Interview with Blogger Ethan Zuckerman

By The Pakistani Spectator • Mar 28th, 2008 • Category: Interviews • (2,021 views) • No Responses

My name is Ethan Zuckerman. I’m a research fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School (http://cyber.law.harvard.edu), a think tank that studies legal, social and technical issues that arise as the Internet spreads across the world. I’m the co-founder of Global Voices (http://globalvoicesonline.org), a popular aggregator of citizen media from the developing world. Global Voices functions a bit like a newswire service for global blogs, picking out the best bits and making them available to a global audience. My background is in the area of technology in the developing world - I co-founded a nonprofit organization called Geekcorps that sent technically skilled volunteers to developing nations to help governments and companies use the Internet. I live and work in rural Western Massachusetts, in the US, with my wife, who is also a blogger.

Would you please tell us something about you and your site?

My personal blog is called “My Heart’s in Accra” and is located at http://ethanzuckerman.com/blog . I’ve been maintaining the site since 2003, using it as a space to share thoughts about technology, international development, African politics and other topics that capture my attention. The title is a reference to the fact that I lived in Accra, the capital of Ghana, for two years as a student, and my interest in Africa traces back to that time living abroad.

Do you feel that you continue to grow in your writing the longer you write? Why is that important to you?

I hadn’t thought of myself as a writer before I began to write a blog. Since I’ve been blogging, I’ve published academic papers, magazine articles and op-ed pieces in newspapers. In the process, I’ve discovered that writing well is one of the most effective ways of spreading ideas. So I’m very grateful that blogging allows me to sharpen my writing skills and to try out new ideas.

I’m wondering what some of your memorable experiences are with blogging?

One unusual thing I often do as a blogger is to blog at conferences. I attend a large number of conferences, and I’ve developed a reputation for writing good descriptions of sessions in real time, posting my notes within minutes of the end of a speaker’s talk. This is quite difficult to do, and there’s a real sense of cameraderie between bloggers who do this sort of work. Many of my favorite moments as a blogger are sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with other bloggers, working as hard as I ever have in my life, and having tremendous fun doing so.

Bloggers tend to be very sociable people - we really value the opportunity to meet each other face to face. So attending gatherings where there are lots of other bloggers is very rewarding. The TED Global conference in Arusha, Tanzania last year brought together about fifty of the top African bloggers. The experience of meeting these marvelous writers, who I follow online, was just fantastic.

What do you do in order to keep up your communication with other bloggers?

Like many bloggers, I use a piece of software - an aggregator - to follow about 100 other blogs. I change the set of blogs periodically based on what I’m interested in - if I’m writing about Somalia, for instance, I might add half a dozen Somalia-focused blogs. I try to link to these other bloggers’ posts - there’s a system called “trackback” which makes it pretty easy for other bloggers to see when you’ve linked to their work. And I watch who links to be very carefully, and will often comment on another blog to thank a blogger for linking to me.

What do you think is the most exciting or most innovative use of technology in politics right now?

I think most of the interesting innovation I’ve seen in politics focuses on video. Video is a very powerful tool for shaping emotions. In the US, supporters of Barack Obama are using video in very effective ways, producing songs that promote his candidacy, and other videos that ridicule or critique his rivals. But I’ve seen interesting political video from all over the globe. A prominent Tunisian blogger, Astrubal, made a video that shows abuse of the national presidential jet - it’s basically an investigative report in the form of a video, and it’s been widely publicized, leading to great embarrasment to the government.

Do you think that these new technologies are effective in making people more responsive?

I think new technologies are very effective at letting more people speak. Unfortunately, I don’t think they’ve done very much to make us better listeners. A lot of what I’m seeing in new media is people talking AT each other, not TO each other. I have high hopes that we can do a better job of listening as well as speaking in the future.

What do you think sets Your site apart from others?

