ASML Spring Synthesizer

Louis Barclay

Rudy Fraser

Fay Johnson

Darius Kazemi

Meg Marco

The Applied Social Media Lab is excited to open its doors for a Spring Synthesizer bringing together current projects, new ideas, and engaging conversations between those passionate about the future of social media.

Session 1:

Outsider Networks - Tooling Social Media Solutions Outside of Industry, 1:30-3:00 pm

Hear presentations from our three ASML fellows (see below) regarding their fellowship projects, and then join in a panel discussion with ASML's software engineer Darius Kazemi.

In-Person RSVP or Virtual RSVP

Session 2:

ASML Open Showcase & Networking Reception, 3:00-4:30 pm

Explore an interactive exhibition of posters and demos from ASML and RSM projects, as well as student and partner initiatives. Connect with staff, students, faculty, and members of the BKC network in an engaging and collaborative atmosphere. This will be an open house session without a formal program, so feel free to join us at any time, and come and go as you please! Appetizers and refreshments will be served.

Those interested in submitting their work should fill out this form by May 2, 2025. Submissions may include presentations of research, app prototypes, live demos, or creative experiments, to name a few.

Submit and RSVP

Speakers

Louis Barclay

Louis is a technologist and writer who has spent nine years building open-source tools to give people more control over big tech. During his time as a fellow at the Applied Social Media Lab, Louis built an MVP of a transparency platform to crowdsource the most viewed TikTok videos by country and time, and launched awesome web-research tools, a living resource to share knowledge of (and prevent duplication of) software to study the internet. Louis is a senior fellow at the Mozilla Foundation, a fellow at the Shorenstein Center, Harvard Kennedy School, and a Berkman Klein Center affiliate. More of his work can be found at louis.work

Rudy Fraser

Rudy Fraser is a technologist and community organizer with over a decade of experience architecting IT systems and leading diverse technical teams. As a Fellow in the Applied Social Media Lab, Rudy is advancing Blacksky, a decentralized social media framework that empowers marginalized communities, particularly Black users, by providing tools for community-driven safety, data ownership, and interoperability across platforms. His work is rooted in fostering online spaces where communities can thrive without fear of harassment or data exploitation. https://www.blackskyweb.xyz/

Fay Johnson

Fay Johnson is a seasoned product management leader with over two decades of experience driving innovation in consumer technology. Her work focuses on fostering trust, safety, and meaningful connection across digital platforms. Fay served as a fellow within the Applied Social Media Lab where she conducted applied research on depolarization and enhancing civility in online discourse. She explored in-app interventions to encourage constructive interactions, grounded in behavior change psychology and pro-social behavioral theory. Following the end of her fellowship, Fay authored a New York Times op-ed on the limitations of free speech online, based on her fellowship project CLR:SKY AI, a pioneering AI interface that enhances social media posting with live tone analysis and constructive rewrite tools. https://www.clrsky.ai/

Darius Kazemi

Darius Kazemi is a computer programmer, public speaker, author, artist, and Senior Software Engineer at the Applied Social Media Lab, working on open social media standards with a focus on ActivityPub and the Fediverse. He read each of the first 365 IETF RFCs once a day and blogged about it. Darius also maintains Hometown, a fork of the Mastodon project with a focus on features that promote small community cohesion. Check out his personal website for much more on his many projects.

Meg Marco

Meg Marco is the Senior Director of the Applied Social Media Lab, focusing on building public interest technology that helps make information available and understandable to researchers, journalists, civil society organizations and the general public. She has held senior editorial positions at WIRED, ProPublica and The Wall Street Journal. At ProPublica, her team’s work was honored with the 2021 National Magazine Award for Social Media, and she co-edited the coverage of the coronavirus pandemic that was a finalist for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. She is also formerly the editor and head of product of Consumerist, a Gawker Media publication that was acquired by Consumer Reports.

RSVP RSVP Fellows Showcase (Virtual) RSVP

Date Friday, May 9, 2025

Time
1:30 PM - 4:30 PM ET

Location

1557 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02138 US

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