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David Weinberger (born 1950) is an American author, technologist, and speaker. Trained as a philosopher, Weinberger's work focuses on how technology — particularly the internet and machine learning — is changing our ideas, with books about the effect of machine learning’s complex models on business strategy and sense of meaning; order and organization in the digital age; the networking of knowledge; the Net's effect on core concepts of self and place; and the shifts in relationships between businesses and their markets.


Career

Weinberger holds a Ph.D. from the
University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
and taught college from 1980-1986 primarily at
Stockton University Stockton University is a public university in Galloway Township, New Jersey. It is part of New Jersey's public system of higher education. It is named for Richard Stockton, one of the New Jersey signers of the U.S. Declaration of Independence ...
(then known as Stockton State College). From 1986 until the early 2000s he wrote about technology, and became a marketing consultant and executive at several high-tech companies, including
Interleaf Interleaf, Inc., was a company that created computer software products for the technical publishing creation and distribution process. Founded in 1981, its initial product was the first commercial document processor that integrated text and graphi ...
and
Open Text In semiotic analysis (the studies of signs or symbols), an open text is a text that allows multiple or mediated interpretation by the readers. In contrast, a closed text leads the reader to one intended interpretation. The concept of the open t ...
. His best-known book is 2000’s Cluetrain Manifesto (co-authored), a work noted for its early awareness of the Net as social medium. From 1997 through 2003 he was a frequent commentator on
National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
's
All Things Considered ''All Things Considered'' (''ATC'') is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United ...
, with about three dozen contributions. In addition, he was a gag writer for the comic strip " Inside Woody Allen" from 1976 to 1983. In 2004 he became a Fellow at Harvard’s
Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society is a research center at Harvard University that focuses on the study of cyberspace. Founded at Harvard Law School, the center traditionally focused on internet-related legal issues. On May 15, 2008, ...
and as of 2023 serves as an affiliation of the center. In 2008 he served as a visiting lecturer at
Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class i ...
and co-taught a course on "The Web Difference" with
John Palfrey John Gorham Palfrey VII (born 1972) is an American educator, scholar, and law professor. He is an authority on the legal aspects of emerging media and an advocate for Internet freedom, including increased online transparency and accountability ...
. From 2010 to 2014 he was Co-Director of the Harvard Library Innovation Lab. In 2015, he was a fellow at the
Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy is a Harvard Kennedy School research center that explores the intersection and impact of media, politics and public policy in theory and practice. Among other activities, the center or ...
at Harvard’s
Kennedy School of Government The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...
. He is an advisor to Harvard’s MetaLAB
metaLAB The Metalab is a hackerspace in Vienna's central first district.
, and the
Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...
Digital Initiative, and other non-commercial and commercial organizations. He continues to teach courses at
Harvard Extension School Harvard Extension School (HES) is the extension school of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school is one among 12 schools that grant degrees and falls under the Division of Continuing Education in the Harvard Faculty of Art ...
on the effect of technology on ideas. Beginning in 2015, Weinberger turned much of his attention to the philosophical and ethical implications of
machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of inquiry devoted to understanding and building methods that 'learn', that is, methods that leverage data to improve performance on some set of tasks. It is seen as a part of artificial intelligence. Machin ...
, resulting in a series of articles, talks and workshops, and his 2019 book ''Everyday Chaos''. From June 2018 to June 2020, he was embedded in
Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. I ...
’s People + AI Research (PAIR), a machine learning research group located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as a part-time writer-in-residence. Weinberger has been involved in Internet policy and advocacy. He had the title Senior Internet Advisor to Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign, and was on technology policy advisory councils for both of Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns and
Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States senat ...
’s 2016 campaign. From 2010-12 he was a Franklin Fellow at the U.S. Department of State, working with the e-Diplomacy Group. He has written and spoken frequently in favor of policies that favor a more open Internet, including in Salon, NPR, We Are the Internet and in a series o
video interviews
with the
Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...
.


Honors

*In 2007, The Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council named him Mover & Shaker of the Year *2012, ''Too Big to Know'' won both the World Technology Award as best technology book of the year and the
GetAbstract International Book Award The getAbstract International Book Award is a bilingual award for nonfiction business-focused books. History The getAbstract International Book Award has been presented annually since 2001 and is awarded to four authors (or co-authors) for the ...
*In 2014,
Simmons College Institutions of learning called Simmons College or Simmons University include: * Simmons University, a women's liberal arts college in Boston, Massachusetts * Simmons College of Kentucky, a historically black college in Louisville, Kentucky * Har ...
made him an honorary Doctor of Letters. *Axiom named ``Everyday Chaos`` the "Best Business Commentary of 2019", and Inc. magazine listed it as one of 2019's "11 Must-Read Books for Entrepreneurs"


Books

*''
The Cluetrain Manifesto ''The Cluetrain Manifesto'' is a work of business literature collaboratively authored by Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger. It was first posted to the web in 1999 as a set of ninety-five theses, and was published as ...
'', 2000 *'' Small Pieces Loosely Joined: A Unified Theory of the Web'', 2002 *'' Everything is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder'', 2007 *'' Too Big to Know: Rethinking Knowledge Now That the Facts Aren't the Facts, Experts Are Everywhere, and the Smartest Person in the Room Is the Room'', 2012 *'' Everyday Chaos: Technology, Complexity, and How We’re Thriving in a New World of Possibility', 2019


Other works


How Machine Learning Pushes Us to Define Fairness
Harvard Business Review, Nov. 2019.
Our Machines Now Have Knowledge We’ll Never Understand
Wired, Apr. 18, 2017.
Optimization over Explanation
Berkman Klein, Jan. 28, 2018
New Clues
(with Doc Searls)
Library as Platform
Library Journal, Sept. 4,2012
Shift Happens
"The Chronicle of Higher Education," April 22, 2012
The Machine That Would Predict the Future
, Scientific American, Dec. 2011
''World of Ends, What the Internet Is and How to Stop Mistaking It for Something Else''
(with
Doc Searls David "Doc" Searls (born July 29, 1947), is an American journalist, columnist, and a widely read blogger. He is the host of FLOSS Weekly, a free and open-source software (FLOSS) themed netcast from the TWiT Network, a co-author of '' The Cluet ...
)
Transparency is the New Objectivity
Joho the Blog, July 19, 2009 *�
To Know but Not Understand
” The Atlantic, Jan. 3, 2012
"The Internet that was (and still could be)"
The Atlantic, June 22, 2015.


References


External links


Home page

Personal blog



Harvard/Berkman Center page

What Fairness Can Learn from AI
Harvard Business School’s Digital Initiative, lightning talk, Oct. 2019
Chaos Journalism: AI, Our Democracy, and the Future
- Invited lecture, Arizona State University Chaos Journalism: AI, Our Democracy, and the Future, Sept. 26, 2019
Pointing at the Wrong Villain: Cass Sunstein and Echo Chambers
‘‘Los Angeles Review of Books’’, July 20, 2017
Podcast Interview
at MFG Innovationcast (starting minute 11:10)
Podcast Interview
at CBC's Spark. * Interview o
99FACES.tv
about ''The Cluetrain Manifesto'' and ''Too Big To Know'' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Weinberger, David 1950 births People from New York (state) Living people 20th-century American Jews American bloggers American technology writers American philosophers Jewish philosophers Berkman Fellows Bucknell University alumni University of Toronto alumni 21st-century American Jews