Strategy Group

Katharine Brodock is a new media marketing specialist and Founder of the marketing strategy firm, Other Side Group. She holds and MBA from the Goizueta Business School of Emory University, an MA in International Relations from The Fletcher School, and BAs in History and Political Science from the University of Rochester. In a professional setting, she works with new media to develop marketing strategies for the digital world. She is the Managing Director of the Girls in Tech Boston Chapter and the Strategy Group for Boston World Partnership.  You can find Kate on Twitter, and blogging at Today and Tomorrow and Ad Your Comments Here.

David Faris is finishing his PhD in Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania, where his research interests include democratization, Middle East politics, and digital media. His work has been published in Arab Media & Society and Technology & Politics Review. David’s activism experience includes a long stint as an organizer and leader in GET-UP, the graduate employee union at the University of Pennsylvania. He will be teaching Political Science at Chicago’s Roosevelt University in the fall.

Dave Karpf is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Brown University’s Taubman Center for Public Policy. He finished a PhD in Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania in 2009 and will be an Assistant Professor at Rutgers University beginning in the fall. Dave’s primary research interest is in the Internet’s impact on political institutions, particularly the development of “netroots” political associations in the United States. His work has been published in the Journal of Information Technology and Politics and Politics and Technology Review, among others. He has served for the past six years on the Sierra Club Board of Directors.

Mary Joyce | Founder : Mary is an expert in the field of digital activism and travels the world training, speaking, and consulting on the topic. In 2007 she founded DigiActive.org, an all-volunteer organization dedicated to helping grassroots activists around the world use digital technology to increase their impact, and in 2008 she was New Media Operations Manager for Barack Obama’s national presidential campaign. She is also the editor of Digital Activism Decoded, the first book explicitly devoted to the topic of digital activism, to be published in the spring of 2010.

Patrick Meier is a PhD candidate at The Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy where his dissertation research analyzes the impact of the information revolution on repressive rule and social resistance. He is the Co-Director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative’s (HHI) Program on Crisis Mapping and Early Warning and also serves as Director of Crisis Mapping and Strategic Partnerships at Ushahidi. His is a member of the Board of Advisors of both DigiActive.org and Digital Democracy, two leading digital activism and democracy initiatives.

Board of Advisers

Esra’a Al Shafei is one of the most prolific digital activists working today.  Esra’a is the founder of Mideast Youth, an all-volunteer organization that produces slick web sites and content for digital campaigns across the Middle East, supporting the rights of migrants and religious and ethnic minorities. Though only in her early twenties, she has been a TED and Echoing Green fellow and, in 2008, received the Berkman Center for Internet and Society’s first award for “outstanding contributions to the internet and its impact on society”.

Hardy Merriman is a leading scholar and trainer in the field of nonviolent civic action.  He has edited or co-authored some of the seminal works in the field, such as Waging Nonviolent Struggle (2005) and CANVAS Core Curriculum: A Guide to Effective Nonviolent Struggle (2007).  He is currently a Senior Advisor at the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, a nonprofit foundation that develops the study and use of civilian-based, nonmilitary strategies to establish and defend human rights, democracy and justice worldwide.

Clay Shirky is an influential author and teacher on the effects of digital technology on society.  He has published two books on the topic, Here Comes Everybody (2008) and Cognitive Surplus (2010), and is a frequent conference speaker.  This year he is taking a hiatus from NYU’s Interactive
Telecommunications Program to be the Edward R. Murrow Lecturer at the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy and a Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society.