danah boyd: How to be a Grad Student

Advice from a brownbag luncheon today at UW as part of her book tour.  Damn, this woman is inspiring!

  • Know your artifact at a technical level (MySpace was built on Cold Fusion – a horrible platform!).
  • Take as many methods (and theory) classes as you can so you can know how to approach problems from different perspectives.
  • Collaborate.
  • When doing ethnographic fieldwork, do your first-thought voice notes into your recorder, immerse in the environment (eat at McDonalds), listen to people’s stories even if they are off-topic, prepare to become part of people’s lives on an emotional level.
  • Find a community of people interested in what you’re interested in and find your place in it, bring people together to do it.
  • Take care of yourself:  yearly email sabbaticals, go trekking, make your own massage parlor map, time with family and friends
  • Self-present mindfully: What will your research subjects think of your mohawk?
  • If you want to make an impact, be public.  Be honest about the limitations of your data/work.  Force people to care.
  • Understand that you are part of a much bigger system.  Know power as theory (Foucault!), engage with it as practice (start a think/tank like this).
  • When dealing with journalists, be strategic, work on background, not just for the quote or to promote your work.  Help them understand.

Steve Roggenbuck: You get to be in people’s lives on such a crazy level

An argument from self-described internet poet Steve Roggenbuck for why social media need not be shallow, trivial, and dehumanizing, but immediate, compassionate, beautiful, and vital: “as a poet, it’s your job to text people pictures of the sunset.”

 


HT Gawker

Greetings, Dr. Sharp!

Can I just say that this made my day?  Dr. Sharp is an inspiration to me and many other scholars of digital activism.  Wow.

 

Evgeny Morozov and the Rhetoric of Contempt

Evgeny Morozov is perhaps the most skilled contemporary practitioner of the rhetoric of contempt.  He seeks to win arguments (and attention) by treating ideas he dislikes with scorn and ridicule and by treating their proponents with mockery and cruelty.  He encourages this behavior in others.  The exchange below, which happened earlier today, is a good example.

Screen Shot 2013-04-01 at 5.18.33 PM

When I first met Evgeny in 2008 he was a journalist, working for The Economist.  He was smart and entertaining. The mean-spirited  persona only came later.  He honed it on his (now abandoned) Foreign Policy blog, Net Effect, and then parlayed that persona and style of argument in a very successful and misleading book, The Net Delusion.  That book was published just as the Arab Spring was getting started.  It soon became clear that his argument – that those who are optimistic about the liberating power of the Internet are deluded – was simply untrue.

So he has turned his gaze to Silicon Valley and has started attacking Tim O’Reilly and Jimmy Wales instead of the State Department. Yet he has maintained the rhetoric of contempt, inserting vitriol into important discussions, misleading the unsophisticated, and muddying the waters of real intellectual inquiry with ad hominem attack and straw man arguments.

Screen Shot 2013-04-01 at 5.20.54 PMI have not asked Evgeny about his rhetorical strategy, but I would bet that it is strategic.  I think Evgeny enjoys being contemptuous, but he is also smart enough to realize that it works.  The tweet at left, from Max Bulger, a student at Tufts University, is illuminating.  Evgeny won’t talk to a student about his ideas, but he will bait the big fish like Jimmy Wales and Tim O’Reilly on Twitter to increase his own name recognition.  Evgeny has 36 thousand followers.  Jimmy Wales has nearly 82 thousand.  Tim O’Reilly has 1.7 million.  You do the math.  I bet Evgeny has.

So, this post is not a plea to Evgeny to stop using the rhetoric of contempt.  It works well for him, so he has no reason to stop.  It is rather a suggestion to others not to fall into his trap by responding or (worse yet) responding in kind, as Jimmy Wales did.  Don’t feed the (intellectual) troll.

Interview with an Occupy Technologist

Dana Skallman: “creating networks of trust is at the core”

How did you first get involved in Occupy?

I got on the OWS Tech list to see what was going on and how I could help. I quickly realized they were so unorganized, so I thought maybe I can help organize tech in some way.

What role do you currently play in Occupy?

I am helping setup and coordinate technology infrastructure for the Occupy Movement using Free/Libre/Open technology. The bulk of the platforms can be seen atOccupy.net& we are coordinating the usage throughInterOccupy.net.

What are your challenges as an Occupy technologist?

Trying to bridge the needs of activist users and technologists. There are many tools available that provide alternatives to widely used proprietary or commercial tools, however they need to be setup and easy to use for anyone, much like the alternatives. The other aspect is being able to provide tools & ongoing support on a purely volunteer basis. We are searching for ways to make it sustainable. One way we are looking to do this is through cooperatives, which is a part of the conversation in the work we are doing on a daily basis.

How do these challenges relate to the greater challenges of the Occupy movement?

It’s hard to say from an activist on the ground, as I am more behind the scenes. However, much of the communication across the movement involves technology, so creating networks of trust is at the core. This involves more human interaction, through technology. So it’s more about how we connect person to person across the movement using technology, and not so much what technology is being used. That being said, the technology used is important in regards to data privacy and control, which is why using the tools onoccupy.netmakes a difference.

Occupy is currently out of the mass media spotlight. What are you all up to that the world should know about?

