Report on Activities 2016–2017 Data & Society is a research institute focused on the social and cultural issues arising from data-centric technological development.
2016–2017 About Data & Society
In the 2016-17 year, Data & Society enjoyed a We are delighted to watch our research mature period of rapid growth, expansion, and evolution and our network grow. Data & Society conducts research and in all areas of our work. We are profoundly grateful Over this year, as we watched our field deepen to all the supporters, advisors, and partners who and expand, we also recognized the need to builds the field of actors in order to ensure have allowed us to fulfill our research and bridge and translate between our work and new field-building mission. communities and sectors. Expect more details that knowledge guides debate about the This report represents a short moment of regarding our commitment to engagement reflection on the incredible momentum we have work in the year to come. implications of data-centric and automated generated together. Our increasing reputation for established This report represents a short moment technologies as these intersect with people, expertise gave us the opportunity to advance the public conversation about the many potential of reflection on the incredible momentum organizations, cultural norms, and society. solutions and potential harms springing from complex sociotechnical developments. Just a few we have generated together. notable developments from this year include: This report presents an overview of institutional highlights from the fiscal year The Board, advisors, and staff of Data & Society spanning from May 2016 to May 2017. • Formalizing two new research initiatives, graciously thank our funders and partners for the Future of Labor and Media Manipulation/ their continued support. Looking forward, Disinformation, and bringing coherence and we will continue to foster research that provides complementary research streams to our broader new frames for the evolving public debates around theme of accountability in algorithmic systems; topics such as disinformation in media, the human elements of AI, and the emerging field • Advancing our field-building work strategically of precision medicine. through increasing the value and depth of our Thanks to our supporters and allies, we can fellowship program; continue to produce original research that grounds • Convening experts in diverse fields including informed, evidence-based public debate while computer science, biohacking, edtech, artificial cultivating a unique network of researchers and intelligence, accountability, online trolling, practitioners ready to anticipate great challenges conceptual art, and journalism; with vivid insight and direction. • Strengthening our organizational management structures, human resources capacity, governance, and funding; • Strengthening our communications and engagement capacity, with researchers and recent fellows speaking in major public fora from SXSW to the Sage Bionetworks Assembly—and publishing multiple op-eds in the New York Times and Harvard Business Review.
2 Data & Society Report on Activities 2016–2017 3 Research Field-Building
Data, Human Rights, and 7 How Youth Navigate the 16 Privacy and Low-SES Populations 20 Human Security News Landscape Fairness in Precision Medicine 21 Intelligence and Autonomy 8 Measuring Cyberstalking and 17 Digital Domestic Abuse Across Fairness, Accountability, 22 Algorithms and Publics 9 the Lifespan and Transparency in Machine Learning (FATML) 10 Media Manipulation Libraries and Privacy 18 Data Ethics for Computational 22 12 Future of Labor Reframing Privacy 19 Research Enabling Connected Learning 14
Research Initiative Research Project Upcoming Research Creative Practices
Rich connections between our themes 7 16 20 and research-based art practices 23
Thanks
Programs Fellowships People Supporters
Small Group Sessions • Weekly Wednesdays • Meet the 2016–2017 class of Board • Staff • Researchers • Databites • Workshops and Conferences 24 Data & Society Fellows 32 Advisors • Affiliates 38 48
4 Data & Society Report on Activities 2016–2017 5 Research Research Initiative Data, Human Rights, and Human Security
Leiden University, and the International Data Background Responsibility Group on the privacy implications of Research at Data & Society is shaped by Data can provide real-time awareness technology use by Syrian refugees in Greece. about disaster, violence, or protest. cross-cutting themes: Featured Outputs Yet practitioners, researchers, and Tech Companies Should Speak Up for Refugees, Automation Not Only High-Skilled Immigrants From social implications of automation to manipulation of algorithmic systems, policymakers face unique challenges many of our research efforts track and inform broader conversations about how data- and opportunities when assessing HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW, 16 MAY, 2017 driven systems, automation, and machine intelligence impact people and society. technological benefit, risk, and harm. AUTHOR: MARK LATONERO
Accountability The Data, Human Rights, and Human Who should be accountable? Accountable to whom? Understanding how powerful, Tech folk: ‘Move fast and break things’ doesn’t work technological systems can be governed is a core concern that shapes many of Security initiative asks: How can these when lives are at stake our research efforts. technologies be used responsibly to THE GUARDIAN, 2 FEBRUARY, 2017 AUTHORS: KEITH HIATT, MICHAEL KLEINMAN, MARK LATONERO Values and Ethics assist people in need, prevent abuse,
Concern about what is ethical, just, and appropriate influences how our different and protect them from harm? research efforts approach trade-offs, conflicting values, and social implications. Victims Are Not Virtual: Situation assessment of Notably, many initiatives focus on privacy, social justice, and equity and fairness. online child sexual exploitation in South Asia Team What follows is a high-level overview of our larger research projects that either UNICEF PAPER, 30 NOVEMBER, 2016 Mark Latonero launched, or were strengthened and expanded over the 2016–17 fiscal year. AUTHORS: MARK LATONERO, MONICA BULGER, BRONWYN WEX, For a full range of outputs over the course of 2016–17, please visit our website EMMA DAY, KAPIL ARYAL, MARIYA ALI, KEITH HIATT (www.datasociety.net). Project Human Rights, Data, and Migration An App to Save Syria’s Lost Generation? As data-driven technologies and digital ecosystems FOREIGN AFFAIRS, 23 MAY, 2016 Research Initiative Upcoming Research increasingly intersect with migrants, refugees, and AUTHOR: MARK LATONERO Data, Human Rights, and Human Security 7 Privacy and Low-SES Populations 20 the displaced, what are the social impacts, consequences, Intelligence and Autonomy 8 Fairness in Precision Medicine 21 and tradeoffs? This project bridges the knowledge gap Algorithms and Publics 9 Fairness, Accountability, and 22 surrounding technological interventions, and addresses Featured Talks Media Manipulation 10 Transparency in Machine Learning a diverse set of themes—movement, economic inclusion, Fighting for Freedom: The Search for Weapons Future of Labor 12 (FATML) integration, asylum, identification, information seeking, and Warriors to End Slavery in Supply Chains Enabling Connected Learning 14 Data Ethics for Computational Research 22 rights, health, and social support. In early 2017, researcher Mark Latonero presented Data Responsibility: Helping Refugees Research Project at the International Data Responsibility Group Annual in a Digital Age How Youth Navigate the News Landscape 16 Conference at The Hague, the Tech and Human Rights RIGHTSCON, BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 30–31 MARCH, 2017 Measuring Cyberstalking and Digital 17 Conference at Grinnell College, and at RightsCon in SPEAKER: MARK LATONERO Domestic Abuse Across the Lifespan Brussels, where he spoke on panels “Tech and Slavery Libraries and Privacy 18 in Global Chains” and “Private Sector Data and the Reframing Privacy 19 Refugee Crisis.” The project’s next output is a report in collaboration with Harvard Humanitarian Initiative,
6 Data & Society Report on Activities 2016–2017 7 Research Initiative Research Initiative Intelligence Algorithms and and Autonomy Publics
Background Background Upcoming Research When Media Companies Insist They’re Not The Intelligence and Autonomy The Algorithms and Publics Media Companies and Why It Matters for Mapping Human Communications Policy initiative develops grounded, initiative maps how the public sphere Infrastructures of AI SSRN, 18 MARCH, 2016 qualitative research to inform the is currently understood, controlled, AUTHORS: PHILIP M. NAPOLI, ROBYN CAPLAN design, evaluation, and regulation Background and manipulated in order to spark of AI-driven systems. Mapping Human Infrastructures of AI is a a richer conversation about what Related Project series of ethnographically-informed studies of Platform Accountability intelligent systems in which human labor plays interventions should be considered to Team an integral part, and will explore how and why support the ideal of an informed The Platform Accountability project explores how the constitutive human elements of artificial the concept of the “public interest” in media policy Madeleine Clare Elish and engaged citizenry. intelligence are often obscured or rendered has been reconfigured through algorithmic and Tim Hwang invisible. The research will produce empirical data-driven technologies currently underpinning work examining these dynamics in order to fa- news media production, consumption, and distri- Team cilitate the creation of effective regulation and bution. Outputs address emerging governance, ethical design considerations across domains. Robyn Caplan Lauren Hanson design, and policy issues for platforms and technol- ogy companies such as the potential tradeoffs of regulating or removing problematic content, Team Featured Output and the implications of designating social media Madeleine Clare Elish Facebook Must Acknowledge and Change platforms and online content aggregators as Its Financial Incentives “media companies.”
