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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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Feedback from Zapboom Clients:

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"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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OhmyNews: it's about the people

Posted by Mary on 01/08/2007 at 20:23

I finally have a deadline for my OhmyNews case study so I went to the library today to do some serious work. I'm about a third of the way through, and one of the conclusions I'm coming to is that the real story isn't the OhmyNews citizen journalism site. The real story is the citizen journalists themselves, the thousands of people who, basically for free, devote hours to the publication of the truth for the common good.

Another OhmyNews claim to fame is how its users created a grassroots get-out-the-vote drive which resulted in the upset victory of dark horse progressive presidential candidate Roh Moo-Hyun. (A US analogy is the Deaniacs boosting Howard Dean into the presidency). Well, this wasn't so much the doing of OhmyNews as it was the spontaneous organizing power of Roh fans, who were working not only through OhmyNews but also through many websites, including the Roh fansite Nosamo, as well as with cell phones and SMS.

OhmyNews is the largest and most influential citizen journalism website in the world and that's important. But I think that it would be a mistake to say that OhmyNews caused the democratic upheavals that resulted in Roh's victory. In my view the Korean people were looking for a way to take charge of their political system and OhmyNews was the medium they chose. The real story is that of the Korean citizen.







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Quote of the Week

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."

-Barack Obama

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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