The next few months will focus on campaigns around theAnniversary on September 17thand the election. The best place to keep up-to-date would be through theInteroccupy Newswire. All campaigns and actions havecreated Hubsto help coordinate more effectively across the movement. TheInterOccupy Calendaralso provides a ton of information for ways for folks to get involved.

Real Digital Power: Gilad Lotan

I was a panelist for Newsweek/Daily Beast’s recentDigital Power Index. Though the Revolutionaries group was more representative of nationality, ethnicity, and gender than the rest of the list, I’d like to share my original list of 10 nominees, and also take an opportunity to highlight some of the world’s best digital activists.

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6) Gilad Lotan

Gilad Lotanis passionate about big data visualization. He’s also extremely good at it. He leads the data science team at SocialFlow, a firm whose software creates beautiful visualizations from online data. Gilad loves data, but he also loves politics and social justice.

His data visualizations have helped digital activists understand their own work in a new and powerful way. From the 2009 Iranian protests to the Arab Spring to Kony2012 video to Occupy Wall Street, Gilad has created free public visualizations of how information flows online, particularly on Twitter. Gilad’s work demonstrates has geeks can use their skills to support and explain digital activism in a way that is not only empirical but also artful.

Real Digital Power: Tim Pool

I was a panelist for Newsweek/Daily Beast’s recentDigital Power Index. Though the Revolutionaries group was more representative of nationality, ethnicity, and gender than the rest of the list, I’d like to share my original list of 10 nominees, and also take an opportunity to highlight some of the world’s best digital activists.

– – – – – – –

7) Tim Pool

If the Occupy Movement had a Walter Cronkite or Edward R. Murrow, it would be Tim Pool. Using a smartphone and external battery Tim has become the movement’s unofficial broadcaster, and is one of the world’s more effective and innovative citizen journalists. He self-broadcasts at TimcastTVand his coverage ofOccupy has been carried and syndicated by mainstream outlets such as NBC, Reuters, Al Jazeera, and TIME.

Tim’s method of journalism is not only successful, but also innovative. He employs a live-chat stream in his reporting, which allows the viewing public to ask questions, which he can respond to live.He also lets his viewers play producer, directing him on where and when to go and where to point his camera. He’s telling a 21st century story in a 21st century way: engaged, interactive, and innovative.

Real Digital Power: Zainab Al-Khawaja

I was a panelist for Newsweek/Daily Beast’s recentDigital Power Index. Though the Revolutionaries group was more representative of nationality, ethnicity, and gender than the rest of the list, I’d like to share my original list of 10 nominees, and also take an opportunity to highlight some of the world’s best digital activists.

– – – – – – –

8)Zainab Al-Khawaja

The Arab Spring came to Bahrain in 2011, but it didn’t stay for long. After a month of encampments and violent removals at Pearl Roundabout in Manama, troops cleared the traffic circle for the last time on March 16th and tore down the Pearl Roundabout monument two days later.

But the revolution is still quietly alive, and that is largely due to fearless activists like Zainab Al-Khawaja,better known by her Twitter handle, @AngryArabia. Active both online and offline, Zainab tweets and sit-insto challenge the Bahraini government.

Zainab’s current cause is demanding the release of her father, human rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who has been jailed for life. Defying the term slacktivism, Zainab shows that digital activism is not for slackers or the weak-hearted.

Real Digital Power: Ilya Klishin

I was a panelist for Newsweek/Daily Beast’s recentDigital Power Index. Though the Revolutionaries group was more representative of nationality, ethnicity, and gender than the rest of the list, I’d like to share my original list of 10 nominees, and also take an opportunity to highlight some of the world’s best digital activists.

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9)Ilya Klishin

Feb26.ru website showing people signed up for the White Circle action

Though blogger Alexei Navalny gets most of the digital activism attentionin Russia these days. Another activist was just as responsible for the March protests that knocked Vladimir Putin back on his heels.

Head of the online resource Epic Hero, Ilya was behind the creation of the first and most influential Facebook group that lead to the big protests as well as the biggest Russian political flashmob “White Circle” (about 20,000 participants, see image left). White Circle allowed people to sign up for the protest via the websitefeb26.rurather than relying on a traditional coordinating committee.

By letting a computer program do the dirty work a major anti-government action took place, yet there were no organizers to arrest. It’s innovators like Ilya that make Russian autocrats sweat.

Real Digital Power: Ramy Raoof

I was a panelist for Newsweek/Daily Beast’s recentDigital Power Index. Though the Revolutionaries group was more representative of nationality, ethnicity, and gender than the rest of the list, I’d like to share my original list of 10 nominees, and also take an opportunity to highlight some of the world’s best digital activists.

– – – – – – –

10)Ramy Raoof

Though former Google Executive Wael Ghonim got most of the digital activism attention in the wake of the Arab Spring, Ramy Raoof is still going strong.Ramy began his digital journey as a bloggerand during the Egyptian Revolution also livestreamed video on Bambuser, postedphotos on Flickr, and livetweeted (@RamyRaoof).He was a one-man broadcast channel for the revolution.

A respected activist online and offline, Ramy manages to bridge the gap between official institutions and street action. He is published widely in English and Arabic and works with large swathes of groups in Egypt and throughout the region.

His is currently at work developing mobile networks to protect demonstrators after they are detained and conducting digital security trainings across Egypt, ensuring there will be lots of digital activists to follow in his footsteps.

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