THE NEW YORK TIMES, 22 NOVEMBER, 2016 See the Media Manipulation initiative (next page) AUTHOR: ROBYN CAPLAN for more on these themes. Featured Book An AI Pattern Language
DATA & SOCIETY, 29 SEPTEMBER, 2016 AUTHORS: MADELEINE CLARE ELISH, TIM HWANG
Published by Data & Society in September 2016 as a book and complimentary dynamic microsite, An AI Pattern Language presents a taxonomy of social challenges emerging from interviews with a range of practitioners working in the intelligent systems and AI industry. Authors Madeleine Clare Elish and Tim Hwang describe these challenges and articulate an array of patterns (from “Show the Man Behind the Curtain,” to “Establish a Catch and Release Data Pattern”) that practitioners developed in response.
For more information on the January 2017 launch of this initiative, see page 27. Illustrations by Sarah Nicholls Postdoctoral Scholar Caroline Jack (left) and Researcher Robyn Caplan (right)
8 Data & Society Report on Activities 2016–2017 9 Research Initiative Featured Outputs—Essays In January 2017, the Data & Society Medium blog, Points, published six essays responding to key Media questions in the battle for the public sphere:
Manipulation • Hacking the Attention Economy, Did Media Literacy Backfire?, and Why America is Self-Segregating by danah boyd • How do you deal with a problem like “fake news?” by Robyn Caplan Background Featured Report • Are There Limits to Online Free Speech? The Media Manipulation initiative In May 2017, Data & Society published by Alice Marwick “Media Manipulation and Disinformation Online” • What’s Propaganda Got To Do With It? works to provide news organizations, by Fellow Alice Marwick and Researcher by Caroline Jack Rebecca Lewis. civil society, platforms, and policy- These pieces grappled with timely questions such makers with insights into new forms as how media consumers decide which sources to trust, who decides what information is “real,” of media manipulation to ensure what makes a story “propaganda,” why consumers a close and informed relationship of information are so polarized, and the tensions between curtailing harassment and protecting between technical research and free speech. socio-political outcomes. This re- quires assessing strategic manipula- What They Said on Twitter tion, imagining the possibilities for encoding fairness and accountability This is a really big deal for trustworthy and into technical systems, and con- good faith journalism ducting ethnographic research to CRAIG NEWMARK FOUNDER, CRAIGSLIST AND THE CRAIG NEWMARK FOUNDATION describe and understand new social activity. Essential: “Media Manipulation” report from @alicetiara and D&S. Its a superb document, carefully researched, and frighteningly relevant Team TARLETON GILLESPIE danah boyd Becca Lewis PRINCIPAL RESEARCHER, MICROSOFT RESEARCH Patrick Davison Alice Marwick “Media Manipulation” was cited in the New York NEW ENGLAND Caroline Jack Times, Mashable, BoingBoing, and in an appear- ance by Alice Marwick on the Guardian’s tech podcast. It inspired op-eds by report co-authors Media Manipulation + Disinformation in Columbia Journalism Review and New York Online-report from @datasociety w/ a syllabus. Magazine’s Select/All. Research comms at its finest The report was included in the newsletters and SIERRA WILLIAMS on the websites of Nieman Lab, the American Press COMMUNITY MANAGER, PEERJ Institute, International Journalists’ Network, the Global Investigative Journalism Network, Media- Shift, and the National Press Association of Chile, read. with a pre-arranged Spanish translation of the executive summary. TOOMAS HENDRIK ILVES FORMER PRESIDENT OF ESTONIA Illustrations by Jim Cooke
10 Data & Society Report on Activities 2016–2017 11 Research Initiative “These platforms seem to benefit people earning supplementary income or those lacking other job opportunities the most, while they Future of Labor impose the most risk on full-time earners.”
ALEX ROSENBLAT, HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW
Background Project The Taking Economy: What Motivates Gig Economy Workers As on-demand business models bring practices Uber, Information, and Power HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW, 17 NOVEMBER, 2016 Technology is disrupting, like algorithmic management and on-demand SSRN, 7 MARCH, 2017 AUTHOR: ALEX ROSENBLAT destabilizing, and transforming scheduling into new areas of work, the Mapping AUTHORS: RYAN CALO, ALEX ROSENBLAT Inequalities Across the On-Demand Economy many aspects of the labor force. project contributes a more refined understanding Discriminating Tastes: of the ways that on-demand work shapes workers’ The Future of Labor initiative seeks Customer Ratings as Vehicles for Bias to better understand emergent lives by producing a detailed map of the spectrum of “gig economy” workers, as well as the business SSRN, 19 OCTOBER, 2016 disruptions in the labor force as a models affecting them. AUTHORS: ALEX ROSENBLAT, KAREN LEVY, result of data-centric technological SOLON BAROCAS, TIM HWANG development, with a special focus Featured Outputs Best Paper Prize, 2016 Internet, Policy & Politics Conference at Oxford Internet Institute, Our researchers are gaining visibility as experts University of Oxford on structural inequalities. in the public discourse. In the past year, Data & Society emerged as a key source for media outlets reporting on how technology continues to shape Team changes in the workplace. Alexandra Mateescu In March 2017, researcher Alex Rosenblat’s Alex Rosenblat co-authored paper The Taking Economy: Uber, Julia Ticona Information, and Power shot directly to SSRN’s Weekly Top 5 list. She was then quoted in How Illustration by Alexandra Mateescu Uber Uses Psychological Tricks to Push Its Drivers’ Buttons (The New York Times, April 2, 2017), and spoke to the New York Times’ editorial board on deep background for their op-ed The Gig Economy’s False Promise (April 10, 2017).
See Programs: Workshops and Conferences for an overview of our Work, Labor and Automation workshop (January 23, 2017).
