MS 2002
Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research and Founder, Data & Society
Immediately after leaving the Media Lab, Danah says she "went rogue". Eventually, she went back to graduate school (PhD, Berkeley iSchool) and worked in industry (Tribe.net, Google, Yahoo!, consulting) before ending up at Microsoft Research and founding an independent research institute called Data & Society. She has written books, given talks, and worked on a range of projects focused on understanding, building, and critiquing sociotechnical systems. Currently, Danah primarily considers how bias and unintended consequences shape data-driven systems, machine learning algorithms, and the public rhetoric surrounding artificial intelligence.
How did your experience at the Lab influence your next step?
At a sponsor event, I met a guy who worked at AOL. In December 2002, he called me up to tell me about a new startup he'd learned about called Friendster. He thought I might find it interesting. I spent the next 10+ years studying social media.
Challenge assumptions. Break rules. Question everything. All with a smile.