Danah Boyd

Infobox Person
name = Danah Boyd


caption = Boyd at the Web 2.0 Conference in 2005
image_size = 180px
birth_date = 1977
birth_place =
residence =
nationality = American
other_names =
known_for = Sociality, identity and culture in social networks
occupation = Blogger, public speaker, writer

Danah Michele Boyd (or danah boyd, born Danah Michele Mattas in 1977), is an American academic, researcher, and blogger best known for media appearances where she speaks about social networking sites such as Friendster and MySpace. Since 2003, she and her research have been quoted on the subject of social networking in several different articles in media sources such as NPR,cite web
title = "Teens Create Their Own Space Online"
work = NPR
date = 2006-02-01
url = http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5182960
accessdate = 2008-03-30] Wired, MSNBC, "USA Today", "Newsweek"Citation
title = Walking a New Beat: Surfing MySpace.com Helps Cops Crack the Case
newspaper = Newsweek
pages = P. 48
date = 2006-04-24] and "The O'Reilly Factor".cite web
last = Boyd
first = Danah
title = "Press and Mainstream Media Appearances"
work = danah.org
url = http://www.danah.org/press.html
accessdate = 2008-03-30] She was also the subject of a major profile in "The New York Times" in 2003cite web
last = Erard
first = Michael
title = "Decoding the New Cues in Online Society"
work = The New York Times
date = 2003-11-23
url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C01E7D6173AF934A15752C1A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all
accessdate = 2008-03-30] and the "Financial Times" in 2006.cite web
last = Bowley
first = Graham
title = "The High Priestess of Internet Friendship"
work = Financial Times
date = 2006-10-27
url = http://www.ft.com/cms/s/59ab33da-64c4-11db-90fd-0000779e2340.html
accessdate = 2008-03-30]

Biography

Boyd grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and attended Manheim Township High School from 1992–1996. According to her website, starting from childhood her name was "Danah Michele Mattas Beard", but after her mother's divorce, she chose her maternal grandfather's name, Boyd, as her own last name and eventually settled on giving her name as "danah boyd".cite web
last = Boyd
first = Danah
title = "What's in a Name?"
work = danah.org
url = http://www.danah.org/name.html
accessdate = 2008-03-30]

She initially studied computer science at Brown University where she worked with Andy van Dam, and 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 in the UC Berkeley School of Information in 2006,cite web
last = Kopytoff
first = Verne
title = "One-Stop Way to Read News, Blogs Online: RSS Allows Users to Get Free, Automatic Feeds"
work = San Francisco Chronicle
date = 2004-04-25
url = http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/10/25/BUG1U9ES301.DTL&type=business
accessdate = 2008-03-30] . Her Ph.D. advisors include Peter Lyman (deceased) and Mizuko Ito. Her research is funded by the MacArthur Foundation. During the 2006-7 academic year, Boyd was a fellow at the Annenberg Center for Communication at the University of Southern California. She was a non-resident fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society for the 2007-8 academic year.cite web
last = Boyd
first = Danah
title = "Berkman Fellowship"
date = 2007-07-23
url = http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2007/07/23/berkman_fellows.html
accessdate = 2007-07-23]

Boyd has written over a dozen academic papers and op-ed pieces on various facets of online culture, [cite book
last = Shirky
first = Clay
authorlink = Clay Shirky
coauthors =
title = Here Comes Everybody
publisher = Penguin Group
date = 2008-02-28
location =
pages = 224-225
url =
doi =
id =
isbn = 978-1-59420-153-0] and has presented papers or been a speaker on the subject at major conferences such as SIGGRAPH, CHI, Etech and the AAAS annual meeting.

In Sept. of 2008, Boyd announced that she had joined the faculty of Microsoft Research - New England, in Cambridge, MA.

References

External links

* [http://www.danah.org Danah Boyd's homepage]
* [http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/ Danah Boyd's blog]
* [http://www.danah.org/papers Danah Boyd's research articles]
* cite web
last = Boyd
first = Danah
title = "Socializing Digitally"
work = Vodafone Receiver
date = 2006-02-19
url = http://www.receiver.vodafone.com/18-socializing-digitally
accessdate = 2008-03-10
* cite web
last = Boyd
first = Danah
title = "A Discussion with Danah Boyd"
work = Ibiblio Speaker Series
date = 2006-09-14
url = http://www.ibiblio.org/speakers/index.cgi/2006/09/14#boyd06
accessdate = 2008-03-10
* cite web
last = Boyd
first = Danah
title = "An interview with Danah Boyd"
work = Women of Web 2.0 Show
date = 2008-03-26
url = http://edtechtalk.com/node/3085
accessdate = 2008-04-17