Disclosure Statement

(Note: this is heavily cribbed from David Weinberger who I adore and find to be a brilliant mentor regarding all things blog.)

No one pays me to write this blog or to say particular things in it. That includes all forms of compensation, including offering to catalogue my books or tell me that I'm brilliant. I don't run ads, no one pays me under the table, and I don't sell Apophenia t-shirts or coffee mugs. I do get compensated to blog in other places, but not here; I sometimes repost content that I write for elsewhere here because I think it might be of interest, but I do not repost everything.

I don't invest in companies (and don't have enough money to do so anyhow), so I've got nothing to tout except the companies and people I'm enthusiastic about. So, what the hell am spending so much damn time blogging for? Now you've got me all depressed.

How I make money

I make a living by writing, consulting, and giving talks. The percentage each contributes varies wildly over time. In the past, I have worked as a W-2 employee of various companies; currently, I work for no one, but I do have a small stipend as part of my fellowship at Berkeley. My primary form of income at this moment is through paid speaking gigs for for-profit entities. Not all of my talks are paid, but those that are make it possible for me to do free talks, write, and do research.

Occasionally I also make money by selling things on eBay or when my family sends me money for my birthday.

My dissertation research (including everything on MySpace) is funded by the MacArthur Foundation. My data collection, transcription, some travel, related expenses, and a small stipend are paid for through a larger grant on digital youth (PIs for this grant are: Barrie Thorne, Mimi Ito, and Michael Carter). None of my research is funded in any way by any company nor does any company have access to any of my fieldnotes, transcriptions, interviews, or analyses. What I write about this work will always be available to the public through my blog, book chapters, journal articles, and other publications designed to be accessible to anyone who is interested in that material.

Corporate attachments

Clients

I'm not going to list the companies I'm currently advising because that's between them and me. There aren't many of them and they are all short-term gigs. I will disclose them if I talk about them on my blog. I tend not to talk about them or their products.

W-2 Employment

In the past, I have been an employee of: Macromedia, Intel, Tribe.net, Google, and Yahoo! I am not currently an employee of any company. I do have a continuing relationship with the Leigh Bureau who represents me in my speaking engagements.

I prefer not to talk about the products of the companies for which I work. Given that I tend to critique rather than promote, I feel as though it is only fair not to use my privileged knowledge to critique only the people who pay my rent. That said, having a relationship with a company does not stop me from critiquing them if I think that they are acting poorly.

Boards

I am currently sitting on the advisory boards of Technorati and Blyk. As part of my advisory gig at Blyk, I blog at Shift6.net. I repost some of those posts at Apophenia, but mark them clearly as Shift6 posts.

Volunteer Work

In a few rare occasions, I do volunteer work for a company or organization, typically because the data that they provide me is invaluable. For example, I worked with the PEW Internet and American Life Project to analyze data on youth's use of social network sites. I also continue to volunteer with V-Day, an non-profit working to end violence against women and girls.

Objects of Study

In my research, I typically study people's practices using particular products. Examples of this include: Friendster, MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, etc. I intentionally do not work for these companies, but I leave myself open to working for them in the future when my project is completed. Different companies feel differently about my studying the practices that take place on their site. Friendster's management despised my work and was regularly hostile to my findings. MySpace, on the other hand, has been nothing but supportive and has provided me with immense amounts of data. The attitude of each company does not affect my decisions of what to discuss, but I never reveal data provided to me in confidence.

I have learned that it is not helpful to my research to berate these company's policies or politics, even when I disagree with them. For this reason, I am sometimes silent on things that piss me off simply because a pissing war is not fruitful for the continuation of my research. That said, I never do and never will justify a company's actions when I disagree with them and I will critique onerous decisions that I think have a strong societal cost. Whenever I praise a company that I'm studying, I mean it. Silence is a bit more of a gray zone.

Universities

I did my undergraduate degree in computer science at Brown University. I did my Master's in Sociable Media at the MIT Media Lab. I am currently a doctoral candidate in the School of Information at the University of California-Berkeley and a fellow at the Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society. I used to be a fellow at the Annenberg Center for Communications at the University of Southern California. I'm sure that these affiliations color my judgment on some issues.