Research Analyst Alexandra Mateescu
12 Data & Society Report on Activities 2016–2017 13 Research Initiative Enabling Connected Learning
Background Upcoming Research Team What is the value of data in education Data & Equity in School Choice Claire Fontaine and learning? The Enabling Connected
Learning (ECL) initiative assesses Background Featured Outputs how existing and proposed policies The Data and Equity in School Choice project Driving School Choice: By positioning public aims to better understand whether, and in what education as a commodity, “school choice” affect connected learning initiatives, ways, and to what ends, parents and youth risks re-entrenching segregation and where and when education-related draw on publicly available school performance DATA & SOCIETY, POINTS, 20 APRIL, 2017 data when making decisions about where to AUTHOR: CLAIRE FONTAINE data can and should be used. apply and enroll.
Team Monica Bulger Claire Fontaine The Legacy of inBloom
Featured Output The ECL team at Data & Society published a suite The Legacy of inBloom of Medium posts to coincide with the release of their working paper, which used interviews and research DATA & SOCIETY WORKING PAPER, 2 FEBRUARY, 2017 to trace the closure of inBloom, an ed-tech initiative AUTHORS: MONICA BULGER, PATRICK MCCORMICK, that aimed to improve American schools by providing MIKAELA PITCAN a centralized platform for data sharing, learning apps, and curricula:
• inBloom: Analyzing the Past to Navigate the Future by Brenda K Leong and Amelia Vance • The inBloom Legacy by Olga Garcia-Kaplan • inBloom — Data, Privacy, and the Conversations We Could Have Had by Bill Fitzgerald • Rationalizing Those “Irrational” Fears of inBloom by Audrey Watters • inBloom’s collapse undermined personalized learning and data standards efforts by danah boyd
Left to right: Fellow Alice Marwick with Researchers Monica Bulger and Claire Fontaine
14 Data & Society Report on Activities 2016–2017 15 Research Project Research Project
How Youth Featured Press Measuring Cyberstalking and A rise in critical skills for sharing news online Navigate the CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, 30 APRIL, 2017 Digital Domestic Abuse Across News Landscape AUTHORS: THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR EDITORIAL BOARD the Lifespan
Background Background Online Harassment, Digital Abuse, Supported by the John S. and James Led by Amanda Lenhart and Michele and Cyberstalking in America L. Knight Foundation, this report Ybarra of the Center for Innovative DATA & SOCIETY, 21 NOVEMBER, 2016 AUTHORS: AMANDA LENHART, MICHELE YBARRA, explored how young people use mobile Public Health Research, this Data & KATHRYN ZICKUHR, MYESHIA PRICE-FEENY devices, messaging apps, and social Society project conducted a nationally Co-produced with the Center for Innovative Public Health media to consume breaking news. representative landline and mobile Research, this report offered the most comprehensive picture to date of Americans’ experiences with online The co-authors found that American phone survey of 3,000 Americans harassment and abuse, finding that most U.S. internet teens and young adults express low ages 15 years and older to quantify users have witnessed online harassment, and almost half have personally experienced it. levels of trust in the news media and the prevalence of online harassment, use a variety of strategies to confirm, cyberstalking, and digital domestic Related Project verify, and clarify the stories they violence. Recognizing that witnessing Best Practices for Conducting Risky Research care about. The report was based abuse can also have a negative impact, DATA & SOCIETY, 18 OCTOBER, 2016 on findings from six exploratory the researchers further investigated AUTHORS: ALICE MARWICK, LINDSAY BLACKWELL, ALICE LO How young adults define ‘news’: 7 good questions This practitioner guide shared best practices focus groups with 52 teenagers and with Data & Society’s Mary Madden the extent to which people witness young adults in three U.S. cities: others’ abusive behavior online. for researchers—especially junior researchers— AMERICAN PRESS INSTITUTE, 14 APRIL, 2017 who wish to engage in research that may Philadelphia, Chicago, and Charlotte. AUTHOR: LAURIE BETH HARRIS make them susceptible to online harassment. The authors provided recommendations Team for academic institutions, supervisors, and Team Amanda Lenhart individuals, including cyber-security guidelines and links to other resources. Claire Fontaine Amanda Lenhart Featured Outputs Mary Madden Nonconsensual Image Sharing
DATA & SOCIETY, 16 DECEMBER, 2016 Related Press Featured Report AUTHORS: AMANDA LENHART, MICHELE YBARRA, How to Handle Revenge Porn How Youth Navigate the News Landscape MYESHIA PRICE-FEENY MARY MADDEN TEEN VOGUE, 16 MARCH, 2017 DATA & SOCIETY, MARCH 1, 2017 Co-produced with the Center for Innovative Public Health AUTHOR: LILY PUCKETT AUTHORS: MARY MADDEN, AMANDA LENHART, Research, this report offered the first national statistics CLAIRE FONTAINE on the prevalence of nonconsensual pornography, also known as “revenge porn.” The study found that 4% of For Young People, News Is Mobile, Social, Why Can’t Silicon Valley Fix Online Harassment? U.S. internet users—roughly 10.4 million Americans— and Hard to Trust, Studies Find have been threatened with or experienced the posting NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE, 4 APRIL, 2017 EDUCATION WEEK, 8 MARCH, 2017 of explicit images without their consent. AUTHOR: JENNA WORTHAM AUTHOR: BENJAMIN HEROLD
16 Data & Society Report on Activities 2016–2017 17 Research Project Research Projects Libraries and Privacy Reframing Privacy
Background Featured Book Background is understood in a networked society, Libraries and Privacy is a suite of Protecting Patron Privacy Reframing Privacy was a study to and the ways in which control is projects exploring the roles of libraries ROMAN & LITTLE FIELD, 19 MAY, 2017 better understand the language and complicated by the networked nature AUTHORS: BONNIE TIJERINA, BOBBI NEWMAN in supporting their communities with framing of privacy issues by low-so- of information. Published in May 2017, Protecting Patron Privacy regard to data-centric technological is an authoritative Library Information Technology cioeconomic status youth who may development. Topics include privacy Association (LITA) Guide edited by Bobbi Newman not use the terms or the rubrics of Team and Bonnie Tijerina. The book covers topics including danah boyd Karen Levy library data collection, retention, use, and protection; in libraries, facilitating safe research mainstream debates, and to generate Claire Fontaine Alice Marwick data sharing worldwide, and new and in-house tools such as social network sites, empirical data about cultural frames surveillance video, and RFID. roles for librarians as data scientists. and expectations in order to build Featured Output Initially supported by the Knight more effective policies, technologies, “Nobody Sees It, Nobody Gets Mad”: Social Media, Privacy, and Personal Responsibility Among Prototype Fund, and with continuing and educational interventions. Low-SES Youth funding from the Institute of Museum Relatedly, the Privacy and Harm in SOCIAL MEDIA + SOCIETY, 30 MAY, 2017 and Library Services, the Digital a Networked Society project aimed AUTHORS: ALICE MARWICK, CLAIRE FONTAINE, DANAH BOYD Privacy & Data Literacy project will to better understand how privacy continue its work by training 600+ information and library professionals in the New York metropolitan area.