I tend to write about topics that aren’t discussed very widely. I write a great deal about business and entrepreneurship in Africa, especially about technical innovation - this is a topic that isn’t well covered in most newspapers or broadcast media. Over the past two years, I’ve written extensively about US military involvement in Somalia, which I’ve condemned - this is a topic very rarely discussed in the US press. I’d like to think that the fact that I’ve lived and worked in the developing world extensively gives me a useful perspective, letting me link together technical and political topics.

If you could choose one characteristic you have that brought you success in life, what would it be?

Curiosity. When I encounter a new topic, news story or idea, I often find that I’m compelled to research it in great detail. Much of my work on the blog is simply the result of me sharing what I’ve learned in this research.

What was the happiest and gloomiest moment of your life?

The gloomiest moment was when I realized the non-profit organization I’d founded, Geekcorps, was failing and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I resigned shortly afterwards and was depressed for quite a while afterwards, and swore I’d never start another project. Then, before I knew it, my friend Rebecca MacKinnon and I founded Global Voices, which has been at least as involved and satisfying a project.

I’ve had many happy moments, and I’d like to think that the happiest is still somewhere in the future.

Do you think [the use of Twitter and other social networking tools by politicians] is bandwagon jumping or what?

I think everyone is afraid of being left behind - it’s a very human tendency to fear that everyone else is moving ahead and you’re standing still. I think many people end up using tools like Twitter because they’re afraid they’re missing something. For some percentage of those people, these tools turn out to be very, very useful (as blogging as been for me) - for lots of others, it’s something they’re doing so they don’t get left behind. I think that for politicians, their use of these tools is often pretty inept, and that they’re using these tools mostly so they don’t look like they’ve been left behind.

If you could pick a travel destination, anywhere in the world, with no worries about how it’s paid for - what would your top 3 choices be?

I’d like to go to Antarctica, before the ice shelves melt into the ocean. I’d love to travel across the Sahara by land, preferably via camel as well as Jeep. And I’d love to travel in Iran, because Americans have so many misconceptions about the country, and because it’s so culturally rich. (For the same reasons, I very much want to visit Pakistan.)

What is your favorite book and why?

That’s an impossible question for me. I love books, and am always reading half a dozen at a time. The best book I’ve read lately is “Every Day is for the Thief” by a Nigerian blogger named Teju Cole.

What’s the first thing you notice about a person (whether you know them or not)?

When I’m sitting with people on a train, a plane or a bus, I tend to look at what they’re reading before I look at their face!

Is there anyone from your past that once told you you couldn’t write?

No. Friends and family have always been quite supportive of my interest in writing.

How bloggers can benefit from blogs financially?

I think most bloggers benefit indirectly, not directly, from their blogs. Sure, people have been able to make a little money from Google Ads, and some bloggers have published books from their online work. But I suspect that most people benefit because blogging opens doors for them, makes them better writers or indirectly advances their careers.

Is it true that who has a successful blog has an awful lot of time on their hands?

To answer this many questions, I obviously must have too much time on my hands!

I don’t think so. Many of the most successful bloggers I know are very, very busy people. They blog because it’s part of their work or their research and because it makes them productive in other aspects of their lives.

What are your thoughts on corporate blogs and what do you think the biggest advantages and disadvantages are?

I think letting people within a corporation blog about their work processes and products can be a great idea. It lets people know what new directions a company might be moving in, and gives customers a better insight to the company’s culture and values. The downside, I think, is that most companies blog really badly. They try so hard to control the message that the blogs lack authenticity and read as if they were advertisements.

What role can bloggers of the world play to make this world more friendlier and less hostile?

I’ve written a bit about “bridgeblogging” - that’s when someone uses their blog to try to explain local events, politics and viewpoints to a global audience. We see a lot of bridgeblogging in the Middle East - people in the Gulf States, for instance, trying to explain the good and bad parts of local culture to Europe and North America. I’m a very big believer in the importance of these bridge blogs. Right now, I’m very interested in people bridging between China and the US, two countries which understand each other very little. My hope is that we can make these sorts of blogs more prominent through sites like Global Voices.

