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Recent posts
- Who Filters Your News? Why we built gobo.social November 16, 2017
- Finding hope… and dissing Lin-Manuel… at the Obama Foundation Summit November 2, 2017
- Stop killing protesters, including those protesting violence against protesters! October 19, 2017
- Mastodon is big in Japan. The reason why is… uncomfortable August 18, 2017
- Mistrust, Efficacy and the New Civics – a whitepaper for the Knight Foundation August 17, 2017
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Author Archives: Ethan
Massive National Prison Strike! Maybe. We don’t know. That’s a problem.
Yesterday, prisoners around the US began a strike protesting unpaid, underpaid and forced labor. Maybe. We think. Led by prisoners in Alabama and Texas, incarcerated activists planned a nationwide labor strike yesterday, with prisoners refusing to report for jobs essential … Continue reading
Posted in ideas
Comments Off on Massive National Prison Strike! Maybe. We don’t know. That’s a problem.
Supporting Feyisa Lilesa, a remarkable athlete and protester
At the end of the Rio Olympic men’s marathon, silver medalist Feyisa Lilesa did something extraordinary, important and dangerous. As he crossed the finish line, he crossed his wrists in front of his forehead in a gesture that’s halfway between … Continue reading
Posted in Africa, Human Rights
Comments Off on Supporting Feyisa Lilesa, a remarkable athlete and protester
When attention matters: Ethiopia crushes dissent in Oromia
As an advocate for Americans to pay more attention to international news, I often get the question, “Why bother? What can I do?” It’s a good question. Most of the time, there’s very little actionable in international news. Understanding the … Continue reading
Posted in Africa, Global Voices, Human Rights, Media
1 Comment
Protected: The village of peace… and of coca leaves
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Posted in ideas
Comments Off on Protected: The village of peace… and of coca leaves
The worst thing I read this year, and what it taught me… or Can we design sociotechnical systems that don’t suck?
Note: Shane Snow wrote a long and thoughtful email to me about this post. While we agree to disagree on some substantive issues, primarily our thoughts about the future of VR, we also found quite a bit of common ground. … Continue reading
Posted in ideas, Media Lab
37 Comments
From disastrous decisions to decentralization: a mostly spontaneous talk for Data & Society
My friends at Data and Society ran an excellent conference today in NYC. A speaker dropped out at the last minute and I got asked less than 48 hours ago to give a talk… a very specific talk. Here’s what … Continue reading
Posted in ideas
4 Comments
Life, Only Moderately Messed Up, part 2: Getting Help
Two years ago, I wrote a blog post, “Life, only moderately messed up: understanding (my own) high-functioning depression” that was widely shared and appreciatively received. This is a somewhat overdue update to that post, and intended very much in the … Continue reading
Posted in ideas
6 Comments
Lessons from Letterlocking: a serendipitous academic encounter
Here’s a quick experiment – I’ve been publishing stories on FOLD and replicating the text here on this blog. But FOLD now supports embedding – let’s see how well my blog supports it… Otherwise, please feel free to go read … Continue reading
Posted in Just for fun, Media
4 Comments
That’s _Professor_ Bozo to you, Pal
Something odd about teaching at a university – everyone wants to call you Professor, or Doctor. I am always flattered by the upgrade, but I sometimes feel a little miffed. There’s lots of people who teach at universities who haven’t … Continue reading
Posted in Personal
13 Comments
In loving memory of Patrick Fiachie
In the fall of 1993, I was 20 years old. I’d just graduated from college, and had lived most of my life in my parents’ house and in a dorm room. I was extremely ill-prepared to live on my own, … Continue reading