Team Bonnie Tijerina
Founder and President danah boyd and Data & Society Afiliate Solon Barocas
18 Data & Society Report on Activities 2016–2017 19 Upcoming Research Upcoming Research Privacy and Low-SES Fairness in Populations Precision Medicine
Background Team This project includes a soon-to-be- Mary Madden released nationally representative Featured Output survey of the digital privacy and The Class Differential in Big Data and Privacy information security-related Vulnerability practices of low socioeconomic UNDER REVIEW/FORTHCOMING, 6 OCTOBER, 2016 status American adults. AUTHORS: MICHELE GILMAN, KAREN LEVY, MARY MADDEN, ALICE E. MARWICK
Postdoctoral Scholar Kadija Ferryman
Background Featured Talk Researcher Kadija Ferryman was invited to give the “Precision medicine” is a growing field keynote address at the April 2017 meeting of Sage that aims to use multiple data sources Bionetworks Assembly, a key gathering on open innovation in science and the acceleration of health to tailor medical care to individuals. research through open systems, incentives, and The Fairness in Precision Medicine standards. Her highly praised talk, Reframing Data as a Gift, applied sociologist Marcel Mauss' theory initiative aims to critically assess the of the gift to data sharing and data donation in potential for bias and discrimination the context of biomedical research. The talk was published as a paper on SSRN in health data collection, sharing, in July, 2017. and interpretation.
Team Kadija Ferryman Mikaela Pitcan Researcher Mary Madden
20 Data & Society Report on Activities 2016–2017 21 Upcoming Research Upcoming Research Creative Practices Fairness, Data Ethics for
Accountability, Computational Artists not only offer imaginative approaches to In the 2016-2017 calendar year, Data & Society translating our work—their practice and output can elevated a diverse array of voices in the cultural also reveal elusive truths that might otherwise be sector while directly supporting several prominent and Transpar- Research ignored or dismissed. research-based art practices. Our creative network addressed complex emerging concepts in data- Background ency in Machine centric technology while portraying ongoing This project is a collaborative challenges in visual and visceral ways. Learning (FATML) effort with several partner research
Background institutes to create a qualitative and Machine learning raises novel quantitative dataset documenting challenges for ensuring non-discrim- how computational scientists, ination, due process, and under- regulators, and other stakeholders standability in decision-making. are practically addressing issues The FATML initiative explores how in data and AI ethics. to characterize and address these issues with computationally rigorous Team methods while translating these Jake Metcalf findings to those policymakers, Featured Outputs Artist-in-Residence Ingrid Burrington and Fellow Advisor Baratunde Thurston experiences an artwork regulators, and advocates who seek Ten simple rules for responsible big data research to understand the complexities of Tega Brain by Tega Brain and Sam Lavigne at The Glass Room PLOS COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY, 30 MARCH, 2017 Photo by Butcher Walsh Photo courtesy of Tactical Technology Collective automated decision-making. AUTHORS: MATTHEW ZOOK, SOLON BAROCAS, DANAH BOYD, KATE CRAWFORD, SEETA PEÑA GANGADHARAN, ALYSSA GOODMAN, RACHELLE HOLLANDER, BARBARA A. Team KOENIG, JACOB METCALF, ARVIND NARAYANAN, ALONDRA NELSON, FRANK PASQUALE Sorelle Friedler
Suresh Venkatasubramanian Perspectives on Big Data, Ethics, and Society Featured Outputs COUNCIL FOR BIG DATA, ETHICS, AND SOCIETY, How to Hold Algorithms Accountable WHITE PAPER, 23 MAY, 2016 AUTHORS: JAKE METCALF, EMILY F. KELLER, DANAH BOYD MIT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW (OP-ED), 17 NOVEMBER, 2016
AUTHORS: NICHOLAS DIAKOPOULOS, SORELLE FRIEDLER Where are Human Subjects in Big Data Research? The Emerging Ethics Divide Artwork by Artist-in-Residence Heather Dewey-Hagborg Recent Fellow Mimi Onuoha, artist and researcher, BIG DATA AND SOCIETY, 14 MAY, 2016 Photo by Thomas Dexter speaks at the 2017 Eyeo Festival AUTHORS: JAKE METCALF, KATE CRAWFORD Photo courtesy of Eyeo
22 Data & Society Report on Activities 2016–2017 23 Caroline Sinders—Design Thinking Workshop Programs Programs for Online Harassment Tool 16 FEBRUARY, 2017
Caroline Sinders, a machine learning UX designer Small group and Open Lab Fellow with BuzzFeed and Eyebeam, led a design thinking session around tools and interventions that could combat online harassment sessions using machine learning.
Ed Finn—What Algorithms Want Small group sessions are the core workshopping 29 MARCH, 2017 device for the Data & Society cohort. Geared towards This small group conversation with Ed Finn was based substantive conversations on thorny topics, these In addition to producing significant research, his book, What Algorithms Want: Imagination in the 60-90 minute sessions are designed to create an Age of Computing. Finn considered how the algorithm— intellectually stimulating space to converse, learn Data & Society supports and expands the in practical terms, “a method for solving a problem”— from each other, and shift perspectives. We invite has its roots not only in mathematical logic but also in visitors to come to us with knotty problems, research emerging field of actors exploring the sociotech- cybernetics, philosophy, and magical thinking. insights they would like to kick the tires on, and nical implications of a data-centric society. policy questions. Art Critique Day 31 MAY, 2017 To do this work, we develop and sustain Featured Sessions: This inaugural peer review art critique session curated Annette Markham—Ethics as Levels of Impact: relationships and networks with a range of by Angie Waller gathered Artists-in-Residence, Fellows, A future-oriented framework for decision making in and Affiliates Mimi Onuoha, Surya Mattu, Tega Brain, everyday research practices individuals and institutions, from our internal and Heather Dewey-Hagborg to present their work and 16 NOVEMBER, 2016 engage in discussion with invited guest critics from Rhi- annual cohort of fellows to our broader network Fellow Alice Marwick hosted Annette Markham zome at the New Museum, Art in America, Postmasters (University of Aarhus), who discussed her framework of Gallery, Public Art Action, The New School, and School of NGOs, industry actors, policy-makers, levels of ethical impact in an informal conversation. for Poetic Computation. A public reception followed. media, and academics.
