Tag: danah boyd

Christian Borges’ Fave 5 for SMW NYC

Posted on by Sara Adam

Christian Borges, a leader in the world of marketing, has led a impressive career focused on  reputation and social media strategies that help brands connect with customers wherever they are. Christian is the currently the Senior Vice President of Marketing at true[X] media, a company that helps brands increase engagement and capture the true attention of their customers. We are really excited that he will be joining us for Social Media Week again this year — so, we asked him to share with us some of his favorite events in our lineup this year.

In his words:

First, let me say that boiling down this year’s list of scheduled sessions down to a Top Fave 5 was no easy task. Seriously. This year’s list of topics seemingly takes the SMW NYC experience to the next level, both with regards to relevant, meaningful content and knowledgeable expert speakers. Excited as always to be a part of it!

My Fave Five:

  1. Masterclass: Impulse Response, A Strategic Approach to Algorithmic Encounters
    Wait – I get the chance to learn and interact with the NYTimes R&D Lab and learn about movement tracking and facial recognition, etc.? The Future of Now, damn straight!
  2. Masterclass: Building Wearables: A Hands-On Intro to Open-Source Interaction Platforms
    I’m both personally and professionally obsessed with all things #wearabletech, and see this vertical as one of the key drivers of data and intelligence for marketers in the very near future.
  3. The Future of Social Music, Presented by Spotify
    Music and advertising have forever been linked. In the past few years, music consumption has experienced such a drastic and aggressive transformation with the explosion of streaming music services such as iTunes, Pandora, Spotify, and the newly launched Beats (amongst many others). Where’s it all going?
  4. It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens, a Conversation with Author danah boyd and Andrew Rasiej
    I am a HUGE fan of dana boyd, one of the preeminent experts and researchers on all-things related to privacy and youth-culture. Now more than ever, as a father of two little men, her words of data-driven intelligence and insight resonate with me more than ever before. When danah speaks, I listen.
  5. Man vs. Machine: Advertising’s Epic Battle for Human Attention
    How can brands and agencies compete in an attention-driven economy? Joe Marchese has a vision: less advertising that delivers more powerful storytelling for greater effectiveness. If you can’t handle the truth, don’t come to this session.

Honorable Mention:
The Changing Face of News Consumption, Hosted by WSJ
The past few months has seen the launch of such renegade news outlets as The Information, The Ozy, and even re/code. Couple that with the likes of Circa, Pulse, Flipboard – the shift in news consumption has in fact become the news.

Social Media Week, February 17-21, is fast-approaching so register now! Christian said it himself- choosing just five is hard! So make sure to check out the amazing lineup of other events that you won’t want to miss!

Privacy and Publicity in Social Media: It’s Complicated!

Posted on by Sara Adam

Moving life onto the web has only added new platforms for life’s complexities to manifest themselves, each platform with its own language and nuances. Facebook documents our lives and immortalizes our words and photographs (often to our future regret), juxtaposing digital permanence with human temporality. This creates new questions, like what to do with the profile of friends who have died or whether we should “defriend” exes?

We craft identities for ourselves using Facebook from the “stories” we allow to live on our walls and the information we share publicly. It often feels that people no longer value privacy when we read posts that can only be described by the acronym TMI.

danah boyd, Senior Researcher at Microsoft and ethnographer of the internet, researches publicity and privacy online, especially in teens. danah’s curiosity was piqued, when she read about a teen who was frustrated that her mother was accessing her LiveJournal, though it was publicly available. This teen’s seemingly contradictory frustration makes much more sense through danah’s definition of privacy as having control over a situation and how it will be interpreted.

In-person conversations are by default, private, and require effort to be made public. Online interactions are the opposite. All interactions are recorded permanently, publicized, and are typically only made private after being posted. With this definition of privacy as control, teens are fiercely private, but often lack the agency to publicize and privatize material as they choose. They want to participate in the public space, but in ways that they can control and manage. It can often be easier to condemn the behavior of teens than to understand it, but danah’s research illuminates that today’s teens aren’t really behaving much differently than previous generations.

danah is joining us at Social Media Week with Andrew Rasiej, founder of Personal Democracy Forum to share her research on teens and her recent book, It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens. Additionally, she will be discussing public and private space as it relates to big data.

Make sure you don’t miss the chance to hear from danah by getting your pass to SMW NYC here!

Featured image courtesy of personaldemocracy.

