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Bio

livingroom_100x113.jpgIn 2006, I founded ZapBoom Consulting,  which specializes in the analysis of how digital tools like cell phones and the Internet can be used in social change campaigns in developing countries.  I have researched and written reports on topics ranging from online citizen journalism to blog advocacy and internet censorship.  I have also performed in-country Internet monitoring and international conference organizing. 

You can contact me at MaryCJoyce AT gmail DOT com.

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Client Buzz

Feedback from Zapboom Clients:

"Mary's passion and energy for digital activism is obvious in every action and initiative she makes."...read more

"Right away she cut to the core of our needs."...read more

"She deserves much of the credit for organizing a tremendously successful event."...read more

"She was able to turn a potentially complex technical task into something that brought all the different viewpoints together and channelled everyone's energy in a collaborative manner."...read more

Digital Activism Projects

Current CV

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Written Products

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Why Grassroots Digital Activism is Transformative

Posted by Mary on 31/10/2007 at 12:46

As of late (in the past three days) I have started defining my interest in digital activism in terms of its transformative capacity. By transformative I mean the ability of digital activism to alter the political status quo. I am not interested in digital campaigns that seek to gain victories within the current political system (many grassroots legislative lobbying campaigns in the United States fall into this category). I am interested in campaigns that seek to change the political rules or expectations within a society.

So, what is the connection between transformative digital activism and grassroots digital activism? Why is

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Troubling Thought at 2:05pm

Posted by Mary on 30/10/2007 at 15:04

I am interested in digital activism to the extent that is is politically transformative, that it can give marginalized political actors more power.  I usually think about this in the progressive context of human rights activists and democracy promoters but, as the case of Internet jihad demonstrates, violent and hyper-conservative marginalized groups are also empowered by the Internet. 

Digital activism is an array of tactics but implies no moral value. I am interested in digital activism because it empowers global progressives, but am I being naive?  Will an equal or greater number of conservative political actors use the Internet to

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My Afternoon with the Co-Founder of MoveOn

Posted by Mary on 25/10/2007 at 19:10

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The event poster

Last Friday I helped bring Joan Blades, co-founder of the progressive online organization MoveOn and the feminist organization MomsRising, to speak at the Kennedy School, where I am a grad student. The event was serendipitous. A few weeks ago Lisa Renstrom, former President of the Sierra Club, asked me if I would set up a Kennedy School event with Ms. Blades while she was in Boston to promote MomsRising. I said sure.

I had the privilege of having lunch with Ms. Blades who, despite her impressive accomplishments, is utterly lacking in egotism. She

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What Exactly Happened to the Burmese Internet?

Posted by Mary on 23/10/2007 at 16:16
Wondering exactly how the Burmese government sent down the country's whole Internet structure?  Then check out this new report from the OpenNet Initiative, available for download here.
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New Byte of Random Goodness

Posted by Mary on 19/10/2007 at 2:39

Check out the new Byte of Random Goodness, the perfect little song "West Coast," off actor Jason Scwartzman's debut album, a project called Coconut Records.

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Research Question at 12:58 am

Posted by Mary on 18/10/2007 at 1:57
I need to study citizen-driven political transformation and digital network structure and find their intersection.
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Aung San Suu Kyi is on Facebook

Posted by Mary on 16/10/2007 at 13:38

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My friend Angelo Embuldeniya just told me that Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese dissident, is on Facebook. Is it possibly a fraud? Sure. (I friended her anyway.) I guess my question is, assuming this is legitimate, how will she use Facebook? To protect herself by raising awareness of her situation? To share information about her cause? To organize actions? To recruit members to an organization? These are all uses of Facebook. Will she take advantage of them?

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Question at 1:26 am

Posted by Mary on 16/10/2007 at 2:26

How can digital technologies like cell phones and the Internet help politically powerless people become more powerful?

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Jihad's Digital Activists

Posted by Mary on 15/10/2007 at 17:48

                  

image from a terror-promoting web site celebrating the attack in Kenya in 1998 


I'm wary of even discussing this topic. I need to begin by saying that this post in no way advocates terrorism or violence of any kind. Terrorism and war and hatred make me sick and sad. Rather, this article is an analysis of how Islamic terrorists are incredibly effective at using the Internet to active their strategic aims while traditional NGOs lag behind. It is about implications.

An article in the New York Times today, An Internet Jihad Aims at US Viewers, inspired me to finally

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Don't Cry for Us, Thomas Friedman

Posted by Mary on 12/10/2007 at 1:07

Columnist Thomas Friedman is worried about the politics of the Internet generation. He wrote the following in the New York Times on Wednesday in an editorial entitled "Generation Q."

I just spent the past week visiting several colleges...and I can report that the more I am around this generation of college students, the more I am both baffled and impressed....

I’ve been calling them “Generation Q” — the Quiet Americans, in the best sense of that term, quietly pursuing their idealism, at home and abroad....

But Generation Q may be too quiet, too online, for its own good,

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Quote of the Week

"If you think you can influence the agenda, you walk through the world with different eyes and different ears."

-Yochai Benkler

What is Digital Activism?

Digital activism means grassroots activists using digital technologies like cell phones and the internet to increase their impact, thus subverting traditional power hierarchies and changing the world.

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