Design Thinking Workshop for an Online Harrassment Tool
24 Data & Society Report on Activities 2016–2017 25 Programs Weekly Wednesdays
Every Wednesday evening at the Data & Society Recent Data & Society Fellow Mimi Onuoha had office in New York City, our open social hour offers her work featured in the New York Times Magazine’s a lightweight way for members of our community to exhibition review, Finding Inspiration for Art in the interact and learn from one another, connect people Betrayal of Privacy (17 December, 2016). who share something in common, share their work with visitors, and help solidify Data & Society as a Intelligence and Autonomy Research Launch crucial node in a knowledge network. 25 JANUARY, 2017
We hosted an evening of celebration at the conclusion Notable Wednesday gatherings and release of a major set of research materials produced by our Intelligence and Autonomy initiative Policing and Accountability exploring how intelligent systems are emerging, and 14 SEPTEMBER, 2016 how they operate in practice. We toasted the release of Hosted in collaboration with the Brennan Center for Data & Society researchers Madeleine Clare Elish and Justice and the Legal Aid Society, we hosted a reception Tim Hwang’s book An AI Pattern Language, which bringing together a wide range of stakeholders and explores the patterns that practitioners have developed experts concerned about policing and accountability to grapple with the social challenges of AI. Special The Glass Room (installation shot)—photo courtesy of Tactical Technology Collective in the digital age and the ways that policing is being guests included tech industry practitioners, journalists, transformed by technology. Guests included civil society and academics. actors, social justice activists, lawyers, government officials, professors, journalists, and police officers. Inform/Transform Zine Party 29 MARCH, 2017 Networks of New York Book Party We hosted artists from Eyebeam, a nonprofit studio 5 OCTOBER, 2016 for collaborative experiments with technology, for a zine We hosted a book party to celebrate the publication party to debut a collaboration between Data & Society of Data & Society Artist-in-Residence Ingrid Burrington's Fellow Zara Rahman and Eyebeam Resident and former book, Networks of New York, An Illustrated Field Guide Data & Society Fellow Mimi Onuoha. The illustrated zine, to Urban Internet Infrastructure. The party brought Inform/Transform, explores ways that information is together many journalists and artists interested in controlled, manipulated, and transformed. mapping, decoding, and making visible the material Fellows Rebecca Wexler and Anne Washington with guest infrastructure of the internet that surrounds and The Moderators Film Screening connects us. 3 MAY, 2017
Data & Society hosted a special screening of The Glass Room The Moderators, a short documentary co-directed by 30 NOVEMBER, 2016 Ciaran Cassidy and New Yorker staff writer Adrian Chen. We took our usual cohort on a field-trip adventure Known for his investigative journalism work on topics to The Glass Room, Tactical Technology Collective and such as troll farms, Chen presented the film and hosted Mozilla's inventive and immersive pop-up art exhibition a Q&A on labor, censorship, and how the technology that explored our individual relationship to data. industry relies on a huge and hidden army of workers The Glass Room exhibition and its public programming known as content moderators to keep the internet featured many Data & Society artists and friends. free of offensive content.
Researcher Alexandra Mateescu and guests Journalist and filmmaker Adrian Chen
26 Data & Society Report on Activities 2016–2017 27 Databite No. 94 University and the Partnership on AI to Benefit People Programs Jennifer Pan—How the Chinese Government and Society. Fabricates Social Media Posts
22 FEBRUARY, 2017 Databite No. 99 Databites Jennifer Pan presented her research on Chinese Whitney Phillips and Ryan Milner— “50c party” posts. The Chinese government has long The Ambivalent Internet: Mischief, Oddity, been suspected of hiring as many as 2,000,000 people and Antagonism Online to surreptitiously insert huge numbers of pseudonymous 18 MAY, 2017 and other deceptive writings into the stream of real Whitney Phillips and Ryan Milner discussed their new social media posts, as if they were the genuine opinions book, The Ambivalent Internet, which explores the weird of ordinary people. Pan shared what is known about Data & Society's public speaker series engages the Chinese censorship program, and suggested and mean and in-between that characterizes everyday our network and the broader public on unresolved how these posts may change our broader theoretical expression online, from absurdist photoshops to antagonistic questions and timely topics of interest to the understanding of “common knowledge” and information Twitter hashtags to ambivalent online play with the 2016 Data & Society community. Databites brought more control in authoritarian regimes. U.S. Presidential election. A book signing and reception than 20 speakers through Data & Society to a followed the talk. packed house over the course of the year. It was livestreamed to a larger audience, then rolled into Databite No. 98 a podcast series averaging 500 downloads Eric Horvitz—AI in the Open World: Databite No. 100 per episode. Directions, Challenges, and Futures Alice Marwick, Daniel Grushkin, 26 APRIL, 2017 and Rebecca Wexler 7 JUNE, 2017 Eric Horvitz broke down societal and technological Featured Speakers complications of using AI in this talk. While artificial The first of three talks in the Databite 100 Series— 2016–2017 Ford-Mozilla OpenWeb Fellow Suchana Seth intelligence promises to provide great value, along with the 2016–2017 Fellows’ class grand finale—showcased Databite No. 88 aspirations come concerns about inadvertent costs, the wide-ranging interdisciplinary connections and Databite No. 92 Cathy O'Neil—Weapons of Math Destruction rough edges, and failures. Concerns include failures of provocative questions that have emerged from our cohort Jonathan Mayer—Regulating Security and Privacy 26 OCTOBER, 2016 automation in the open world, biased data and algorithms, of Fellows this year. Daniel Grushkin spoke on The DNA 1 FEBRUARY, 2017 opacity of reasoning, adversarial attacks on AI systems, Revolution: Merging Data with Biology; Alice Marwick Cathy O'Neil spoke on her new book Weapons of Jonathan Mayer’s talk addressed regulatory agencies’ and runaway AI. Horvitz discussed short-and longer-term on Media Manipulation and Disinformation Online; and Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality —especially the Federal Trade Commission and the challenges and studies aimed at addressing concerns, Rebecca Wexler on Trade Secrets and Black-Boxing and Threatens Democracy. As algorithms increasingly Federal Communications Commission—rise to prominence including the One Hundred Year Study on AI at Stanford Criminal Justice. mediate education, employment, consumer credit, on technology security and privacy issues. He explained and the criminal justice system, how do we measure why FTC, FCC, and similar agencies have assumed their impact on our society? Cathy presented her policy leadership roles, what legal authorities are perspective as a mathematician and data scientist on at their disposal, and how agencies have exercised the pervasive, opaque, and unaccountable mathematical their authorities. The presentation included case studies models that regulate our lives, micromanage our of both successes and failures, and offered suggestions economy, and shape our behavior. A book party and on best practices and recurring challenges. The talk reception followed the talk. also addressed how researchers and civil society groups can effectively engage with regulatory agencies. Databite No. 91 Bruce Schneier—Security and Privacy in a Hyper-Connected World 7 DECEMBER, 2016
In this talk, Bruce Schneier took a look back at what we have learned from past attempts to secure information systems. He pushed us to seriously consider what technologies, laws, regulations, economic incentives, and social norms we will need to secure them in the future.
Jennifer Pan Research Analyst Mikaela Pitcan (center)
28 Data & Society Report on Activities 2016–2017 29 Future Perfect Conference Programs 15–16 JUNE, 2017
Future Perfect was an experimental onsite gathering of creators and practitioners whose work broadly addresses Workshops and themes of speculative fiction, embodied futures, and the material/architectural dimensions of world-building. Conferences The invitation-only June 16 conference was curated by Data & Society Artist-in-Residence Ingrid Burrington, who selected 35 participants from over 100 applications. The night prior, Data & Society hosted a complimentary The Data & Society workshop is designed to “un-conference” that invited participants to create their maximize scholarly thinking. Authors participate own spaces for play and discussion. Autonomous groups in critical discussion about papers with the included a self-care circle for discussing the emotional 2016-2017 Fellows Tega Brain and Zara Rahman explicit intent of making the work stronger and discontents of apocalyptic speculation, a dystopian more interdisciplinary. Our conferences bring start-up simulator, and a cybernetic tarot reading with Work, Labor, and Automation Workshop together practitioners around the evolving artist Suzanne Treister’s Hexen 2.0 deck. Author, journalist, professor, and lecturer Farai Chideya 23 JANUARY, 2017 and societally important issues surrounding data-driven technologies. This workshop, curated by danah boyd, focused Sessions on the intersection of technology and work/labor, and brought together researchers from diverse disciplines Come with Me If You Want to Live: Speculative Fiction ranging from computer science to law, economics in the Public Interest featuring Elizabeth Angell, to history, and anthropology to media studies. Ava Kofman, and Farai Chideya Eclectic Ideas Workshop Life Finds a Way: Bodies, Futures, Embodied Futures 9 DECEMBER, 2016 featuring Ruha Benjamin, Joanna Radin, and This workshop brought together 34 researchers to Ada Cable discuss drafts of selected papers with the express goal of improving arguments and ideas. Participation in In the Off-World Colonies: Speculation and the event was invite-only and curated by danah boyd. Worldbuilding as Landscape featuring Deji Bryce Attendees were required to read three papers in advance Olukotun, Jillian Crandall, and Alexander Huggins of the event and come ready to offer constructively Future Perfect attendee critical feedback. Researchers from different intellectual traditions were encouraged to spar with and challenge one another.
