Ethan Zuckerman

Ethan Zuckerman is an activist and scholar whose work focuses on the global blogosphere, free expression and social translation in the developing world. He is the director of the MIT Center for Civic Media. He teaches at MIT’s Media Lab and MIT’s Comparative Media Studies and Writing program, where he is the associate professor of the practice. He is also the author of “Rewire: Digital Cosmopolitans in the Age of Connection.”

Prior to joining MIT, Zuckerman was a longtime fellow at Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society where he focused his research on the impact of technology on the developing world. His projects included a study of global media attention, research on the use of weblogs and other social software in the developing world, and the use of web 2.0 technologies by activists.

With Rebecca MacKinnon, Zuckerman co-founded the international blogging community Global Voices. It showcases news and opinions from citizen media in more than 150 nations and 30 languages, publishing editions in 20 languages. Through Global Voices and through the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, where he served as a researcher and fellow for eight years, Zuckerman is active in efforts to promote freedom of expression and fight censorship in online spaces.

In 2000, Zuckerman founded Geekcorps, a technology volunteer organization that sends IT specialists to work on projects in developing nations, with a focus on West Africa. Previously, he helped found Tripod.com, one of the web's first "personal publishing" sites. Zuckerman was given the 2002 Technology in Service of Humanity Award by MIT's Technology Review Magazine and named to the TR100, TR's list of innovators under the age of 35. In 2004, he was named a Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum.

Zuckerman received his bachelor's degree from Williams College, and as a Fulbright scholar, studied at the University of Ghana at Legon. He lives in the Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts with his wife Rachel, and serves on the boards of regional and international organizations that focus on technology and education, including on the sub-boards of the Open Society Institute's Information Program and US Program.