Category Archives: ideas

Big stories and little details: what Charles Mann misses

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Ethan

Charles Mann offers a big story in the latest issue of the Atlantic. It’s 11,000 words, and it’s based around an audacious premise: the end of energy scarcity. The peg for the story is Japan’s ongoing research on methane hydrate, … Continue reading →

Posted in ideas, long bookmark, Media | Leave a comment

What comes after election monitoring? Citizen monitoring of infrastructure.

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Ethan

I spent last week in Senegal at a board meeting for Open Society Foundation, meeting organizations the foundation supports around the continent. Two projects in particular stuck in my mind. One is Y’en a Marre (“Fed Up”), a Senegalese activist … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, ICT4D, ideas, Media Lab | 7 Comments

Schneier and Zittrain on digital security and the power of metaphors

Posted on April 4, 2013 by Ethan

Bruce Schneier is one of the world’s leading cryptographers and theorists of security. Jonathan Zittrain is a celebrated law professor, theorist of digital technology and wonderfully performative lecturer. The two share a stage at Harvard Law School’s Langdell Hall. JZ … Continue reading →

Posted in Berkman, Geekery, ideas | 2 Comments

Have books, need hashtags

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Ethan

My book, Rewire: Digital Cosmopolitans in the Age of Connection, comes out on June 10th on Kindle, June 17th in hardcover. My publisher, W. W. Norton and Company, has evidently just shipped out large pile of proofs to readers. I’ve … Continue reading →

Posted in ideas | 3 Comments

Beyond “The Crisis in Civics” – Notes from my 2013 DML talk

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Ethan

Two weeks ago, I gave the opening keynote at the Digital Media and Learning conference in Chicago. The conference, which explores how digital media is and could be changing education and learning, focused on the theme of “Democratic Futures: Mobilizing … Continue reading →

Posted in CFCM, ideas, Media | 7 Comments

Harper High School, and finding solutions to complex problems

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Ethan

Every few years, This American Life puts forward a piece of radio reporting that raises the bar for journalism as a whole. A few years back, “The Giant Pool of Money” not only explained the mortgage crisis better than anyone … Continue reading →

Posted in ideas, Media | 2 Comments

Is civics in crisis? Or just changing its shape?

Posted on February 12, 2013 by Ethan

In late January of 2012, Austin Oberbillig and Evan Ricks, students at Olympia High School in Olympia, Washington made a video called “Lunch Scholars“. The video was meant to be a high school version of “Jaywalking“, a sketch Jay Leno … Continue reading →

Posted in CFCM, ideas, Media | 4 Comments

The Globalization of Sumo – My talk at MSR SCS 2013

Posted on January 22, 2013 by Ethan

Microsoft’s Social Computing Symposium is one of my favorite conferences of the year. It’s small, invitation only, curated by some of the smartest people in my field, and attracts a wonderful combination of smart folks I hadn’t previously known about … Continue reading →

Posted in ideas, Just for fun | 4 Comments

The flywheel in the farmer’s field, or why innovating around infrastructure is so hard

Posted on January 16, 2013 by Ethan

So we’re in the Home Depot, which we’ve visited almost every day since Colin’s been staying with me. That’s because we’re building a cabin, and while we’ve got a good local hardware store, they don’t have lumber, and while there’s … Continue reading →

Posted in ideas | 5 Comments

Mourn, and take action on guns

Posted on December 14, 2012 by Ethan

I tweeted earlier today about my horror regarding the shootings in Newtown, CT, and my connections to the community. I grew up nearby and have friends who attended the school where the shooting took place. An editor at CNN’s opinion … Continue reading →

Posted in Human Rights, ideas | 12 Comments