Media Literacy in Hostile Information Environments 9 JUNE, 2017
This gathering brought together media literacy scholars, Founder and President danah boyd educators, practitioners, and journalists in order to help us better understand where media literacy can be Propaganda and Media Manipulation Workshop an effective intervention, and where its limits are, 19 MAY, 2017 in the context of information war.
This workshop focused on the ways in which technology Future Directions in Youth News Research and algorithmic practices have altered dynamics of 25 APRIL, 2017 propaganda and media manipulation. danah boyd selected 59 participants from over 100 applications. Authors did Following on the release of a qualitative research report not present their work, but rather participated in critical on youth news behaviors supported by the John S. discussion with the assembled group about papers. and James L. Knight Foundation, we gathered a group This event was not open to practitioners or observers; of researchers, media practitioners, and foundation it was designed to help researchers be reflective colleagues to discuss implications and possibilities for and candid about works-in-progress. further research in the field. Activist, designer, and academic Ada Cable (right)
30 Data & Society Report on Activities 2016–2017 31 Fellowships
Our annual Fellowship Program supports Data & Society’s crucial ongoing field-building Mark Ackerman Tega Brain Ingrid Burrington work at the intersection of data-centric 2016-2017 Fellow 2016-2017 Fellow 2016-2017 Artist-in-Residence technology and society. Mark Ackerman investigates the lived Tega Brain is an artist, environmental Ingrid Burrington is an artist who writes, experience of data, so as to help people gain engineer, and researcher whose work inter- makes maps, and tells jokes about places, Hosting a variety of practitioners and control of and better use the information sects art, ecology, and engineering. As an politics, and the weird feelings people that is being generated about them. He is the artist, she makes dysfunctional devices, have about both. Her work has previously George Herbert Mead Collegiate Professor eccentric infrastructures and experimental been supported by Eyebeam Art and academics–data scientists and engineers, lawyers of Human-Computer Interaction and a information systems. She is an Assistant Technology Center, the Center for Land Professor in the School of Information, the Professor at SUNY Purchase and holds Use Interpretation, and Rhizome. She also Department of Electrical Engineering and degrees in environmental engineering and fine runs the Data & Society speculative and librarians, ethnographers and creators, Computer Science, and the Science arts. She also contributes to open source fiction reading group. Technology and Society program at the software initiatives of the Processing During her fellowship, Burrington launched historians and activists–each class of Data & University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His major Foundation. Her current research addresses a book on New York City’s urban internet research area is Human-Computer Interaction the relationship between computational infrastructure and took multiple groups of (HCI), primarily in social computing and in systems and the environment. How is Glass Room visitors on an infrastructure Society fellows connects us more deeply to health. Mark is a member of the CHI Academy computation both shaping environmental walking tour. Burrington had a solo show in (HCI Fellow) and an ACM Fellow. Mark has systems and changing our perception Berlin and published widely in popular press degrees from the University of Chicago, of them? outlets such as The Atlantic, Fusion, and the field through individual projects, mutual Ohio State, and MIT. The Verge on topics such as domain name registration, network outages, and fiber-optic support, contribution to core research projects, cable ownership. She also curated Future Perfect, a new conference on the influence of speculative fiction on technology, and insightful public communications. policy, and culture. During their time at Data & Society, this 2016-2017 class had work appear in the New York Times op-ed, technology, and arts sections; at Internet Freedom Forum, the Museum of Featured Output Featured Press Coverage Featured Book Safety Checklists for Sociotechnical Fake Pop-Up Exposes the Dark Side of Networks of New York: An Illustrated Design, Data & Society–Points, the Information Age, The Creators Project, Field Guide to Urban Internet Modern Art, W3C, Personal Democracy Forum, 26 October, 2016 17 January, 2017 Infrastructure
RightsCon, and Eyeo Festival; and in viral digital Featured Project videos about data surveillance and bio-design. Future Perfect Conference, 16 June, 2017
32 Data & Society Report on Activities 2016–2017 33 Fellowships (continued)
Heather Dewey-Hagborg Daniel Grushkin Alice E. Marwick Zara Rahman Suchana Seth Ravi Shroff 2016-2017 Artist-in-Residence 2016-2017 Fellow 2016-2017 Fellow 2016-2017 Fellow 2016-2017 Ford-Mozilla OpenWeb Fellow 2016-2017 Fellow
Heather Dewey-Hagborg is a transdisciplinary Daniel Grushkin is the Executive Director Alice Marwick (PhD, New York University) Zara Rahman is a researcher, writer, and Suchana Seth is a physicist-turned-data Ravi Shroff is a Research Scientist at New artist and educator who is interested in art as and co-founder of Genspace, a nonprofit is now a Data & Society advisor, research linguist who is interested in the intersection scientist from India. She has built scalable data York University’s Center for Urban Science research and critical practice. Her biopolitical community laboratory dedicated to promoting affiliate with the Media Manipulation project, of power, race, and technology. She has science solutions for startups and industry and Progress (CUSP), where he specializes art practice includes the project Stranger citizen science and access to biotechnology. and Assistant Professor of Communication travelled and worked in more than 25 countries research labs, and holds patents in text mining in computational social science. His work Visions in which she created portrait sculptures He is founder and director of the Biodesign at the University of North Carolina at Chapel in the field of information accessibility and and natural language processing. Suchana involves using statistical and machine learning from analyses of genetic material (hair, Challenge, a university competition devoted Hill. Her research focuses on far-right data use in civil society, and speaks four believes in the power of data to drive positive techniques to understand the criminal justice cigarette butts, chewed up gum) collected to creating new visions for the future of media manipulation, online privacy, and languages fluently. She worked for OpenOil, change, volunteers with DataKind, mentors system, child welfare, and related urban in public places. Heather has shown work biotech. From 2013 to 2014, he was a fellow internet celebrity. Her current book project investigating the use and availability of open data-for-good projects, and advises research issues. At Data & Society, Ravi will examine internationally at events and venues including at the Woodrow Wilson International Center examines how the networked nature of data in the extractive industries, then worked on IoT ethics. She is also passionate about how simple computational models can be the World Economic Forum, Shenzhen for Scholars, where he researched the field online privacy disproportionately impacts for Open Knowledge, primarily with School closing the gender gap in data science, and designed and implemented in city government. Urbanism and Architecture Biennale, of synthetic biology, and an Emerging Leader marginalized individuals in terms of gender, of Data on data literacy for journalists and leads data science workshops with He studied mathematics at UC San Diego the New Museum, the Centre Pompidou and in Biosecurity at the UPMC Center of Health race, and socio-economic status. Marwick civil society. Now, she is a Research Lead at organizations like Women Who Code. At (PhD) and applied urban science and MoMA PS1. Her work has been widely Security. As a journalist, he has reported was previously Assistant Professor of The Engine Room where she leads their Data & Society, Suchana studied ways to informatics at CUSP (MS). discussed in the media, from the New York on the intersection of biotechnology, culture, Communication and Media Studies and the Responsible Data Program, supporting the operationalize ethical machine learning and AI Times and the BBC to TED and Wired. She is and business for publications including Director of the McGannon Center for responsible use of data in advocacy and in the industry. Her interests included fairness, an Assistant Professor of Art and Technology Bloomberg Businessweek, Fast Company, Communication Research at Fordham social change. Her work at Data & Society accountability and transparency in machine Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Scientific American, and Popular Science. University. looked into creative and artistic ways of learning, monetizing AI ethically, security Chicago and a 2016 Creative Capital award During his fellowship, Grushkin curated During her fellowship, Marwick led the boosting critical data and tech literacy. vulnerabilities specific to machine learning grantee in the area of Emerging Fields. The Biotech Futures Talk + Lab Series. Guests Media Manipulation team and co-authored Zara’s work was partially supported by and AI systems, and the regulatory landscape During her fellowship, Dewey-Hagborg included Christina Agapakis, Jason Bobe, Media Manipulation and Disinformation a Shuttleworth Flash Grant. for predictive algorithms. spoke at multiple events including the SXSW Tom Knight, Julie Wolf, and Dr. Sophie Zaaijer. Online, a report on why the media was panel “Biopunk: Subverting Biopolitics” and her Grushkin held hands-on synthetic biology vulnerable to manipulation from radicalized virtual reality work-in-progress was selected workshops to teach staff and visitors unique groups emerging from internet subcultures. with collaborator Toshiaki Ozawa for the lab skills such as engineering bacteria to glow. She was cited in the New York Times and Sundance Institute’s New Frontier Story Lab. A student-submitted speculative artificial recorded appearances with The Guardian, womb project from his Biodesign Challenge CNN, WNYC, NowThis, and the Today Show. competition received 16 million Her co-authored op-eds with Data & Society Facebook views. researcher Becca Lewis appeared in Columbia Journalism Review and New York Magazine.
