by Darius Kazemi, Jul 12, 2024
Big news in my world: I have been hired as a Senior Engineer at the Applied Social Media Lab at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center!
The lab's mission is
to reimagine, rebuild, and reboot social media to serve the public good.
They plan to do this via
new open-source software and protocols, new analyses, and new policy recommendations
and well... that's kind of my whole deal! When I saw that they were hiring engineers I thought I should throw my hat in the ring and I'm delighted to say that I'm starting there Monday. I am not sure exactly what I'll be working on, though in general the lab is in an experimental mode and I'll be wearing a lot of hats and working on different projects in parallel. I am really excited to be embedded with a team of people who are broadly trying to improve the internet in the same way I am!
There's not a lot of public information about the lab yet, but aside from what's on the website you can also check out this blog post from Director of the lab Jonathan Bellack, and this (now closed) call for applications to a workshop at the lab gives you an idea of some of the subject areas they cover.
The other good news here is that I know how I work, and I am sure that being focused on social media tech at my job is going to help me focus on working on my various projects like Hometown. (When I'm inspired at my work I tend to get inspired in my off hours too.) I am optimistic that I'll be better able to give Hometown and other projects like my RSS-to-ActivityPub Converter the attention and care they deserve.
And finally, if you've been following my work with Erin Kissane for the Digital Infrastructure Insights Fund, the bulk of it is done and will be coming this summer once we nail down publication details!