Kate Miltner: “School’s Out”

Dr. Kate Miltner is a technology and society researcher examining the ways that technology, identity, and structural power intersect. Coming from a background in tech and advertising, Dr. Miltner conducts ethnographic research that digs into things we’re so close to, we may not even take notice. She’s taken a closer look at memes as cultural artifacts, in particular those cute but spelling-optional Lolcat memes, and is now examining coding boot camps and the “learn to code” movement and whether the hype around learning to code is really the solution many think it is.

LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity, and Branding in the Social Media Age by Alice E. Marwick
• Cheez Town Crier, the hub for Lolcats fans
• This Woman Getting a Master's Degree In LolCats Will Be Richer Than You by Adrian Chen, Gawker (with the Princess Bride-esque final line: “Meme culture is serious business these days. Anyone who tries to convince you otherwise wants to sell you something.”
• The World Made Meme: Public Conversations and Participatory Media, by Ryan Milner
• “One part politics, one part technology, one part history”: Racial representation in the Unicode 7.0 emoji set” - Kate’s article in New Media and Society
• Mar Hicks’s episode on Stayin’ Alive in Tech: “We Belong”
• April Wensel’s episode on Stayin’ Alive in Tech: “Better People”
• Nathan Ensmenger's book: The Computer Boys Take Over: Computers, Programmers, and the Politics of Technical Expertise (History of Computing)

MUSICAL INSPIRATION FOR THIS EPISODE ON SPOTIFY:

"School's Out" by Alice Cooper

 ABOUT THIS PODCAST

Stayin' Alive in Tech is an oral history of Silicon Valley and technology. Melinda Byerley, the host, is a 20-year veteran of Silicon Valley and the founder of Timeshare CMO, a digital marketing intelligence firm, based in San Francisco.

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