Featured Press Coverage Featured Events Featured Output Featured Output Featured Talks Featured Output From Chelsea Manning’s Art Springs Biodesign Challenge Summit 2017, Media Manipulation and Disinformation Inform/Transform (co-author) Holding Algorithms Accountable Creating Simple Rules for Complex an Art Show, The New York Times, Museum of Modern Art, 22 June, 2017 Online, Data & Society, 15 May, 2017 with Mimi Onuoha, March, 2017 to Protect Fundamental Rights, Decisions (co-author), Harvard Business 30 June, 2017 RightsCon, 31 March, 2017 Review, 19 April, 2017 Privacy in the Era of Personal How Heather Dewey-Hagborg Is Genomics, 19 January, 2017 Featured Press Coverage Featured Talk Gender deanonymization through Highlighting Gender Disparities in machine learning—risks and Biotech Futures Talk + Lab Series, How Twitter Is Being Gamed to Feed Von Menschen, Daten und guten Art and Technology, Artnet News, implications, Internet Freedom Festival, Various dates Misinformation, The New York Times, Vorsätzen, Datensummit 2017, April, 2017 13 September, 2016 8 March, 2017 31 May, 2017 Measuring privacy risk and implied consent in app permissions, MozFest 2016, 28 October, 2016
34 Data & Society Report on Activities 2016–2017 35 Fellowships (continued)
Mark Van Hollebeke Anne L. Washington Rebecca Wexler 2016-2017 Privacy Practitioner-in-Residence 2016-2017 Fellow Lawyer-in-Residence
Mark Van Hollebeke is a privacy professional Anne L. Washington is a computer scientist Rebecca Wexler works on data, technology, at Microsoft. A former philosophy professor and a librarian who specializes in public and criminal justice. Her current scholarship specializing in ethics, pragmatism, and social sector technology management and focuses on trade secrets in new data-driven and political philosophy, his recent work at informatics. She is an Assistant Professor criminal justice technologies. While at Data & Microsoft centers on articulating the norms at George Mason University. As a digital Society, she worked for The Legal Aid Society and ethical guidance required to design government scholar, her research focuses defending criminal cases that involved data-driven services in a principled manner. on the production, meaning, and retrieval of computer-derived evidence, including Stingray At Data & Society, he worked to broaden public sector information. She developed surveillance, cell site location tracking, existing IT industry privacy practices to her expertise on government data working at probabilistic DNA analysis software programs, include moral inquiry about the nature of the Congressional Research Service within and the Shotspotter audio surveillance system. data use, as well as to find practical ways to the Library of Congress. She also served as She also initiated partnerships between interject ethical reflection into the data- an invited expert to the W3C E-Government Legal Aid, GovLab, and the Vera Institute of analytics design process. Interest Group and the W3C Government Justice to analyze Legal Aid’s internal data, Linked Data Working Group. She completed representing 230,000 criminal cases per a PhD from The George Washington year. Before law school, Rebecca worked as a University School of Business. She holds documentary filmmaker. She holds a JD from a degree in computer science from Brown Yale Law School, an MPhil from Cambridge University and a Master’s in Library University, and a BA from Harvard College. Information Science from Rutgers University. She is a member of the New York bar and a law Before completing her PhD, she had clerk to the Honorable Pierre N. Leval of the extensive work experience in the private Second Circuit Court of Appeals. sector including the Claris Software division of Apple Computers and Barclays Global Investors.
