Ethan Zuckerman is a Professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (my alma mater), where he teaches Public Policy, Communication, and Information. His work focuses on designing and advocating for versions of social media that have positive social and civic impacts. Which means moving beyond existing models of funding and governance.

On the show, Ethan talks about the Metaverse, trust, Facebook vs Apple, making the Metaverse a safe space, governance of online spaces, data ownership, what the biggest piece missing from the Metaverse conversation is, Omar Wasow and Black Planet, and technical barriers when it comes to storytelling access on various platforms.

Ethan founded the Institute for Digital Public Infrastructure to explore the ideas previously mentioned. It’s a research group studying and building alternatives to the existing commercial internet.

Previously Ethan was at the MIT Media Lab working at the Center for Civic Media, researching the relationship between media and social change, and building tools to study how ideas spread in the media, and how citizens can better participate in their civic lives. He is also the inventor of pop-up windows.

Ethan has many hats but the one that he wears the most is that of a blogger/writer. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, CNN, Wired and others. He also has a Ted Talk about listening to global voices.

Over the years, he’s been a tech startup guy (with Tripod.com), a non-profit founder (Geekcorps.org) a peace Corp for geeks, transferring tech skills from geeks in developed nations to geeks in emerging nations, especially entrepreneurial geeks who are building small businesses. He is also the Co-founder of Globalvoices.org which is a global blogging community.

He’s has written two books: Mistrust: Why Losing Faith in Institutions Provides the Tools to Transform Them and Rewire: Digital Cosmopolitans in the Age of Connection, both published through W.W. Norton. And is an alumnus of the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard, the MIT Media Lab and Comparative Media Studies at MIT, Geekcorps, and Tripod.

Transcript

Yulia Laricheva 0:05

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Dream Nation Love. I'm your host Julia. And today I get to interview Ethan Zuckerman who's a professor at my alma mater, University of Massachusetts Amherst. Fun fact, I got my start at WFMU, the radio station back in the day. And that's where I really honed in my interview chops and also got familiar with storytelling, you know, spoken word storytelling. And I'm really excited to have him on the show, because he is teaching public policy communication and information. His work focuses on designing and advocating for versions of social media that have positive social and civic impacts, which is kind of like the basis or the shell, right? Dream Nation Love is really focused on social impact, and diversity, and impairment are all these topics that we're going to talk about today. And what's really interesting is that Ethan is working on moving beyond existing models of funding and governance, which is super fascinating. He founded the Institute for digital public infrastructure to explore the ideas I just mentioned. And basically, it's a research group studying and building alternatives to the existing commercial internet. Really, really, really super, super, super awesome stuff. Such an on spot podcast for Dream nation, love, can't wait to get into the discussion. Another fun fact, this is about Ethan, he is the inventor of pop up windows. Yes, pop up windows. And he has had many hats, but the one he wears the most is that of a blogger and a writer. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, CNN, wired and others. And he also has a TED talk, you should check out. He's super brilliant. And honestly, I want to do like 10 podcasts with him because trying to cram all this information into one hour is gonna be really, really tough. Who knows, we might do another podcast coming up in the future. This information is so pertinent right now, because we are in the middle of massive changes online, especially with trust and freedom of speech and all this stuff. So let's get into the discussion. Enjoy the show. And don't forget to share it with a friend after you've listened to it.

Yulia Laricheva 2:08

Hi Ethan. How’s life?

Ethan Zuckerman 2:09

Hi Yulia. I am well. How are you doing?

Yulia Laricheva 2:12

I'm good. I'm so glad to have you on the show. And I'm so excited that you're at UMass because it's a really experimental place.

Ethan Zuckerman 2:19

It's an interesting place. It's a big state university. So there's a lot of different things going on. But it's a university that has a real dedication towards social change and social justice. And it's a good fit for me. So I'm happy to be there.

Yulia Laricheva 2:32

Yeah, it's my alma mater. So when I've been reading your work probably for the last year I haven't I really came across you like, recently. And then I was like, Wait, he's at UMass. Lowell. This makes so much sense because we do a lot of social justice work at UMass Amherst. And a lot of people don't know about that. I wanted to talk to you a little bit about the metaverse and honestly, your career is like 10 podcasts. I don't know if I can squeeze all the questions I want to ask because there's like a podcast I want to do about trust issues, which is like what you've written books about on which is like fascinating, and government and all that stuff. And then your work also in places like Ghana, and in all the tech programs that you've built, I'm going to just try to get it into this hour, I will do my best. And I guess you're into hip hop too?

Ethan Zuckerman 3:21

I listened to lots of different kinds of music, hip hop and some of it but yeah, pick whatever works for you. You get to steer the boat. I'm sitting back and you can take me for a ride today.

Yulia Laricheva 3:31

Awesome. What was your dream as a child growing up?

Ethan Zuckerman 3:34

You know, I think the dream that I probably remember the clearest was wanting my parents to let me loose in the New York City Public Library. I actually lobbied my parents to let me take a year off between high school and college and just go to the New York Public Library and read. And I think for a lot of kids, that would have been an excuse to run wild in New York City. I think for me, I probably would have gone to the New York Public Library and read, I just loved libraries. I loved being able to find out about a topic that I...

Ethan Zuckerman: Talks Metaverse, building a better internet, and the power of local communities.

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