I recently had three submissions accepted to the ACM Conference on Supporting Group Work (GROUP). The first was a paper to which I contributed about online policy discussion, specifically in the context of MTurk. Among other things, this paper offers some nice empirical evidence about the importance of considering opinions with finer grained distinctions than agree vs. disagree. Second is a paper analyzing how different types of regretful experiences on Facebook can lead to different types of non-use. The main take away is that it matters less who feels the regret than who takes the action that ends up being regretted. Third is a curated collection of short design fiction pieces written by students in the class I taught this past spring. It demonstrates the efficacy of design fiction for thinking through ethical issues in computing.

Later this week, I’ll be presenting a paper at the Algorithms in Culture conference, organized by an astounding crew of veritable rock stars. I’m eagerly looking forward to it, both in terms of the the numerous fascinating sounding talks, and as a chance to get feedback on some of the questions through which I’m working around how fuse critical studies of algorithmic systems with human-computer interaction design.

I am thrilled to announce that I recently accepted a tenure-track position as Assistant Professor in the Computer Science & Engineering Department at Lehigh University. This position is part of a university-wide initiative called Data X. In my description, Data X acknowledges and incorporates the inherently interdisciplinary nature of data science. Lehigh made several cluster hires this past year as part of Data X, each with one faculty line in CSE and one in another department. For instance, I was part of a cluster hire between CSE and Journalism & Communication. Needless to say, this is an exceptionally perfect niche for me.

I’ll be winding down my position at Cornell and moving to Bethlehem, PA this fall, then starting at Lehigh in January.

Recently, I had two papers accepted for publication an the 2016 ACM Conference on Supporting Group Work (GROUP). One is a full length paper about a long-term study of a “data-as-art” installation at Cornell. The other is a note length paper essentially arguing that machine learning and grounded theory have some deep, compelling resonances. While I played a primarily supporting role on both these, I’m excited about the arguments that each is making (and appreciative of the lead authors for involving me).

Last week, my co-authors and I had a paper appear on factors that influence how likely someone who leaves Facebook is to return to site. The paper was published in the stellar new journal Social Media + Society. The term “stellar” is deliberate, as the journal’s editorial board basically reads like an all-star list of social media researchers.

Well, the paper has now been covered in a few media outlets. In addition to the official Information Science press release, stories have appeared in the Huffington Post, the International Business Times, IT News, and DNA India. I also was interviewed by local Ithaca radio station WHCU and Rochester TV station WHAM, and the latter interview is online.

It’s nice to see so much interest in the work, especially since I’ll be publishing lots more on this topic in the near future.

Update (12/23): More coverage in the Huffington Post, in NY Daily News, and in Daily Mail UK.

This is a bit delayed (announcements went out a week or two ago via email, Twitter, etc.), but our special issue of First Monday about Technology Non-use has now been published. It’s been my great privilege over the past year to work with a fantastic team of co-editors and some truly brilliant contributing authors. If you have any interest in communication and technology, computing and society, or anything of the sort, I highly encourage you to check it out.

Most conferences happen annual. Some happen bi-annually. Well, there’s at least one conference only happens every 10 years. This is the Aarhus Decennial Critical Computing conference. I’m pleased to say that, this summer, a paper I co-authored will appear in the proceedings. You can see the camera ready version.

Our on-going field study of FrameCheck, a web browser plug-in that highlights the language of framing in political news, has been covered by the Cornell Chronicle.

If you’d like to try FrameCheck for yourself, you can sign up for the field study.

I took advantage of the long transit time to write up my thoughts about several of the talks I saw this past week at CHI. Posted on my blog is the full CHI 2015 conference report.

The current (March/April 2015) issue of interactions has an article on technology non-use I wrote with Jenna Burrell, Morgan Ames, Jed Brubaker, and Paul Dourish. This is also the crew with whom I co-organized a workshop on non-use at CHI last year. The interactions article in part summarizes and synthesizes themes from that workshop. It also in many ways presages the special issue of First Monday we’re right in the midst of co-editing.

So, while you’re waiting for the special issue to come out, go take a look at the interactions piece.