Who are your top five favourite bloggers?

Well, five of my favorite blogs are:

- Global Voices, of course, where we’ve got over 100 wonderful authors from around the world
- EastSouthNorthWest by Roland Soong, who translates Chinese-language media for an English-speaking audience
- Lunch Over IP by Bruno Giussani, an amazing Swiss journalist who writes about technology and science
- Daily EM by Evgeny Morozov, a Belarussian journalist and technologist, who gives me great insights into the former Soviet Union
- Kenyan Pundit by Ory Okolloh, a brilliant Kenyan blogger who’s been pivotal in helping people around the world understand Kenyan politics

Is there one observation or column or post that has gotten the most powerful reaction from people?

One that’s getting a lot of positive feedback these past few weeks is “The Cute Cat Theory”, an essay about digital activism. The post where I’ve probably gotten the most positive feedback over the years is titled “Africa’s a Continent. Not a Crisis”, which was a very emotional post about how people misunderstand the African continent.

What is your perception about Pakistan and its people?

My main perception of Pakistan is that I don’t know enough about the country to make any generalizations. It’s quite obvious that Pakistan is an extremely complex and multifaceted nation. I’m sure that there’s nothing I can say that would apply both to Waziristan and to Lahore, for instance. I get the sense that diversity within Pakistan may well be much greater than in the US, for instance, in terms of people’s standards of living, people’s religious, cultural and political values, etc.

Like many people, my view of the world is shaped as much by people as by media. So much of my impression of Pakistan comes from my friends Omer Alvie and Awab Alvi, who write extensively about free speech issues in Pakistan. I often tell a story about their generosity - when India briefly censored access to the Blogspot platform, Awab immediately write to Indian bloggers, not to criticize the nation for censoring blogs, but to share some of the tools he and Omer had written to evade censorship in Pakistan.

Have you ever become stunned by the uniqueness of any blogger?

I’m stunned all the time when I discover new blogs. I remember reading the blog of “Sleepless in Sudan” for the first time and being stunned that an aid worker in Darfur would be brave and creative enough to share her experience of supporting refugees in Sudan with the rest of the world, especially considering how much personal risk she took in writing the blog.

What is the most striking difference between a developed country and a developing country?

The gaps between the wealthy and the poor. While there are amazingly wealthy people in the US, their lifestyle isn’t all that different from that of much poorer people - frankly, once you’ve got a house and a car, more money just lets you buy a bigger house and a nicer car. The gap between rich and poor in Ghana, for instance, is much more dramatic - it’s the difference between wondering whether you’ll be able to feed your children and wondering whether you’ll be able to take a vacation in Europe. I’ve experienced very large gaps in other developing countries I’ve travelled to as well: China, India, Mexico, Egypt.

What is the future of blogging?

“Blogging” is a very broad term. When we talk about blogging, we’re talking about everything from people keeping diaries for themselves and a few close friends, up to people writing essays and academic papers and publishing them online. The question is “What’s the future of online writing?” and I think that future is very, very bright.

You have also got a blogging life, how has it directly affected both your personal and professional life?

The two have merged. I spend much of my time supporting Global Voices, a project by and for bloggers around the world. Many of my closest friends are bloggers. I often travel to conferences where I’ve been invited to speak about blogging and citizen media… or just to blog what happens at the conference. There’s very little distinction between those two lives these days.

What are your future plans?

I hope to write a book about the ways in which the Internet can help people from different countries and cultures understand each other better. In fact, I’m likely to write it by publishing essays and chapters on my blog.

Any Message you want to give to the readers of The Pakistani Spectator?

I’ll offer the same message I offer to audiences everywhere in the world: make sure you’re listening to a wide range of voices, not just to people who already agree with you. Hearing the same opinions over and over again can make you stupid. The internet is an amazing tool to find different people with different perspectives and points of view - it’s your job to look for them and read them.