leading expert on the topic, boyd's work warrants  
> the attention it gets. If Microsoft is going to be relevant to the  
> next generation of computer users, who better to pay attention to  
> than the leading expert on how the next generation is using social  
> networks?
>
> Boyd's new position will be at Microsoft Research's newest facility,  
> in Boston, which was just opened this summer. You can read boyd's  
> discussion of her new position in a blog post she wrote last night.
>
> What Boyd Writes About
> In addition to topics like socio-economic class and social networks,  
> boyd also writes, for example, about early social networks like  
> Friendster acting as "tools for scaling up social networks rooted in  
> proximate social relations and--equally significantly--for  
> representing this dynamic to the community in new ways."
>
> Her recent work in general might best be described with these lines  
> from Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked  
> Publics in Teenage Social Life:
>
> While particular systems may come and go, how youth engage through  
> social network sites today provides long-lasting insights into  
> identity formation, status negotiation, and peer-to-peer  
> sociality...I argue that social network sites are a type of  
> networked public with four properties that are not typically present  
> in face-to-face public life: persistence, searchability, exact  
> copyability, and invisible audiences. These properties fundamentally  
> alter social dynamics, complicating the ways in which people  
> interact. I conclude by reflecting on the social developments that  
> have prompted youth to seek out networked publics, and considering  
> the changing role that publics have in young people's lives. Boyd's  
> Fascinating Gigs
> Boyd is currently a doctoral candidate in the School of Information  
> at the University of California-Berkeley and a Fellow at the Harvard  
> University Law School Berkman Center for Internet and Society. She's  
> also on the Board of Advisors of LiveJournal, along with Lawrence  
> Lessig and Esther Dyson.
>
> Previously boyd worked as a researcher at Yahoo! and did a year long  
> internship at Google studying the ethnography of blogging at Blogger.
>
> Now she'll join Microsoft Research New England in January. She says  
> she'll be directing her own research, publishing frequently and  
> doing pure, interdisciplinary science instead of focusing directly  
> on the Microsoft bottom line. We hope that Microsoft can prioritize  
> long term analysis and support more inspiring work by this  
> trailblazing researcher.
>
> Cartoon of boyd by Marc Scheff
>
> Discuss
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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licking stamps and laughing
i remember the feeling of community brewing
of democracy happening" (Ani DiFranco, Paradigm)

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