If you’re like us, you’re still in awe of the internet’s amazing capacity to provide a window on people, places, ideas, and information from around the world, with only a few clicks of a mouse button. At WIE, the web has changed virtually every aspect of our lives, from how we pay our bills to how we engage in spiritual inquiry.

Social activist and internet entrepreneur Ethan Zuckerman wants to bring that same transformative power of communication technology to millions of people in the developing world. Combining years of hands-on experience in Africa and elsewhere with the imagination and passion of a visionary computer geek, he is convinced that new media and new technologies can have profound impacts on social, cultural, economic, and environmental conditions across the globe. Whether it’s with cable TV empowering rural women in India or cell phones and satellite radio strengthening agricultural markets in Ghana, Zuckerman’s goal is to improve lives and living conditions by building new channels of communication that can function as truly creative engines for sustainable global development.

In this second of a series of conversations exploring the contours of “bright green” environmentalism (see the Oct–Dec 2007 issue of WIE), WIE editor Ross Robertson talks with Zuckerman about his fascinating and multifaceted work. Covering everything from Zuckerman’s innovative research as a fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society to his involvement with the pioneering bright green clearinghouse WorldChanging.com, this engaging dialogue illuminates a whole range of new angles and perspectives on the many complex challenges of building an equitable, interconnected, and technologically empowered world.

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