When you report a piece for two years & then write it up in 8000 words, there are obviously lots of things on the cutting room floor
But this 🧵 isn't about that
This thread is about something else not in the piece: what it was like to actually *do* this research & writing
1/
Let's start with the fact that my main paying-job is *not* ethnographic journalist on tech companies. It's being a law professor. I teach property, info privacy, and internet law.
It is a fantastic job, but it is full time, particularly in your first few years teaching.
2/
That means at the same time as I was traveling back and forth across the country on red-eyes to be at FB to do this work I was also giving 26 two hour speeches about adverse possession and eminent domain to 70+ 1Ls.
Would not recommend.
3/
But how did I even start doing that? How did I get access inside Facebook?
I will tell you the secret: *I asked.*
4/
I went to a PR person at FB & one of the people who does stakeholder engagement in early 2019 & I said:
"Listen, I think that this Oversight Board thing is going to be a big deal and you are telling people you are doing this transparently. So you should let me report it."
5/