Sure, the web connects the whole world, but most of us end up hearing mainly from people just like ourselves. Blogger and geek Ethan Zuckerman wants to connect the whole of the wider world -- via some smart strategies to open up your Twitter world and read news in different languages.
Ethan Zuckerman is a senior researcher at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. His research focuses on the distribution of attention in mainstream and new media, the use of technology for international development, and the use of new media technologies by activists. He and his team recently launched Media Cloud, an open-source platform for studying online media that enables quantitative analysis of media attention.
With Rebecca MacKinnon, Ethan co-founded international blogging community Global Voices, sharing news and opinions from citizen media in over 150 nations, translating content from over 30 languages, and publishing editions in 20 languages. With support from foundation funders and media partners, Global Voices supports dozens of smaller citizen media projects in developing nations, and is a leading voice for free speech online. In 2000, Zuckerman founded Geekcorps, a technology volunteer corps that sends IT specialists to work on projects in developing nations, with a focus on West Africa. Geekcorps sent over 100 volunteers to projects throughout the developing world, working on projects that ranged from bringing internet connectivity to Malian radio stations to digitizing databases to manage Rwanda's Gacaca trials. In an earlier life, Zuckerman was a founder of Tripod.com. He's a legendarily dedicated blogger at ... My heart's in Accra.