
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 let me share her "Algerian pizza" and took some of my tuna salad. She wore a simple blue cardigan, blue jeans, and no make-up. She is a true and unabashed idealist. She really believes in reforming American democracy and giving people a stronger say in their government's actions.
One thing that surprised me about the presentation she made later that day was how little she talked about the Internet. In fact, she barely spoke about it at all. Based on what she said in her talk, it seems that the center of what MoveOn does is listening to its members and following their progressive directives. In her view, MoveOn is a progressive member-driven organization that just happens to use the Internet to realize its goals.
Thanks to Gene Koo, you can listen to the talk on MP3 here. The recording starts about 3 minutes into her talk. It was raining and Gene got there a little late.


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In 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 



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