Cute Cats and the Arab Spring: When Social Media Meet Social Change

Webcast sponsored by Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and hosted by the School of Journalism, {UBC} Continuing Education, and Laurier Institution. Ethan Zuckerman is director of the Center for Civic Media at {MIT}, and a principal research scientist at the {MIT} Media Lab. His research focuses on the distribution of attention in mainstream and new media, the use of technology for international development, and the use of new media technologies by activists.With Rebecca {MacKinnon}, Zuckerman co-founded international blogging community Global Voices. Global Voices showcases news and opinions from citizen media in over 150 nations and thirty languages, publishing editions in twenty 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 corps 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. He blogs at http://ethanzuckerman.com/blog. He received his bachelor's degree from Williams College, and, as a Fulbright scholar, studied at the University of Ghana at Legon