6 Ways for Marketers to Understand Millennials this Social Media Week

Posted on by Nicky Yates

Ok, New York, you’re stuck indoors with yet another snowstorm this winter, and we know what you’re up to. You’re feeding those guilty pleasures: those preferences on Netflix you never want anyone to see. Well, as much as we might hate to admit it, what we’re seeing on Hulu and other platforms is largely shaped by the generation coming behind us. There’s a reason Party in the South is debuting. And this is exciting.

Millennials are shaping our future, and we need to understand this. Everything from our recreational options to innovation in industries like health, you either gotta keep up or get out of the way. And we want to help you keep up:

  1. 5 Ways Millennials’ Habits Are Changing How Content is Made and Shared
    The first step is to admit you need a deeper understanding. So, we recommend starting out SMW14 with Complex Media and their friends to learn how the Millennial generation’s habits are causing a speedy shift in how content is created and distributed. From the discovery of new talent and Vine stars to the ever present listicle, you’ll need a deeper understanding of this generation to get your marketing on track.
  2. How To Build a Brand That People Don’t Buy, They Join
    The millennial generation is the most cause-oriented generation since World War II. So, how do you get them to buy into your brand with a movement? That’s exactly what Zady, charity: water, and Whole Foods have managed to master. Join them to hear more and take away from their case studies ways your brand can become more connected to our passionate generation.
  3. Fueling Social Fandom at MTV, VH1 and Comedy Central
    Once you understand millennials better, it’s time to look to those who serve them best. Comedy Central has the market cornered currently, and MTV was once king of youth. But for both, this demographic is key. The two have quite a bit they can share and learn from each. So, we’re putting them together with VH1 to highlight how you can keep your fan base engaged, drawing from their own examples in everything from online to apps. You can’t miss this session. (Don’t believe us? Comedy Central’s past event on How To Be Funny in 140 Characters was in such high demand that we had to repeat it last year!)

  4. It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens, a Conversation with Author danah boyd and Andrew Rasiej
    Now, it’s time to get advanced. Without contest, few understand youth better than Microsoft Researcher danah boyd. She’s written about what’s new in how teenagers communicate through platforms, and specifically how social media affects the quality of teens’ lives. And at SMW14, she’ll be sharing her findings on identity, privacy, safety, danger, and bullying. Anyone working with youth and millennials will need to stop in and check on danah.
  5. Reading Is No Longer Fundamental: The Shift to Visual Vocabulary
    Our streams are flooded with gifs, Instagram, emojis, and bitstrips. We’re moving to a very visual marketing period, and it’s driven by millennials. “Visual” is a new language that needs to be mastered. As we look to the future, we have to ask: Is this a new era for cross-cultural communication, or is it changing the way we think – and not for the better? JWT leads a group of experts to really look at this impact, particularly in commerce.
  6. The Future of Now: Health Innovation Track, Sponsored by Merck
    And while we’re talking about movements, no generation was more supportive of health innovation than millennials. They are now turning away from politics to find other ways they can create innovation in the healthcare industry. That’s something Merck knows a thing or two about. Value-creation in the healthcare arena is now inextricably connected to digital and social technology. In this special three-hour track, we’ll explore how health is innovating and what’s to come in the future.

Registration is open! Get your pass today here, and join us and our partners, Nokia for what will be an extraordinary week of exploring our always on, always connected world.

What You Really Need To Know About Privacy on Facebook (Infographic)

Posted on by Nicky Yates

With the scope of NSA surveillance unveiled and an focus on curbing digital abuse, taking a good look at our privacy and security is increasingly common. With Facebook remaining the lad for American user engagement for a SINGLE web site (it rakes in around 6.75 hours per user per month — which seems a bit low to most of us…), do we really know what we need to about our privacy on the site? We spend a considerable amount of time there, and that means we’re revealing info to the company and their partners — and to people we may not even realize have access.

This is a topic we’ll be looking at during SMW14, particularly in regard to teens. We’re bringing in researcher and expert danah boyd to open up the conversation. danah’s research focuses on the intersection of technology, society, and policy. For the last decade, she has examined how American youth incorporate social media into their daily practices in light of different fears and anxieties that the public has about young people’s engagement with technologies.

So, before you join us and danah for a deeper look in February, here are some stats and some recommendations to keep you safe and get you started.

Facebook Privacy
Source: BestComputerScienceSchools.net