I would one day like to be a professor and I'm painfully aware that this blog has already complicated any application that I might ever write. When I speak of academic frustrations, I am very cautious about what I say and, more often than not, I typically say nothing, although I'm trying to gather nerve to speak truth to power in this area. My feelings towards academia and academic institutions are probably the most silenced aspect of my blog simply because I do not have a good sense of the consequences. The exception to this is my absolute hatred for academic Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) and my frustrations with locked-down journals - I'm happy to speak about this any day because I feel as though these components of academia has stifled my research. My advisor (the beloved Peter Lyman) passed away in July 2007; he was an academic activist and I try to carry his torch.

Conferences

I currently - and have in the past - sat on the committees of various conferences in both professional and academic spheres. This typically involves advising the conference organizers and reviewing submissions. These include:

• Ypulse, 2007, 2008 - advisory board and reviewer
• O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, 2007 - advisory board and reviewer
• SXSW Interactive, 2007 - advisory board
• Blogher, 2005-2007 - advisory board
• Hawaii International Conference on Social Systems, 2006-2007 - reviewer
• Prix Ars Electronica, 2005 - juror, 2006-2007 - reviewer
• Computer Human Interaction, 2004-2007 - reviewer
• Association of Online Internet Researchers, 2004-2007 - reviewer
• Webby Awards, 2004-2006 - judge
• BlogTalk, 2006 - advisory board and reviewer
• Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, 2006 - reviewer
• Altered States and the Spiritual Awakening, 2004-2005 - advisory board and treasurer

I go to more conferences than I should. I rarely pay professional conference fees because either I'm speaking or I wheedle a "poor student" pass. (All speakers must pay their own way to academic conferences, but those conferences are cheap in comparison.) I usually pay my travel and hotel expenses, unless I'm getting paid to do a keynote. I have far too much debt from conference travel and so I'm trying to cut back on unpaid conference activities. Those professional conferences that I still pay travel fees to attend (Blogher, Etech and SXSW for example), I do so because I genuinely believe in the conference. I am far more likely to speak for free at non-profit conferences and conferences put together by my friends; I am less-than-thrilled to speak for free at for-profit conferences because I am not there to promote a product or find clients.

Free stuff

Companies sometimes send me free technology; authors sometimes send me free copies of their books. Often, explicitly or implicitly, they are looking for a mention. If I like the book or object, I may indeed mention it, but I often don't. I'm probably not going to tell you that I got a free copy. Why? Because it doesn't matter and because it makes me feel like I'm boasting. Also, it reads funny and I get lots of free books from reviewing and friends unrelated to promotion.

Links

Every day, I receive hundreds of requests to link to someone's project or website. Sometimes these come in the form of PR announcement; sometimes it's a begging request from a friend. I ignore 99% of these requests because I refuse to operate as an advertising vehicle. I only link to projects that I'm involved in or things that I think are really cool that I was not asked to promote; outside pressure to link to something tends to devalue it in my mind. When I post a link, it's because I can personally vouch for it.

When I mention a book, I usually include a link to the book on Amazon. I make a small amount of money this way. I never mention a book for the purpose of making money. I make less than $150 a year this way.

Politics and Activism

Politics are in my blood. I'm an activist and a progressive. I used to work for V-Day, an organization working to end violence against women and girls worldwide and I now volunteer for them. I am passionate about many issues, including abortion, queer politics, environmental sustainability, open access to education, civil rights, net neutrality, and Internet civil liberties. I often post on these topics and leave room for disagreement but I rarely get into heated debates on my blog about these positions - I don't think that it's the appropriate place to do so. I am happy to have commenters who disagree with me.

I voted for Obama in the primaries and am damn proud of it.

I anonymously donate 10% of my income to charities that I believe are doing good work. I encourage everyone else to do this as well.

I agree with Weinberger - I really really really don't like Bush. Can we please impeach him now?

My promise

Many people take issue with the fact that I charge to speak, but I do this so that I can make my research accessible. Decisions around money and influence are always a trade-off. I'd rather be paid to speak than try to turn my blog into a marketing machine.

Inevitably, I use my judgment. I am more likely to not mention a company that I am affiliated with than to promote their products. I do this out of fairness and because the bulk of my blog is dedicated to my opinions, not the opinions of organizations that hire me.

All I can promise is that I will be honest with you and never write something I don't believe in because someone is paying me as part of a relationship you don't know about. I may be silent because of my relationships, so please don't take silence as either approval or dissent. But I will never make shit up just to maintain good face with a company, organization, or person.