Content submitted by Mary tagged with "harvard"

Live-Blogging: Larry Lessig Wants to Change Congress

Posted by Mary in ZapBoom on 04/04/2008 at 19:17

Larry Lessig, Stanford intellectual extraordinaire and founder of Creative Commons, is here at Harvard Law School to talk about his new campaign Change Congress as part of the Berkman@10 lecture series.

He begins with a quote from Ronald Reagan: "A Democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can exist only until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse over loose fiscal policy."

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This is why I came to Harvard

Posted by Mary in ZapBoom on 21/11/2007 at 14:26


Yochai Benkler and his book, The Wealth of Networks

Yesterday I met with Yochai Benkler, Co-Director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, where I work as a research assistant. What a spectacular and inspiring meeting! Prof. Benkler is one of the top intellectuals thinking about the effect of the Internet on society. He literally wrote the book on the topic (The Wealth of Networks, pictured above).

My fellow RA, Josh Goldstein, set up the meeting to learn more about Prof. Benkler's current research on cooperation and possibly lay a groundwork for future collaboration with the

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My Afternoon with the Co-Founder of MoveOn

Posted by Mary in ZapBoom on 25/10/2007 at 19:10

The event poster

Last Friday I helped bring Joan Blades, co-founder of the progressive online organization MoveOn and the feminist organization MomsRising, to speak at the Kennedy School, where I am a grad student. The event was serendipitous. A few weeks ago Lisa Renstrom, former President of the Sierra Club, asked me if I would set up a Kennedy School event with Ms. Blades while she was in Boston to promote MomsRising. I said sure.

I had the privilege of having lunch with Ms. Blades who, despite her impressive accomplishments, is utterly lacking in egotism. She

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Digital Skeptics in Cambridge

Posted by Mary in ZapBoom on 10/10/2007 at 0:13

Since I arrived in Cambridge a month ago, I've been talking to lots of smart people to get their opinions on digital activism. Some are eminent scholars of political science (my profs), some work at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, some are professional political organizers. Overwhelmingly, I have received the same reaction when I talk about the politically transformative power of digital tools: skepticism.

I won't lie - this has been disheartening. I thought here in Cambridge, here at Harvard, people would be more open to digital political transformation. It's not that they don't understand that the Internet

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Blatant Feminism

Posted by Mary in ZapBoom on 09/10/2007 at 1:19

Ani - she's not digital but she is a revolutionary.

Sorry for the blatantly feminist Quote of the Week (is that something one needs to apologize for?). I just finished a paper for my Women and Leadership class and I used "Make Them Apologize" to get me in the mood.

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a global practice and a global language

Posted by Mary in ZapBoom on 27/09/2007 at 23:51

Since I got to Harvard I've been casting myself in all digital directions: research assistant at the Berkman Center, trying to start a student Digital Action Group (DigAct), maybe building some digital activism technology with Gene Koo, bringing a speaker to campus. I've got a big goal and I'm not sure how to accomplish it so I just keep grabbing hold of things, hoping that something will stick.

So what is this big goal? I want digital activism to be a global practice and a global language. I want people around the world to be able to use

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Political Equals

Posted by Mary in ZapBoom on 10/09/2007 at 23:55

Today was my first day of class at the Kennedy School and, not surprisingly, one of my readings for tomorrow has inspired me.  (Part of the reasons I was looking forward to starting grad school was to have more blogging fodder.)

For my class in comparative politics, I was assigned a piece of Robert A. Dahl's 1971 book Polyarchy:Participation and Opposition, specifically, a section on democratization.  One throw-away comment that Dahl makes that I really like is that citizens in a democracy are "political equals."  I really like this formulation of equality and I think it  clarifies the impact

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Hello Beantown!

Posted by Mary in ZapBoom on 26/08/2007 at 21:22


KSG campus in Boston


You may have noticed that I didn't write much this week (actually, I wrote nothing). That is because I was finishing up the OhmyNews case study (more on that in future posts) and moving the Boston (that's Beantown to the locals).

Why have I moved to Boston? I'll be starting a 2-year Master in Public Policy degree in a week at the Kennedy School of Government. I'm a little nervous (it is Harvard after all) but mostly really excited. I am expecting to meet some really smart and idealist and ambitious people - neat-o!

That's

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Summer Reading Assignment

Posted by Mary in ZapBoom on 25/07/2007 at 16:06
Read over the presentations by the Summer Doctoral Program at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard and decide which person's PhD research on the internet is most likely to change the world.  Or just look for cool new ideas.  Lecture and presentation notes are being posted to the ICTlogy blog.
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Why I Blog

Posted by Mary in ZapBoom on 17/04/2007 at 8:54

Why am I beginning a new blog?  Because I have been a very bad blogger.  If you look at my old blog, DemoBlog, you will see that I rarely wrote in it.  Sometimes twice a month, sometimes less.  Blogging has been a very stressful experience for me.  Demoblog was about tracking digital democracy around the world and I have felt the need to turn out a very "professional" post every time (a well-reasoned argument or bit of citizen journalism, complete with supporting evidence) like my blogging idol, Ethan Zuckerman of My Heart's in Accra. Everytime I read one

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