Recent Posts
Govern or Be Governed: What are the Threats to Freedom of Speech?
The afternoon at Govern or Be Governed starts with two of my heroes, Jameel Jaffer from the Knight F…
Govern or Be Governed: Protecting Creativity is Protecting Democracy
Baroness Beeban Kidron, filmmaker and member of UK House of Lords, joins the Govern or Be Governed c…
Frank McCourt on the value of personal data at Govern or be Governed
Frank McCourt is a real estate magnate turned sports team owner, and now a digital freedom advocate.…
Govern or Be Governed: Can Anyone Regulate Big Tech?
I’m in Montreal today and tomorrow at a conference titled Attention: Govern or be Governed. I&…
Tracking ICE with Media Cloud data
I’m starting my day at MIT at a conference on the quantitative analysis of news, hosted by the…
amac at UMass: How do we regulate AI?
Alex MacGillivray – better known as “amac” – is a lawyer and technologist wh…
Ethan Zuckerman
Hi. I’m Ethan Zuckerman. I’m a professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where I teach Public Policy, Communication and Information. I’m starting a new research center called the Institute for Digital Public Infrastructure. Over the years, I’ve been a tech startup guy (with Tripod.com), a non-profit founder (Geekcorps.org) and co-founder (Globalvoices.org), and throughout it all, a blogger.
I started blogging here in 2003 when this site was titled “My Heart’s in Accra”. I now write in a lot of different fora – for The Atlantic, Columbia Journalism Review and other sites, on my Medium page and as part of different university projects. Blogging led me to writing books as well as academic and journalistic articles, and much of that work features here.
Books
Mistrust
How can you change society if you lose faith in institutions like governments and corporations? Mistrust (2021) is a guidebook to social change through movements that try to change minds and hearts as well as laws.
Rewire
Is the Internet bringing us closer together? Or just insulating us in our echo chambers? Rewire (2013) explores ways to break those echo chambers and build a more connected world.
Projects
iDPI
Institute for Digital Public Infrastructure – a new research center at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, exploring future visions of the internet that center civic life and the public good.
Gobo
A social media aggregator that gives you control over what and who you hear the most from.
Media Cloud
A free, open source tool for tracking ideas, individuals and stories across the open web.
Global Voices
An online community of writers, artists and translators who work together to bring a richer, more nuanced picture of life around the world, with contributors in over 150 countries.
Articles
“The Internet’s Original Sin” is an article I wrote for the Atlantic about the toxic nature of the ad supported internet… and my confession of unleashing the popup ad on the world.
“The Case for Digital Public Infrastructure” offers a vision of how we might build an internet on values of civic engagement rather than private profit.
“Cute Cats to the Rescue?” is an oldie but goodie – my attempt to explain the Cute Cat Theory of Digital Activism and censorship resistance in academic form.
Tweets & Podcasts
Podcast: Reimagining the Internet
My Tweets
Public Speaking
My Talks
I enjoy public speaking as a way to develop new ideas, meet new people and see different parts of the world. My TED talk, seen below, is a good introduction both to my public speaking and the ideas in my books.
I don’t use an agent for speaking – if you want to invite me to speak at your event, conference or bar mitzvah, contact me through my contact form.