danah boyd

I feel honored to have an excuse to learn from you and @karenlevy.bsky.social !!! I feel like a kid in a candy store.

Haha. They DID try to convince me to go singular, but the people at the Census Bureau would lose their bloody minds if I published a book titled "data is." And I'm too much of an ethnographer not to embrace their emic language.

Join us on Monday November 3 at 7pm ET for a Peoples & Things livestream featuring Cory Doctorow @pluralistic.net.web.brid.gy on his book, _Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It_, with special guest host @zephoria.bsky.social!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjFv...

OMG OMG OMG. I handed in my upcoming book on the census - "Data Are Made, Not Found: A Story of Politics, Power, and the Civil Servants Who Saved the US Census." Now, the fine folks at the University of Chicago Press will begin the march towards production (September 2026). OMG OMG OMG.

How I Became a Populist My time at the Federal Trade Commission—before Donald Trump fired me—totally changed the way I see our political divide.

I can't stop thinking about @bedoyausa.bsky.social's essay this week. It is a story-forward account of why the American people are struggling. (Hint: political economy.) It's the kind of account that makes an ethnographer swoon. I can't recommend this enough: newrepublic.com/article/2011...

Today is one of those days where I can’t stop thinking about Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron.” I invite you to (re)read it. archive.org/stream/Harri...

I’m so grateful for the committee who recognized our paper, which was a wonderful collaboration with @cyberlyra.bsky.social marrying insights from two in-depth ethnographic projects to examine how time and money are weaponized for political agendas in govt.

The sociotechnical team at MSR is amaaaazing. I’m sad to be leaving but I really hope some amazing researcher gets to work with them. Check out this fabulous job opportunity:

YouTube video by AI for All Tomorrows Is AI Inevitable? with danah boyd

"Is AI inevitable?" was a fun podcast convo on "AI for All Tomorrows." Check it out: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l5g...

35 Years for Privacy, Free Speech, and a Brighter Future Through July 10, new monthly or annual Sustaining Donors get an EFF35 Challenge Coin! With your help, EFF is here to stay.

EFF is 35! 🎉
We've spent three+ decades defending your rights online—and we're not slowing down:

Incredible. I never thought I would see a poster session as protest. 💪

I did this interview back in November. It's so so so weird to read it now. Especially the stuff about US politics. But hopefully the other parts are helpful to junior researchers. www.journalofculturaleconomy.org/a-sociology-...

#ica25 folks: @zephoria.bsky.social and I are gearing up for the No Kings protest on Sat! It’s 10min walk from the venue. Bring water, sunscreen, phone chargers: it’s gonna be HOT. Join us!!!

I too am a fan for this kind of geekery.

MouseWatcher : Disney Dining Alerts Disney dining alerts for Walt Disney World and Disneyland restaurants. Includes 'Ohana, Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, Cinderella's Royal Table, Blue Bayou, Space 220 and more!

I was actually surprised by how enjoyable Disney was on the ground but it’s definitely true that there’s a game to it. I ended up embracing the game. I failed at the restaurants in pre-plan but this let me get to most of them: mousewatcher.com

YouTube video by Defunctland Disney's FastPass: A Complicated History

Do you mean the defunct land one? youtu.be/9yjZpBq1XBE?... This gave me such geeky joy.

Blitzscaling for tyrants The lightning-fast path to tearing down due process

Blitzscaling is one of those things that disturbs me (starting w/the Nazi bombing reference). Things that scale like that are usually cancerous. @himself.bsky.social offers a great take on how DOGE is taking the worst lessons from blitzscaling. www.programmablemutter.com/p/blitzscali...

When I showed this to my historian friend, his first remark was "the Great Lakes region would have aligned with Canada." I love historians.

Definitely all evil, terrible, no good technologies!

Ooh - that's a good one! And let's be honest - electricity is at the root of both of our evils. <grin>

When someone says "technology broke people's relationship to nature," which technology do you blame? Apparently, I'm a weirdo for thinking "air conditioning" is the right answer. Le sigh.

Time Traveler from 2051 reveals unexpected grim future #igorkryan #timetraveler #grimfuture #americacollapse TikTok video by Igor Kryan

Well this is a powerful but depressing take of how “America” dissolves. www.tiktok.com/t/ZTju4YLFC/

Extracting memorized pieces of (copyrighted) books from open-weight language models Plaintiffs and defendants in copyright lawsuits over generative AI often make sweeping, opposing claims about the extent to which large language models (LLMs) have memorized plaintiffs' protected expr...

Llama 3.1 70B contains copies of nearly the entirety of some books. Harry Potter is just one of them. I don’t know if this means it’s an infringing copy. But the first question to answer is if it’s a copy at all/in the first place. That’s what our new results suggest:

arxiv.org/abs/2505.12546

Bwahaha. I love how the 5yo in this scenario has no opinion re: the bday party. Oh how dreamy it would be to throw a kiddo bday party w/o last min changes of themes, invite lists, cake flavors. I feel like kiddo bday parties are a test to see who cries first: kid or parent.

Extracting memorized pieces of (copyrighted) books from open-weight language models Plaintiffs and defendants in copyright lawsuits over generative AI often make sweeping, opposing claims about the extent to which large language models (LLMs) have memorized plaintiffs' protected expr...

I shouldn't be surprised that Meta's "open source" AI models are not only built on thieving but also happy to cough up what they stole. But seriously? arxiv.org/abs/2505.12546

The Atlantic’s 2025 Summer Reading Guide is here. Our writers and editors have selected 24 books to read this season. Megan Garber chose “The Known Citizen” as one of four titles you’ll read all summer. https://theatln.tc/7PAJ3Hgh

YouTube video by The Unusual Suspect Eminem - LOSE YOURSELF (Sung by 331 Movies!)

I interrupt your political discussions with some seriously good remixing that reminds me of the aughts. youtu.be/xYtaBfwpg_k?...

Stop KOSA KOSA is a censorship bill that won’t make kids safe. Instead, it'll put all internet users at risk, especially youth. If you believe in a free and open internet, tell your lawmakers to reject #KOSA!

KOSA is being reintroduced today.

It's always been a dangerous censorship bill.

But in this environment, with Trump weaponizing every aspect of the Federal government to suppress speech he doesn't like, KOSA is a catastrophic attack on human rights.

We have to stop it.

StopKOSA.com

My ongoing request:

If your NSF or NIH grant was terminated--whether at Harvard or elsewhere--please report it here.

NSF: grant-watch.us/submit-nsf.h...

NIH: grant-watch.us/submit-nih.h...

Our trackers are actively used in lawsuits and are often the only record that terminations ever occurred.