As a technologist, Ethan Zuckerman has spent much time working with the new generation of African entrepreneurs, programmers, organizers, and young people who are hooking up their continent to the web. In an audio interview with Globeshakers host Tim Zak, Zuckerman explains how these new netizens are changing the way that villagers and urban dwellers learn, organize, network and face the challenges of poverty, AIDS, political strife, and making a living. He discusses new possibilities in the application of information technology to disaster recovery, and how it may be used to address larger, more complex social dilemmas.
As one of the core team members at Tripod in the 1990s, Ethan Zuckerman was at the center of a web-based community that served as an early development lab for the blognation phenomenon. Currently, his main affiliation is with the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School. Previously, he also lead a cadre of self-proclaimed geeks into the colorful chaos of West Africa, through Geekcorps to transfer skills to the developing world. One project in this area is BlogAfrica, a project to help Africans learn about weblogs. Zuckerman also works with anonymous blogservers for use by people in the human rights community, allowing human rights workers to blog about situations in their countries without compromising their security.
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This free podcast is from our Globeshakers series.