Participant/ethan-zuckerman

I'm a research fellow at Berkman where my work focuses on the impact and potential of information technology in international development. I came to Berkman from Geekcorps, a nonprofit I co-founded which focused on technology transfer and telecommunications policy in developing nations.

Most of my time now is spent shepherding Global Voices, an international community of bloggers and citizen journalists who are dedicated to showcases less-heard voices from the developing world. I also blog on a variety of issues.

I'm deeply skeptical that a public good approach to thinking of the Internet is a useful conceptual frame. My suspicions are informed by working in nations where declaring something a public good is the logical precursor towards nationalizing an assett and regulating it so that "undesirable" content is no longer permitted. I think it's a bit dangerous to assume that a public good approach could work both in nations that have a history of governance that represents public will and in those where that sort of governance is still only an aspiration.