Interview with Founder of Geekcorps

cynical writes "WorldChanging has a new interview up with Ethan Zuckerman, founder of Geekcorps, fellow at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, and editor of BlogAfrica, the best source of access to African bloggers around. Zuckerman talks about the growing role of blogging in the developing world, fighting corruption and censorship online, the emerging world of "social source software," and a lot more. It's a long, wide-ranging conversation; clearly, this guy is thinking big about the power of the web, especially outside the United States."

Comments

The first time

[Darkman, Walkin Dude]

You know, this is the first time I've ever seen what could be called a viable use for blogs. The idea of posting your day to day affairs, life and opinions on the web for any stranger to see strikes me as being at best social networking, at worst repulsively narcissistic.

However using blogs to speak out against corrupt regimes etc. does seem to fill a niche that needed filling (although I don't see how it differs greatly from setting up a protest website). It gives an insight into the day to day life of a person living under such conditions, which we would otherwise not have. Its one of the reasons I enjoy chatrooms so much-where else can you get a real insight into the lives and cultures of people hal a world away?

Bridging the gap

[H_Fisher]

(From the article:)

We haven't had our first developing world A-list blogger yet. We haven't even seen anyone in the West who writes primarily, or even frequently, about developing world issues developing the kind of reputation that would help them get the word out on crises[...]

I wonder if any American or European agencies concerned with human rights issues, stopping censorship, etc. could encourage people in "developing" nations to speak out by providing space, publicity (a Slashdot-like list of links to individuals' blogs), or other efforts to help people tell their stories?

I'm not a blogger because most of the ones I've seen are (a) long-winded political rants or (b) personal drama; I'd much rather see, and tell others about, the world events we aren't seeing on the evening news and aren't hearing about from our government.

Great...

[HarveyBirdman]

First thing I see is a diatribe against PDFs for not being good at something they aren't really intended for (open collaboration). If someone is using PDF format for an open and living document, they are an idiot, but that's not the PDF format's fault. Anyone who hates a format because it gets misused is not firing on all cylinders.

Pffft...

Re:Third world blogs

[ahsile]

I agree, we are in the priveledged ranks. With the internet I can post (almost) anywhere I want and whatever I want. Censorship out there is something that isn't going to happen. It's much too large for a single body to go through and censor. Let my voice be heard!

My experiance with Geekcorps

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't have a Slashdot-account and I didn't want to create one just to say this, so sorry for the AC.

My experiance with Geekcorps is not such a good one. I first read about them a couple of years ago, I guess it was around 2000. I was very enthusiastic at this time and thought it was one of the best ideas ever, kind of like OSS applied not to software but to the real world. I had plenty of time before the start of university and I sent them my application because I wanted to volunteer to work for them about three months. Of course I can't judge for myself but I think I was qualified enough, having an excellent diploma, lots of experiance in building networks, GNU/Linux and programming, good references from companies like Vodafone and having a nice scholarship from Lucent.

Well, I didn't hear from them for a while and after a couple of weeks I decided to send a nice e-mail to ask. They almost immediately replied and sent me a rather rude e-mail where they wrote that I am not qualified. Well, they didn't even know about my qualifications because I never got the chance to tell them. They just had a very minimalistic web-interface where I could check several buttons. I really expected that after filling out this form somebody would get in touch with me to find out what kind of person I am, why I want to go to Africa to help, why I think I can do the job and stuff like this.

No, didn't happen. To me it looks like they really didn't want to bother and just were out to get their name in the newspapers in order to attract sponsors. I really hope that this impression is wrong and that they can achieve their goals because I still think that this is an outstanding idea. I am just not happy with the way they treated me and maybe other persons willing to support them.

fighting corruptiion with a blog?...in Africa?

[Anonymous Coward]

ROFLMAO.

This guy is ignorant as stupid can be.

People love corruption in africa, corruption is breakfast, lunch and dinner thing.

Have you seen last two episodes of The Amazing Race? in one players were charged $100 usd for a ride in a mini-bus, imagine the shape of the thing, and on the other one a local wanted couple in jail when he didn't comply with the agreement they had on the payment (the thing is on tape), to add to the thing the local got his money from the floor and didn't make a noise of it.

Ok don't take it to Africa, go to canada and see how many blogs there are around corruption/public opinion and politicians that are caught beign naughty only receive a slap on the wrist.

Blogs on corruption only work as a way to blow steam like it or not.

Interview

[Anonymous Coward]

Having hung out in many different Third-World cyber cafes in Latin America and China, knowing many expats with the same experience in other places, let me assure you that the internet is being used in ways that are unique to local situations and cultures.

Social needs are more important than tech savy.

Gutenberg - happening today @ e-speed

[rm3friskerFTN]

Over at the Belmont Club blog there is an essay describing how people right now here in the USA are "using the internet to combat censorship and corruption"

The essay (snippets below) also 'attempts' to utilize some Object Oriented lingo to describe what is going on (grin).

The undercard in the Kerry vs Swiftvets bout is Mainstream Media vs Kid Internet, two distinctly different fights, but both over information. The first is really the struggle over the way Vietnam will be remembered by posterity; ... But the undercard holds a fascination of its own. The reigning champion, the Mainstream Media, has been forced against all odds to accept the challenge of an [Internet] upstart over the coverage of the Swiftvets controversy.

"There are too many places for people to get information," O'Shea said. "I don't think newspapers can be the gatekeepers anymore -- to say this is wrong and we will ignore it. Now we have to say this is wrong, and here is why." [in other words the USA/European Mainstream Media has a problem with the internet no longer allowing them to control what geeks read & think]

The article is a candid and unconscious description of the actual nature of news. It is not just raw information or pixels pushed onto a screen, but a system of semantic entities: an series of information objects, containing properties and methods containing embedded logic, set loose on society. The power of the Mainstream Media lay in the fact that they controlled the generation of news objects; how they arose, what they did, how they ran their course. They were the news object foundry; able to make them "type safe"; define what they could do, and what they could not. And that power was enormous.

So when the Swiftvets story shouldered its way into the public consciousness despite the best efforts of the "gatekeepers" to consign it to oblivion, it posed an existential challenge to the news foundries. For where one could come, more would follow. The Mainstream Media responded to accusations by Swiftvets that Kerry had misrepresented his combat record in Vietnam by creating their own alternative news object, whose methods were restricted to OutrageAgainstBush( ) and SympathyForKerry( ), with read only properties Responsible and Respectable. They could no longer block the data, but they could still transform it.

Yet for good or ill, the genie is out of the bottle. Before the Gutenberg printing press men knew the contents of the Bible solely through the prism of the professional clergy, who could alone afford the expensively hand copied books and who exclusively interpreted it. But when technology made books widely available, men could read the sacred texts for themselves and form their own opinions. And the world was never the same again.