Sociotechnical Systems
News & features
In the news | La Vanguardia
Fixed contracts are going down in history
When I started working at Microsoft, we were worried that work automation would leave people jobless…
In the news | El Pais
Mary Gray: “Today’s economy depends on ‘ghost workers'”
The author and Mary Gray argues that platform work could make the work of hundreds of millions of people invisible and that this tends to alienate and precarious their situation. Ask for new laws and a new social contract…
In the news | C-SPAN
MIT Work of the Future | Mary L. Gray discusses “Ghost Work”, the workforce that drives large tech companies
Mary Gray talked about her book, Ghost Work: How to Stop Silicon Valley from Building a New Global Underclass, in which she reported on the workforce that drives large technology companies like Amazon, Google, and Uber.
In the news | Washington Post
A conservative YouTube star just lost his income stream for homophobic slurs. Here’s what happened, and why
Tarleton Gillespie, a principal researcher at Microsoft Research, discusses the content-moderation efforts of YouTube and other social media platforms.
In the news | Wired
When Algorithms Think You Want to Die
Opinion: Social media platforms not only host troubling images of suicide and self-harm, they end up recommending it to the people most vulnerable to it.
In the news | Slate
Facebook’s Blueprint Needs a Blueprint
Mark Zuckerberg’s plan for an independent council to review controversial content moderation decisions leaves some important questions unanswered.
In the news | Slate
A Little Less Conversation
Some people thought the laying of the trans-Atlantic cable might bring world peace, because connecting humans could only lead to better understanding and empathy. That wasn’t the outcome—and recent utopian ideas about communication have also met with a darker reality.
Playing to the crowd and other social media mandates with Dr. Nancy Baym
Episode 41, September 12, 2018 – Dr. Nancy Baym shares her insights on a host of topics ranging from the arduous maintenance requirements of social media, to the dialectic tension between connection and privacy, to the funhouse mirror nature of…
In the news | Forbes
How Technology Has Transformed, And Complicated, Music Fandom: Interview With Nancy Baym
Principal Researcher Nancy Baym discusses why there is no one-size-fits-all solution to nailing fan engagement in the digital age.