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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:

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

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"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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Tibetans Use the Internet to Get the News Out

Posted by Mary on 17/03/2008 at 13:25

Last week hundreds of Tibetan monks took to the streets in and near the Tibetan capital of Lhasa to protest Chinese rule. Although the heavily censored Chinese media refused to cover the story, both Tibetans and foreign tourists used the Internet to get the news out.


cell phone image of protests published on the site of a Tibetan rights NGO based in India

According to the Vancouver Sun, “Amateur cellphone photos and video clips showing what were described as confrontations between police and Tibetans protesting Chinese rule poured onto websites big and small, including those for major news media,

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OhmyNews Journalism School Doubles as Retreat

Posted by Mary on 21/02/2008 at 19:59

The Dutch innovation organization Springwise reports that Korean citizen journalism site OhmyNews is opening a school for citizen journalists. The program will take place in a renovated elementary school located 90 minutes from Seoul. The school is deliberately designed as a retreat, to "give urbanites a rare opportunity to recharge themselves as content creators in the middle of idyllic rural setting".

meeting room ohmynews classroom at the school

The purpose of the program is to disseminate the skills of journalism more widely among Koreans, a in keeping with OhmyNews' founder Oh Yeon Ho's mantra that "every citizen is a reporter." While some classes

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Hide Your Cell Phone: Digital Activism is Criminalized in Egypt

Posted by Mary on 02/09/2007 at 11:11

monem-freed_how_long.jpg

In June, Egyptian blogger Abdel Monem Mahmoud was released after spending 46 days in prison on charges of belonging to an illegal organization, creating and possessing images destructive to public order, organizing secret meetings with the aim of disturbing public order. But now Global Voices Advocacy reports that he's under threat again. Monem has been writing about the torture he underwent while in police custody in 2003 and the Egyptian doesn't like it.

This time a journalist at Al-Ahram newspaper, Ahmed Moussa, is being used as a proxy in the persecution of Monem, a sad case of citizen journalist vs.

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An Introduction to Semiotic Democracy

Posted by Mary on 30/08/2007 at 9:46

Note: The idea of semiotic democracy - the collaborative public definition of cultural signs (semeîon in Greek) - is gaining popularity, particularly as it applies the the Internet. Here's a passage on semiotic democracy from my case study on the citizen journalism web site OhmyNews. Please feel free to correct my interpretations.

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Citizen reporters take part in the semiotic process of creating meaning within a culture. They cease to be a passive audience for the culture products which reflect the priorities of others and instead create their own cultural products which reflect their own priorities. Given wide enough

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OhmyNews Case Study: The Super-Short Version

Posted by Mary on 28/08/2007 at 12:16

Note: In June I was hired by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society to write a case study about the effect that the Korean citizen journalism site OhmyNews has had on democracy in that country. I finished the first draft of the report last week. This is the executive summary.


Ever since Tom Paine wrote "Common Sense" in 1776, citizen journalism has been strengthening democracy. By providing an alternative to mainstream media in both content and perspective, citizen journalism keeps people better informed about public issues, allowing them to more intelligently form opinions about public policy and select

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The Election Blogging Guide

Posted by Mary on 10/08/2007 at 23:58

electionguide.jpgBack in 2006 I wrote The Election Blogging Guide with Solana Larsen and Zephyr Teachout. At the time we wrote it, Solana was an editor at openDemocracy, and now she is also co-managing editor at Global Voices. Zephyr Teachout was Director of Online Organizing for Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign and also worked with the Sunlight Foundation. Basically, these two women are rock stars and I am honored to have worked with them.

We decided to write the guide because blogs are a new forum for political expression and engagement. They offer a space for freer speech

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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

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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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Chinese Activists in Xiamen Organize Online

Posted by Mary on 06/07/2007 at 11:55

A man (center) wears a gas mask to protest a proposed toxic chemical plant in Xiamen

 

Despite the fact that China has the most elaborate system of internet censorship in the world, creative Chinese activists are still finding ways to use the medium for political activism.

On June 1, one million residents of coastal Xiamen protested against the proposed construction of a toxic chemical plant near the city center. Cell phones and the internet made it possible. The Chinese blogger collective Bullog used the internet and SMS to promote the event.

Because the state-controlled media refused to broadcast details of

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A Case Study about Korea's OhmyNews

Posted by Mary on 19/06/2007 at 14:26

OhmyNews founder Oh Yeon Ho addresses staff (credit: Kwon W.S.)

I was recently hired by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society to write a 30-page case study on the online Korean citizen journalism phenom OhmyNews. This is really good for me because usually I learn about digital citizen activism by experience (Free Alaa, Free Monem) rather than by study.

This project is forcing me to ask and answer the hard questions about how and why online citizen actions succeed. For instance: What are the particular characteristics of Korean society that has allowed online citizen journalism

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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.

The Blog Advocacy Guide

        

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