Danah Boyd

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Danah Boyd

Boyd at the Web 2.0 Conference in 2005
Born November 24, 1977 (1977-11-24) (age 32)
Altoona, Pennsylvania
Nationality American
Occupation Researcher
Known for Sociality, identity and culture in social networks

Danah Michele Boyd (or danah boyd, born Danah Michele Mattas[1][2] in Altoona, Pennsylvania, November 24, 1977[2]), is an American sociological researcher and blogger known for her research and commentary on youth and social networking sites. She has appeared in or been quoted by many media outlets, including NPR,[3] Newsweek,[4]The O'Reilly Factor,[5] The New York Times,[6] and the Financial Times.[7]

[edit] Biography

Boyd grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and Altoona, Pennsylvania,[8] and attended Manheim Township High School from 1992–1996. According to her website, she was born danah michele mattas, "spelled all funky because my mother loved typographical balance."[2] Once she reached college, she chose to change to her maternal grandfather's name, Boyd, as her own last name, and eventually she settled on giving her name as danah boyd, "to reflect my mother's original balancing and to satisfy my own political irritation at the importance of capitalization."[8][1]

Boyd's initial ambition was to become an astronaut, but after an injury, she became more interested in the internet.[8] She has an "attraction to people of different genders," but as stated on her website, identifies as queer rather than lesbian or bi. "I very much attribute my comfortableness with my sexuality to the long nights in high school discussing the topic in IRC."[2]

She initially studied computer science at Brown University where she worked with Andy van Dam, and wrote an undergraduate thesis on how "3-D computer systems used cues that were inherently sexist."[8] She then pursued her Master's degree in sociable media with Judith Donath at the MIT Media Lab. In 1999, she worked for the New York-based V-Day, first as a volunteer and then as paid staff. She eventually moved to San Francisco, California, where she became associated with individuals involved in creating the new Friendster service. She documented what she was observing via her blog, and this grew into a career.

She advanced to Ph.D. candidacy with a designated emphasis in new media at the UC Berkeley School of Information in 2006,[9] with Ph.D. advisors including Peter Lyman (1940–2007) and Mizuko Ito. Her dissertation, "Taken Out of Context: American Teen Sociality in Networked Publics", focuses on the use of large social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace by U.S. teenagers.[10] During the 2006–07 academic year, Boyd was a fellow at the Annenberg Center for Communication at the University of Southern California. She has been a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society since 2007, [11]. In September 2008, Boyd joined Microsoft Research New England, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[12] Boyd is also co-director of the Internet Safety Technical Task Force, a group of Internet businesses, nonprofit organizations, academics and technology companies organized at Harvard University.[13][14] She is also involved with a three-year collaborative ethnographic project funded by the MacArthur Foundation and led by Mimi Ito; the project examined youths' use of technologies through interviews, focus groups, observations, and document analysis.[15][16] Her research culminated in an article in the "MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Learning, Identity Volume" called Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites:The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life.[17] The article focuses on social networks' implications for youth identity. In addition to blogging on her own site, she addresses issues of youth and technology use on the DMLcentral blog.

Boyd has written academic papers and op-ed pieces on online culture,[18] and has spoken at SIGIR, SIGGRAPH, CHI, Etech and the AAAS annual meeting.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Boyd, Danah. "What's in a Name?". danah.org. http://www.danah.org/name.html. Retrieved March 30, 2008. 
  2. ^ a b c d Boyd, Danah. "a bitty autobiography / a smattering of facts". danah.org. http://www.danah.org/aboutme.html. Retrieved November 2, 2008. 
  3. ^ "Teens Create Their Own Space Online". National Public Radio. February 1, 2006. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5182960. Retrieved March 30, 2008. 
  4. ^ "Walking a New Beat: Surfing MySpace.com Helps Cops Crack the Case", Newsweek: p48, April 24, 2006 
  5. ^ Boyd, Danah. "Press and Mainstream Media Appearances". danah.org. http://www.danah.org/press.html. Retrieved March 30, 2008. 
  6. ^ Erard, Michael (November 23, 2003). "Decoding the New Cues in Online Society". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C01E7D6173AF934A15752C1A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all. Retrieved March 30, 2008. 
  7. ^ Bowley, Graham (October 27, 2006). "The High Priestess of Internet Friendship". Financial Times. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/59ab33da-64c4-11db-90fd-0000779e2340.html. Retrieved March 30, 2008. 
  8. ^ a b c d Debelle, Penelope (August 4, 2007). "A space of her own - Encounter with Danah Boyd". The Age. 
  9. ^ Kopytoff, Verne (April 25, 2004). "One-Stop Way to Read News, Blogs Online: RSS Allows Users to Get Free, Automatic Feeds". San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/10/25/BUG1U9ES301.DTL&type=business. Retrieved March 30, 2008. 
  10. ^ "Taken Out of Context -- my PhD dissertation". zephoria.org. January 18, 2009. http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2009/01/18/taken_out_of_co.html. 
  11. ^ Boyd, Danah (July 23, 2007). "Berkman Fellowship". http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2007/07/23/berkman_fellows.html. Retrieved July 23, 2007. 
  12. ^ McCarthy, Caroline (September 22, 2008). "Microsoft hires social-net scholar Danah Boyd". CNET. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10047795-36.html. Retrieved January 12, 2009. 
  13. ^ "Internet Safety Technical Task Force Members". Berkman Center for Internet & Society. Harvard University. http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/research/isttf/members. Retrieved January 9, 2009. 
  14. ^ Sullivan, Julie (December 17, 2008). "Teens' use of online porn can lead to addiction". The Oregonian. http://www.oregonlive.com/health/index.ssf/2008/12/teens_use_of_online_porn_can_l.html. Retrieved January 9, 2009. 
  15. ^ "MacArthur Foundation Project Summary". http://digitallearning.macfound.org/site/c.enJLKQNlFiG/b.4773555/k.27DE/Mizuko_Ito.htm. Retrieved January 9, 2009. 
  16. ^ "Final Report". The Digital Youth Project. http://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu/report. Retrieved January 9, 2009. 
  17. ^ boyd, danah. (in press) “Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life.” MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Learning, Identity Volume (ed. David Buckingham).
  18. ^ Shirky, Clay (February 28, 2008). Here Comes Everybody. Penguin Group. pp. pp 224–5. ISBN 978-1-59420-153-0. 

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