Each week GigaOM Pro chats with one of its analysts to find out which technologies they read about, write about and can’t live without. Today we talk to Stowe Boyd, whose work focuses on social business tools and who recently moderated a panel on the “self-provisioned future” at the GigaOM Net:Work conference in December.

1. Who are you, and what do you do?

I consider myself living somewhere between researcher, anthropologist and futurist. For over the past decade, my focus has been social tools and their impact on media, business and society.

2. As a GigaOM Pro analyst, what are your areas of focus?

Social tools and the future of work.

GigaOM Pro Analyst Stowe Boyd

3. Talk about a favorite article you’ve written.

One recent piece of note is “Working out loud: how work media and social cognition are altering business,” which published on GigaOM Pro in December. And one that has aged well is “A Well-Ordered Humanism And The Future Of Everything,” from 2006.

4. What was the last piece of media (music, video, book, etc.) you paid money for?

I just ordered Mark Pagel’s Wired For Culture: Origins Of The Human Social Mind, but it hasn’t arrived yet.

5. What are the first three media outlets (websites, blogs, actual physical publications) you read in the morning?

The New York Times is generally first, but my reading has become odd. Instead, I use a bunch of curation tools: I dip into the Tumblr stream to see what is bubbling there. I also use Flipboard as a way to see what’s worth reading, save the links to Instapaper and then read on my laptop. So I’m not reading websites or destinations (except for the New York Times), I’m reading streams.

6. You’re stranded on a desert island: What are the five gadgets/devices/services/apps you can’t live without? (Presumably, there’s electricity and wi-fi on this desert island).

MacBook Air, Tumblr, Twitter, iPhone, Instagram.

7. When you’re not writing for GigaOM Pro, what’s your favorite thing to do?

I like food, so cooking and eating is pretty big for me.

8. What’s your favorite non-tech blog?

Maria Popova’s Brain Pickings.

9. What do you listen to (or watch) while you’re writing?

Very slow ambient music without words, like Harold Budd’s The Pearl or Burial.