Jamaica Project

Led by Founder and Faculty Co-Director Charles Nesson, the Jamaica Project was established in 1998 and has expanded with each successive year through a series of interconnected initiatives. The Project focuses on the problems caused by globalization, exploring the thesis that networks based on communication and exchange of social and intellectual capital can help in rehabilitation of developing countries hurt by globalization.

True to the Berkman Klein Center's core focus on Internet & Society, the Jamaica project's mission centers on the use of the internet to shape, define and change society and the world around us -- and empowering others to do the same. We are exploring the potential of cyberspace as a means for development, both personal and economic. As such, the Jamaica project seeks to bridge the technological, economic and social disparities between nations, building on reform work already in progress, enriching existing initiatives with a new internet dimension.

We are doing something new. Our approach in Jamaica is to develop a new academic research methodology that integrates multimedia data and content collection, feedback, presentation, and distribution. The inquiry team will be rich in all aspects of technical media expertise, and will assemble the media each generates to a website repository that can be accessed and processed by each member of the team. The ultimate goal is to identify multiple points of view on a subject and articulate questions that lie along the interface between them, in an open, accessible and near "real time" process.