Fellowship award for emerging digital arts writer for the art foundation. Resident in the Nonfiction Program fellow. Additionally her essays and reviews have appeared in publications the New York Times wired and many others. She will be joined in conversation this evening by the clinical instructor at from Harvard Law School where they teach students how to Work Technology and then those critiques covering topics such as facial recognition Computer Security and tonight we will discuss her new book calling it a poetic and empathetic history of the internet that will resonate deeply with anyone. To listen and learn not shout and grandstand. Tracing the commercialization of the Digital World in incite full ways for what has been stolen will be recovered we are pleased to host this book event here welcome to joann. [applause] to start i will stand up. It is a short passage but maybe it will make you smile a little bit this is a chapter called sharing. Around the time from the launch in 2007 it is possible to talk about apple as the underdog to adopt the corporations own narrative of 1984 inspired super bowl commercial featuring a blonde racing through with a sledgehammer. Apple had 367 and then ten years later between Berkshire Hathaway and exxon mobil with the iphone apple was off to the races but only for almost 40 million and by 2014 sales were just shy of 170,000,000. 200 million new apple phones each year. The Company Unique for its design first approach developed a near universally acclaimed gadget with function and appearance to describe for the 21st century the iphone was gorgeous and intuitive like you are pleased to make its acquaintance and then you would learn about the loss of human lives associated with the creation they are too expensive certainly but on january 92007 steve jobs announced the future of the times. The i. C. E. Phones first decade nearly parallel Barack Obamas years in the white house. Elected 2008 leaving 201710 years after jobs first presentation barack obama was the first president to have a twitter account and instagram the founders of airbnb and uber would crash two very different accommodations and Upscale Hotel rooms. Independently they talked about their experiences that crystallized into the idea for a company. With obama and the iphone the abundant patronage for historians. Dont forget meanwhile there was a Great Recession a lot of people carried fabulous magic phones. In 2010 or 2011 it seems all the ads were for apps some android phones also and then maybe it was the other way around. There is an app for that was the iphone slogan. Then it was normal every day past the point of being new. The crowning achievement, ten years after the phone hit shelves people still talked about it like a new creation the changes occurred and icon boxes and the changes happened inside and then the hardware for the most part did not there were moments to reflect how powerful it has been the time i happen to observe someone at the Grocery Store face timing to talk to a friend in American Sign Language before the iphone people looking at chocolate bars and would just get the job done in 2005 i picked up the slickest device from the online store but now i remember that samsung that was like the old toaster oven that was like a power tool my hand trembled a little when a to push the button to take a photo the badly compressed images look like finger paints on a postage stamp. I dont think i other bothered to upload any of the pictures to my computer but i didnt think it had anything better the iphone just as that contract ended i wanted it like the shiny paperweight it would cost 500 and another twoyear commitment to keep papers from blowing off my desk. So i saw the difference between the clamshell and the iphone was like economy and firstclass. Not the difference between the same destination. And those focus groups were organized by startups i walked away with a tiny check and iphone as a parting gift. Through several models and several contracts it has been in my hand or pocket or totebag ever since it conjured up feelings and i held it so gently at first like applying eyeshadow with my fingertips how else do they handle with such care . It became paperweight to rest on the pillow then integrated with my daily life so now i think of it sometimes i think of a fork on my plate but the world elsewhere and far away what we needed to get to the iphone but what surrounds me less urban in the moment then what i wondered about a found myself talking to strangers and noticing landmarks i never got bored i no longer dreaded sitting alone when it was running late now for something to do i keep focused on the screen to keep the vultures at bay. Even when i didnt use it to talk i was never alone there is always one little window in between my phone. [applause] i am so excited to be in company with you about this book which i really loved and i am thrilled i get to ask you questions about it and with that since you unluckily decided to put me up here with you i will skip the first question and go straight to my second. Which is you chose the title for the book i cant do justice but i will try so working can be a waiting room and a brief delay like the old dialup modem a moment to posit prepare oneself for exchange to get the feet wet before plunging into the network for that identity. And for work or researcher general curiosity. And that internet. I am curious what brought you to have the title for the book as a metaphor or way of engaging the internet . Thank you. It seems like the most obvious title for me because thats what i do and that is my identity of internet use it is very much being the wallflower of the social network. And what makes it unusual at a party a wallflower is standing in the corner but people cannot necessarily see you watching them and i think it has to do with the elements that make interaction online from those physical interactions and sometimes because we take for granted how much communications are in our daily lives and with those interactions i want to make clear. So working is the preferred way of acting with the internet since you wrote a book about it are there specific places online that you consider yourself primarily a literary . I would say i have never had a reddit profile that has spent a lot of time. Especially those that are very sweet and unexpected. For those that are very toxic and also those that are created and its all about exchanging resources because that is the place. So while i dont participate myself, there are a lot of communities that are useful information wise. That in the book and there are chat rooms. And i would definitely spend to compare. And the title is working. So if you do not choose to sit down you are welcome to but we will not make you participate. [laughter] but with a reddit dad is what is so interesting. That is something i will admit. I read a fair amount of legal advice. And that critics have been causing myself pain. And also am i the asked whole. That is funny so a lot of peoples way to interact is through twitter and that its reddit it might be the asked whole post and then people respond on twitter. Departed from the context which the initial post is made. And how the conversation. And to be quite bizarre and heated in its own way. But there is already this irony attached to it. That you always have to be above the contents. And so whats incredibly funny about that is in the book we talk about always felt i was too much of a jerk for the social network look at all these nice people sharing what they are eating for breakfast. Why am i not a nice person . Why do i have to make weird jokes and share these peaceful moments of my life and now i feel like i am overwhelmed with that content and it is an element and if you can laugh at everything you are not so entwined. And with personal distance with what