J. Nathan Matias 🦣 / is on Nostr

Social & computer scientist who works alongside communities on science for a safer, fairer, more understanding Internet.

Founder, Citizens and Technology Lab · Visiting Scholar, Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia · Assistant Prof at Cornell · Guatemalan-American · Co-founder of @transparenttech

Enjoys taking photos & listening to books/poetry on very long bike rides.

natematias.com: https://natematias.com
Citizens and Technology Lab: https://citizensandtech.org
Coalition for Independent Technology Research: https://independenttechresearch.org/

Last Notes

2024-09-24 00:29:44

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yes, I would *love* to spend at least an hour a week reading and amplifying the work of more junior folks, but I don't know how to find them and their work, or direct people toward them, and I'm finding it hard to convince students to make themselves findable.

2024-09-24 00:09:09

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you may well be right. Sigh.
And in one sense, people are free to do whatever they want, and if people no longer want those networks, we can't force it.
But also academia, journalism, & civil society seem less connected now than any time in the 21st century. That seems substantively risky, for society & for the next generation. I fear we'll lose the richness of knowing each other & sharing inspiration/ideas effectively.
So I'm looking for what I can do about this, with others.

2024-09-23 23:43:18

Scholars: what you trying in order to organize & support networks of community among emerging scholars?
Today across the extended CAT Lab network, we had a revealing conversation; gradstudents reported that microblogging platforms exposed them to risk/harassment with little reward, and that they were unsure how to find peers & community elsewhere, aside from becoming an "influencer," which only some found palatable.
Are you seeing the same? What can we do about this?

2024-09-22 12:14:32

Robyn Speer, one of my mentors in computational linguistics, has ended updates on wordfreq, a widely used tool in natural language processing & AI.
"I don't want to work on anything that could be confused with generative AI, or that could benefit generative AI."
"OpenAI and Google can collect their own damn data. I hope they have to pay a very high price for it, and I hope they're constantly cursing the mess that they made themselves."
https://github.com/rspeer/wordfreq/blob/master/SUNSET.md

2024-09-14 15:43:37

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My decision to go industry-independent unlocked the journey that defined my career for the last ten years.
In that time, CAT Lab has worked directly with communities who donate data, collaborating on research that has measurably made online platforms safer & more understanding for hundreds of millions of people. By working with the public, we can make a difference without having to strike deals with unreliable corporate partners or violating people's privacy. I'm so grateful I made that choice.

2024-09-14 15:38:15

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Despite very well-meaning employees on the inside, it never came to anything—except taking political pressure off companies for the cost of a press release, a few meetings, and an extraordinary amount of time from internal staff who were also left in the lurch. That was the year I decided to focus on independent research—I wasn't going to be fooled by tech firms again.

2024-09-14 15:38:04

Ten years ago, a coalition of Reddit, Imgur, and Twitch promised to collaborate with external scientists, even as they faced social pressure for failures in online safety. I was one of the scholars whose name they used to whitewash their reputation.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/aug/18/reddit-imgur-twitch-derp-social-data

2024-09-13 03:27:09

Welcome to Cornell, @npub1fdr…lvhs! I have fond memories of your visits to the MIT Media Lab, and I'm looking forward to the sparks that will fly when you meet with our students and community!
https://adwhiteprofessors.cornell.edu/announcements/internationally-renowned-science-fiction-novelist-and-technology-activist-cory-doctorow-appointed-as-a-d-white-professor-at-large/

2024-09-07 13:05:49

It's a new semester, which means it's time to shill for the handwriting industrial complex.
In study after study, students who set aside devices learn better. The evidence has mounted even further since @npub1lvp…e5vg's 2017 article
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/for-better-learning-in-college-lectures-lay-down-the-laptop-and-pick-up-a-pen/

2024-09-04 00:35:37

Rising Voices at @npub18wl…wxmu is doing amazing work to organize folks working to expand internet and indigenous language resources. Here’s a short video about a project by one group in Chiapas Mexico
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C_eQuUWy8nC/?igsh=MWU4eXRyMXZhdXhrZQ

2024-09-04 00:35:37

2024-09-01 21:26:17

Listening to @npub1n5c…mpqj’s book “Invisible Rulers,” which is extraordinarily well written.
I am impressed by the care and clarity that went into this book at the same time Renée was facing an extraordinary intimidation campaign that reached into every part of her life.
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/113/064/404/437/958/832/original/e42814a561b8b8dd.png
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/113/064/404/907/185/849/original/7ebf183d9ee04dfc.png
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/113/064/405/294/265/304/original/dcb062a7c3af83df.png
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/113/064/405/747/142/237/original/9953d9c9fe0e0b66.png

2024-08-30 21:49:09

Open Social Web / fediverse folks: with Elon Musk's fight with the Brazilian government likely to result in X being down in Brazil, there's an opportunity to invite more folks to the fediverse.
Is anyone working on plans to recruit and welcome people here, while ensuring their safety & quality of community? It's an obvious opportunity that can be planned for.
cc @npub17sj…03qd @npub1vl7…f6g0
https://www.npr.org/2024/08/30/nx-s1-5096220/brazil-suspends-x-elon-musk

2024-08-25 01:25:34

Deeply troubled to see that the % of Black, Hispanic, Native American / Pacific Islander students at MIT has gone down by 10 percentage points in the past year.
This is not unexpected, but still a blow. Seeing this makes me even more committed to the work of education for all that brought me into higher education in the first place.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8rxvd2z6ldo

2024-08-18 19:29:28

Legal scholars & social scientists: what is the best scholarly summary of the legal and societal issues at stake for online child safety policy proposals? Looking for a good overview to share with students. cc @npub18r2…gce5

2024-08-04 17:57:57

Fascinated that Olympics deepfakes are being used to circumvent copyright restrictions online.
Basically, as soon as someone wins a medal, I'm seeing deepfake YouTube shorts about their victory.
I can see why: people are searching for information about winners, and low res video can quickly be enhanced to skim ad revenue in the period before rights-managed media can be published.
Disturbed by the grotesque, race/gender stereotype images this is propagating, clearly informed by porn data :(

2024-08-01 22:45:38

Earlier this week, a friend in UK civil society told me: "I don't think there's been an election year in recent memory where I knew less about the internet and politics."
That's not an accident. In two weeks, Meta plans to shut down its leading transparency tool called CrowdTangle, a tool used by researchers & journalists for so much reporting about current affairs.
Today @npub14vl…2u7h released a report highlighting the impacts that Meta's decision will have
https://independenttechresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/CrowdTangle-Survey-Report-Final.pdf

2024-07-31 21:17:28

Today I learned that undocumented immigrants in the US pay roughly $96.7 billion in taxes every year https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article290533609.html#campaignName=fresno_abeja_newsletter&linkType=nmeintro