Ethan Zuckerman of Harvard's Berkman Center & Global Voices: More expedient cash transfers

Ethan Zuckerman, who specializes in the implementation of transformative technological innovations in developing countries, observes how a system for transferring money in Uganda has anticipated a trend in the use information such as cell phone credits as a viable currency for day to day transactions. These alternative payment systems will be mediated by phone companies and anyone who is in the business of turning money into information.

In this video interview, Zuckerman shares his ideas on alternative currencies with Ideas Project, a new website brought to you by Nokia. Ideas Project is an online space that provides a new way to interact with thought leaders and their big ideas about the future of connected communications. For more on this idea from Zuckerman, visit http://www.ideasproject.com.

Ethan Zuckerman is a multifaceted thinker whose work focuses on the impact of technology in developing countries. A co-founder of web hosting venture Tripod, and social ventures Geekcorps and Global Voices, Zuckerman has catalyzed the implementation of over a hundred technology projects throughout the world. He is currently a research fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, where his projects include a study of global media attention, research on the use of weblogs and other social software in the developing world, and work on online censorship and anti-censorship technologies. Ethan was given the 2002 Technology in Service of Humanity Award by MIT's Technology Review Magazine and named to the TR100, TR's list of innovators under the age of 35. In 1993, Ethan graduated from Williams College with a BA in Philosophy. In 1993-4, he was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Legon, Ghana and the National Theatre of Ghana, studying ethnomusicology and percussion.

Ideas Project, a project of Nokia, brings together the most visionary and influential big thinkers to contemplate the big ideas that matter most to the future of communications. It is also a new kind of conversation platform aimed at uncovering the connections between these big thinkers and their disruptive ideas.

Explore the Ideas Project website at http://www.ideasproject.com, subscribe to its RSS feed, join its Twitter feed, and come back often to learn about great new big ideas as they break.

Category:

Science & Technology

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• Ethan
• Zuckerman
• Harvard
• Berkman
• Center
• Alternative
• currencies
• Uganda