you are doing there. Working can be a way to distance yourself. And as someone who has their liquor online it isnt its not a lack of invested so in some cases i suspect im more invested so i still get that sense of distance. So you frame the book and then to becoming the user and so one of the things you talk about which i thought was particularly interesting with the offline profile for those that are unfamiliar the offline profile is the ultimate of renaming. Because some person who decided they didnt want to profile and then facebook constructs a profile for them of all the things they do even though theyre not on facebook. So more generally and how that has changed. And its not something that is possible and the analytics that is part of the function of the social network. Especially Something Like facebook where it is attached to having data on users. That is another element and then you can walk away. Perhaps if we dont have the ubiquitous surveillance cameras. [laughter]. One part of the book i read with interest of the broader shop. And then to identify with that label. And then with that humility. And why women in the Tech Community are more likely than professional commentators. So i will not ask you for that grand narrative but just to note maybe to be a little overly kind so that organizing that i highlighted with that class analysis. And that was leading over to the pipeline effect that we can still see. And the way in which you have feminism and the commentators but at the same time it is a version of white feminism and then there is a lot to be said about that. But i would be curious about your process and thinking about that chapter and reflecting how not to come off as nostalgi nostalgic, and the historical about and with your own reflection. And with these intense moments and eyeopening because at that time i was based in new york and to become unavoidable. I the professional feminist media of that time was not addressing those intersectional elements that led to this harassment. And some of the resources that i found that were pertinent were like feminism and have the resources that just seem so much beyond the media presentation and not to do with agenda on gender or media one or gender or inequality. So that activism so with black lives matter i do remember especially and 2016 having a feeling like we have come so far to have a basic understanding of inclusion that wouldve been medical a few years prior much more broadly. And then to name certain factors more than others. But i do think and as those major platforms are and then to have Something Like twitter so they could create a one a so that and then to have that Community Element in a platform with a design for multiple communities and then to push forward so i say that with a lot of hesitation for the most part and design for everyone and this is a tradeoff that you have the tradeoff account so with those experiences as part of that conversation that part of twitter that has a the white woman would be the key and the turning point it is something i dont want to discount twitter because it certainly did nothing for that to happen. It did nothing as an activism. Just like black women on twitter and then to use that platform and then to find audiences doesnt necessarily represent and then to find audiences doesnt necessarily represent that folks need to follow that are not like them and it is interesting because one of the challenges is that you can have a false sense of familiarity with what you experienced without the fact and thats using these Online Platforms and that you can feel you are much more familiar with them and especially those online to talk about how they are treated by a white listeners. And then to talk about how he feels and then its like everybodys black friend and theres a way and then to create that false sense of familiarity with any real relationship so at the very least and that most times and two other folks attention and that one of the challenges and because of what they saw they just need that material to see money. So i do think one of the other challenges to appropriate or not necessarily credit that you experience in this way so i just saw it on twitter that and then to experience more inclusivity to understand other peoples experiences to just interact with them. Absolutely. And for those at airports complaining about some service you dont see treats from airport workers because they would get fired so it might appear to be a representation of Public Opinion but its always a very privilege Public Opinion and that is a key part and a lot of people made that decision to take advantage of it and that has always been the case substantially of us power. So having times have you seen people complain about their bus drivers on twitter . And because of that i am following a very filtered timeline but i also know that to share this experience into not even breakeven. In that when people talk about twitter it is always like a filter and these people share. Another thing the strategies and tactics people can take to be open to the general public and talk to someone who was a moderator or the design for women in gaming then you have to imagine at the same time to understand they dont want to be so exclusive that some kid in a small town that they cannot use the internet to find that likeminded community. And then to be open and the people somewhere in the world and then to get to the more intense conversation maybe still not completely unfiltered then to be loose. So with that posting history to the moderator. If you show you post consistently and that for the conversation and then just to get access and then filtered enough its a tactic not a solution. To the extent it has a hope for the future its the small communities and then you dont use the phrase of the magic of the internet. And thats been coming up for a lot of folks and talk about platforms like mastodon and activist and those that have been those community tools. And then look to engage to imagine the internet. Yeah. And then to have a stepbystep guide and to share his tactics but mastodon is a decentralized network it has a lot of pluses and minuses. One of the drawbacks is that it is kind of hard to get everybody to get off facebook and go to the decentralized network for people to have been on this platform and for those were quite privileged that force them to participate and for that sacrifice to have to give up that account is too great and then to build a Community Online with people you already know and then not have your data and to be taken for profit and to be exploited and all those challenging factors. So not Just Solutions but sometimes if you dont feel you have that technical ability to have those commercial platforms to have elements you really think that technique but she is studying moderation this is one of those techniques that is easy to implement part that is very interesting with the part right now that if you are not a user your also a moderator you will see a conflict and possibly want to step in and those who have gotten on the fight with that neighborhood up like nextdoor. Or ring. So basically so in the Daily Internet activities and then to have conflicts and to help them disengage and to escalate the situation. That is part of didnt talk about it quite as much as we thought with this ultra exclusive internet and then afford to login and a computer with that significant percentage of the world has use the internet regularly for that sense of needing to share in that space for people that are not like you if you are in a place to make it a little bit nicer. Thank you so much for speaking about your book and you will be signing them i understand. It is a beautifully written book. I cannot speak highly enough. [applause] bookstores this comin watch for many of the authors in the near future on booktv on