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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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Digital Activism Projects

Current CV

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Written Products

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Activism with your Friends

Posted by Mary on 30/07/2007 at 5:44

facebookprofilecrop.jpg why Facebook makes the activist in me smile


For the lofty academic goals of pure research I have recently been joining online social networks, specifically Facebook, Change.org, Care2, and LinkedIn. The only one I became attached to was Facebook and actually, I am embarrassed to say, I visit the site every day.

My affinity for Facebook is a bit of a surpise to me. My original reason for signing up for these networks was because I am interested in the possiblity of online communities for activism. I'd really like to see people using online social networks

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Reflections on Ubuntu

Posted by Mary on 26/07/2007 at 0:36

The Ubuntu logo - let's medititate on it for a spell

 

Ubuntu is my computer's operating system, a Bantu word from Southern Africa, and also a philosophy. According to one interpretation, ubuntu means that our humanity is revealed only through our relationships with others. At first I thought, "that sounds nice, but it's not literally true" but then I realized, "but wait, it is." Here's how:

We think of ourselves as individuals with certain characteristics: tall, handsome, smart, silly, generous, middle-class, Asian, urban, and so on and so on. But without other human being to interact with, we

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Summer Reading Assignment

Posted by Mary on 25/07/2007 at 16:06
Read over the presentations by the Summer Doctoral Program at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard and decide which person's PhD research on the internet is most likely to change the world.  Or just look for cool new ideas.  Lecture and presentation notes are being posted to the ICTlogy blog.
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Who's afraid of a curveball question?

Posted by Mary on 23/07/2007 at 14:46

clinton_mtv_withbubble.jpg Why can't today's candidates handle a curveball question? (see full video here)

Tonight, beginning at 7pm EST, CNN will broadcast a new kind of debate in which people send in their questions to presidential candidates as YouTube videos. Here comes the new debate, same as the old debate.

The reason that this debate structure isn't really so revolutionary is that CNN will still be picking the questions, continuing a style of "filtered" debates that make us forget what a real no-holds-barred debate is like. Media critic Jeff Jarvis parses this issue quite well:

CNN did give itself too

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From Egypt: "A Call to Blogging... A Call to Freedom"

Posted by Mary on 20/07/2007 at 15:21

Abdel-Monem Mahmoud is a prolific Egyptian blogger. Though an outspoken member of the Muslim Brotherhood, his message of greater political freedoms for all Egyptians has made him an admired figure across the political spectrum. He has been imprisoned by the Mubarak regime several times and was once tortured while in police custody. His most recent arrested in mid-April of this year resulted in a global Free Monem campaign.

After approximately six weeks in jail, Monem was released from prision and got right back to blogging. His time in jail did not temper his strong criticism of the Egyptian government

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The Cute Cat Theory of Digital Activism

Posted by Mary on 19/07/2007 at 18:17


"Just one moment, let me come over there and help you with your e-petition."


I like to pay credit where credit is due. Not many people are treating digital activism with the rigor of deep intellectual analysis, so I'd like to point out Ethan Zuckerman's contribution to this area. Ethan, co-founder of Geek Corps and Global Voices, is also the originator of the Cute Cat Theory of Digital Activism.

This theory states that while many Web 2.0 tools were created to help people share information about their cats (Flickr: look at my cute cat!, blogging: read about what my

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Shuffling Between Countries, but Still at the Bottom of the World

Posted by Mary on 18/07/2007 at 12:27

Solidarity is the most important.


At my friend's wedding last weekend, I had the great pleasure of dining with two African immigrants, one from Sudan and one from Tanzania. During the course of our animated dinner conversation I learned that the first worked as a letter carrier while the second worked construction, rising at 4am every day to catch a bus to the building site.

I was surprised that these two intelligent and capable men were not better employed, but their situation is a common one: trapped in a global underclass, people travel between countries in search of better economic

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It's Anarchy, Baby!

Posted by Mary on 16/07/2007 at 13:10

"These anarchists are scaring me with their theories of bourgeois reproduction."


On Saturday I went to a friend's wedding in DC. In between the church ceremony and the reception I found myself at loose ends. I was wandering around the Columbia Heights neighborhood when I found a very cool restaurant/bar/community center/lefty book store called Busboys and Poets. I decided to buy a book and read for a couple of hours. What I picked was Days of Love, Nights of War: Crimethink for Beginners and I really liked it. It's written by an anarchist collective called CrimethInc (cute!) and it's

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Beautiful Short Films from Amnesty International

Posted by Mary on 12/07/2007 at 22:21

Here are a couple of videos a friend sent me, made by Amnesty International. The first is my favorite. It is about how important a petition signature is, that signatures save lives. It's pure poetry. And even though it looks like it will be violent, it isn't, which is the whole of Amnesty International, after all.

 

The second has the same theme but doesn't have the narrative clarity of the first. Nevertheless, the last few seconds are really beautiful, so you can fast forward to the 0:41 minute mark if you're impatient.

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Mobile Activism Group in Facebook

Posted by Mary on 11/07/2007 at 18:02

social_mobile.jpg

Ken Banks is a truly dedicated mobile activist. Not only did he create the free mass messaging tool FrontlineSMS, he also really cares about the activists that use his product. "Last week," Ken recently wrote to me, "a health professor in Kenya emailed to say he was thrilled to be using FrontlineSMS in his outreach work. This is what it’s all about, and where the action really is." I couldn't agree more.

Ken recently created a group in Facebook for non-profit organizations, ICT professionals and members of the general public interested in the growing impact and uses of mobile

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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.

The Blog Advocacy Guide

        

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