Featured Output Featured Project Featured Output Shining a light on the darkness, Data Science Reasoning When a Computer Program Keeps You Data & Society—Points, 27 October, 2016 in Jail, The New York Times (op-ed), 13 June, 2017 Featured Output Featured Event Life, Liberty, and Trade Secrets: Unlocking the secrets of the digital li- Intellectual Property in the Criminal Workshop on Data and Algorithmic brary, Centre for Public Impact, 12 April, 2017 Justice System, SSRN, 21 February, 2017 Transparency, 19 November, 2016 Sausage, politics, and data predictions?, Data & Society—Points, 31 October, 2017 Featured Testimony NY State Assembly Standing Committees Featured Events Testimony, 8 February, 2017 Roundtable on AI and the Future of Government, with the Centre for Public Impact, 30 June, 2017 Data Science Reasoning: From the Class- 36 room to the Workplace, 28 October, 2016 Lawyer-in-Residence Rebecca Wexler and Fellows Alice Marwick and Daniel Grushkin People People
Board 39 Board of Directors
Staff 41
Researchers 42
Advisors 44
Affiliates 46
danah boyd Catherine Bracy Anil Dash Founder and President, Co-Founder and Executive Director, CEO of Fog Creek Software Data & Society TechEquity Collaborative
Alondra Nelson John Palfrey Professor of Sociology, Columbia Head of School at Phillips Academy University and President, Social Science Research Council
38 Data & Society Report on Activities 2016–2017 39 People Staff
Stacy Abder Idil Ali danah boyd Director Communications Founder of Operations Associate and President
CJ Brody Landow Irene Chung Audrey Evans Programs Operations Associate Network Administrator and Engagement Lead Event Coordinator
Beth Garrett Janet Haven Sam Hinds Garcia Grants & Contracts Director of Programs Director of Administrator Communications
Robyn Jackson Brittany Keppel Shana Kimball Financial Executive Assistant Managing Director Administrator to the President of Research
Toyia Phillips Angie Waller Human Resources Marina Villela Design Lead Manager Office Manager
Seth Young Director of Special Projects
Director of Operations Stacy Abder and Communications Associate Idil Ali Data & Society Report on Activities 2016–2017 41 People Researchers
Monica Bulger Robyn Caplan Patrick Davison R. Joshua Scannell Bonnie Tijerina Researcher Researcher Research Analyst Researcher Researcher
Madeleine Clare Kadija Ferryman Claire Fontaine Elish Postdoctoral Scholar Researcher Researcher
Lauren Hanson Mark Latonero Amanada Lenhart Research Analyst Researcher Researcher
Rebecca Lewis Mary Madden Alexandra Mateescu Research Analyst Researcher Research Analyst
Jacob Metcalf Mikaela Pitcan Alex Rosenblat Researcher Research Analyst Researcher, Technical Writer
Data & Society in September 2016
42 Data & Society Report on Activities 2016–2017 43 People Advisors
John Borthwick Brad Burnham Gabriella Coleman Andrew Rasiej Joel Reidenberg Clay Shirky CEO, Betaworks Managing Partner, Wolfe Chair, Co-founder, Personal Professor of Law, Associate Arts Union Square Scientific and Democracy Forum Fordham University Professor, Interactive Ventures Technological and Civic Hall; Telecommunications Literacy, McGill Chairman, NY Tech Program, NYU; University Meetup Associate Professor, Arthur L. Carter Institute of Journalism
Susan Crawford Cathy Davidson Edward Felten Micah Sifry Shamina Singh Baratunde Thurston Professor, Harvard Director, The Futures Professor, Co-founder, MasterCard Center Supervising Producer, Law School Initiative; Distinguished Computer Science Civic Hall for Inclusive Growth The Daily Show; Professor, The Graduate and Public Affairs, and Personal Co-Founder, Center, City University Princeton University Democracy Cultivated Wit of New York Media
Tarleton Gillespie Nick Grossman Joichi Ito Janet Vertesi Christina Xu Ethan Zuckerman Principal Researcher, General Manager Director, Assistant Professor, Researcher, PL Data; Director, Center for Microsoft Research; for Policy and MIT Media Lab Sociology, Princeton Special Projects, Civic Media, MIT Adjunct Associate Outreach, Union University Everybody at Once Professor, Department Square Ventures of Communication, Department of Information Science, Cornell University
Hilary Mason Charlton McIlwain Andrew Founder, Associate professor McLaughlin Fast Forward Labs; of Media, Culture and SVP, Betaworks; Data Scientist in Communication and CEO, Digg and Residence, Accel Associate Dean of Instapaper Partners Faculty Development and Diversity, NYU
Deirdre Mulligan Gina Neff Claudia Perlich Associate Professor, Associate Professor, Chief Scientist, UC Berkeley School Department of Dstillery; Adjunct of Information Communication, Professor, NYU University of Washington
44 Data & Society Report on Activities 2016–2017 45 People Affiliates
Ifeoma Ajunwa Solon Barocas Geoffrey C. Bowker Surya Mattu Lauren McCarthy Wilneida Negrón PhD Candidate, Postdoctoral Professor, Data Reporter, Assistant Professor, Technology Fellow, Columbia University Research Associate, Department of Gizmodo Design Media Arts, Gender, Racial, Center for Information Informatics; Director UCLA and Ethnic Justice Technology Policy, Evoke Laboratory, Team at Ford Princeton University University of Foundation California-Irvine
Angèle Christin Kate Crawford Diana Freed Helen Nissenbaum Mimi Onuoha Desmond Patton Assistant Professor, Principal Researcher, PhD Candidate, Professor, Media, Research Resident, Assistant Professor, Department of Microsoft Research; Cornell University Culture, and Commu- Eyebeam; Columbia University Communication, Visiting Professor, nication and Computer Data Journalism School of Social Stanford University MIT Center for Science, New York Contributor, Quartz Work Civic Media University; Director, Information Law Institute
Sorelle Friedler Seeta Peña Keith Hiatt Martha Poon Frank Torres Anthony Townsend Assistant Professor, Gangadharan Vice President, Adjunct Research Director of Senior Research Computer Science, Assistant Professor, Human Rights, Affiliate, Committee Consumer Affairs Scientist, Rudin Center Dept. of Media and Haverford College Benetech on Global Thought, and a Senior Policy for Transportation Communications, London School of Economics and Columbia University Counsel, Microsoft Policy and Manage- Political Science; Program Corporation ment, NYU Fellow, New America’s Open Technology Institute
Noel Hidalgo Dean Jansen David Merritt Johns Tricia Wang Elizabeth Wissinger Elana Zeide Co-Founder and Co-Founder, Amara.org; PhD Candidate, Global Tech Professor, Fashion Privacy Research Executive Director, Executive Director, Center for the Ethnographer; Studies and Sociology, Fellow, Information BetaNYC Participatory Culture History and Ethics Co-Founder of CUNY Graduate Center Law Institute, NYU Foundation of Public Health, Constellate Data; and BMCC/CUNY Columbia University Affiliate at Berkman Klein Center, Harvard
Karen Levy Gideon Lichfield Lisa Lynch Assistant Professor, Senior Editor, Quartz Associate Professor of Department of Journalism, Concordia Information Science, University, Montreal Cornell University
46 Data & Society Report on Activities 2016–2017 47 Statement of Independence Supporters
Data & Society is an independent, We are deeply thankful for the support we have nonprofit 501(c)(3) research institute. received during the fiscal year from May 2016 to May 2017 from the following entities: We are committed to the independence and autonomy of Data & Society’s Brooklyn Public Library Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention initiatives and convenings. Craig Newmark Philanthropic Fund We do not accept funding that Digital Trust Foundation Ford Foundation would affect our ability to pursue work Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai free of external interference, and we Institute of Museum and Library Services John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation fiercely protect the independence John S. and James L. Knight Foundation of our researchers and fellows in their Microsoft Microsoft Research intellectual activities and individual National Information Standards Organization funding relationships. National Science Foundation Omidyar Network Open Society Foundations Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Sara & Evan Williams Foundation Solidago Foundation UNICEF United Hospital Fund University of Pittsburgh W.K. Kellogg Foundation
We are truly grateful for the support that we have received to help make this organization and our work possible.
If you are interested in supporting our work, we welcome your inquiry at [email protected].
Photos Elisabeth Smolarz: Pages 4 (left), 5 (right-top), 26 (middle-left), 29–31, 37, 49 Butcher Walsh: Pages 4 (right), 5 (right-bottom), 9, 15, 19–21, 26 (bottom-left; right), 28, 40, 43 Angie Waller: Page 25
Illustrations Sarah Nicholls: Page 8 Jim Cooke: Page 10–11 Alexandra Mateescu: Page 13
Design Designed by Default, Anisa Suthayalai (default.gd)
Printing 48 Linco Printing Researcher Madeleine Clare Elish Data & Society Research Institute 36 West 20th Street, Floor 11 New York, NY 10011 USA +1.646.832.2038 | [email protected] datasociety.net | @datasociety 2016–2017