Writings
(& more)
David Weinberger

2017- Harvard Business School Digital Initiative advisory board  

2015 Fellow, Harvard Shorenstein Center for Media, Politics, and Public

2010-12 Franklin Fellow, United States Department of State  

2008 Visiting Lecturer at Harvard Law

2001-2002 Mancala, Inc. (Boulder, CO), Co-founder and Senior Vice President of Marketing (wordofmouth.com) – early social networking startup

1994-2009 Founder and sole employee of Evident Marketing, Inc., a marketing consulting company.

1995-1996 Open Text, Inc. (Waterloo, Canada), Vice President of Strategic Marketing – early Web search & "intranet" sw company  

1986-1994 Interleaf, Inc. (Cambridge, then Waltham, MA). Entered as Marketing Associate; left as Vice President of Strategic Marketing and Chief Philosophical Officer  

1980-1986 Stockton State College (NJ), Assistant Professor, Philosophy Dept.

1979-1980 Portland State University (OR), one-year appointment as Ass’t Prof. (I think), Philosophy Department.

1976-1984 Gag writer for Woody Allen’s comic strip, Inside Woody Allen. Contributed about half the material.

1978- Freelance journalist: features, humor

• Adventurer's Guide to Interleaf Lisp. How to program Interleaf documents in LISP. (Boulder: Onword Press, 1994)
• Nuclear Dialogues. The ethics of the global nuclear policy of deterrence. (NYC: Peter Lang Pub Inc, 1987)
• My Hundred Million Dollar Secret. Free Young Adult novel about a good kid who wins the lottery. 2006. 

  Listed at BestBooks.to

• "Technology's Future", Thinking Ahead: Pirelli: 150 Years of Industry, Innovation, and Culture Fondazione Pirelli, ed. (Marsillo, 2022), pp.45-50.
• “Introduction”, The Year in Tech, 2021: The Insights You Need from Harvard Business Review, (HBR, 2020)  
• Introduction to 15th anniversary edition of The Social Life of Information, John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid. Harvard Business School Publishing, 2016.  
• "After Overload", After Shock:: The World’s Foremost Futurists Reflect on 50 Years of Future Shock―and Look Ahead to the Next 50, ed. John Schroeter (John August Media, 2020), pp. 306-310.  
• "Links as the New Punctuation", The Future of Text, Frode Hegland, ed. (2020)  
• "Rethinking Knowledge in the Age of the Internet," in Los Angeles Review of Books volume on the "digital revolution," Jan. 2017.
• “Why Martin Heidegger?” in  Commonplace Commitments: Thinking through the Legacy of Joseph P. Fell, Peter Fosl, Michael McGandy, Mark Moorman, eds., Bucknell University Press, 2016, pp. 71-86.  
• "How Information Got Smart." Making Connections 4. Ed. Jessica Williams, Pamela Vittorio. Cambridge Univ. Press, 2016. Pp. 59-65.
• “Heidegger’s Communication Theory.” Exploring the Roots of Digital and Media Literacy Through Personal Narrative. Ed. Renee Hobbs. Temple U. Press, 2016.
• "Shakespeare as a Network.” Shakespeare and Textual Studies. Ed. Sonie Massai and Margaret Jane Kidnie. Cambridge Univ. Press. 2014.
• “The rules of the game: key points of the study” [ Translated comments and exchange.] Investir la culture: Actes du Forum d’Avignon, Culture, économie, medias, 2011. (Gallimard, 2012), p.p. 403-415
• “David Weinberger im Interview: ‘Im Allgemeinen ist Kundenservice enttäuschend’” [“David Weinberger interview: ‘In general, customer service is disappointing’”], pp. 38-40 Kundenservice im Social Web. Andreas H. Bock. O’Reilly Basics. Köln, 2012.
• “The Morality of Links.” The Hyperlinked Society: Questioning in the Digital Age. Ed. Turow, Joseph and Tusi, Lokman: Madison: U. of Michigan, 2008  
• “Knotrolle als Risiko” [translated from “Control as Risk”]. Enterprise 2.0: Die Kunst, loszulassen [the Art of Letting Go]. Ed. Bushe, Willms, and Stamer, Sören Rhombos-Verlag, 2008.
• “Why Open Spectrum Matters.” Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace. Ed. Mark Tovey. Oakton, Va.: EIN, 2008.
• Interview in Christopher, Roy, ed. Follow for Now. Seattle: Well-Red Bear, 2007
• “Broadcasting and the Voter's Paradox.” Extreme Democracy Ed. Ratcliffe, Mitch, and Lebkowsky, Jon. 2007  
• “The Human Utopia and the Web.” Viable Utopian Ideas: Shaping a Better World. Ed. Arthur Shostak. Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, 2003. 65-68.
• "Disliking Libraries", The Fruitful Branch (Brookline Library Association, 2003)
• Article on e-Business in Business: The Ultimate Resource. Boston: Perseus, 2002.6

• Invited Seminar at University of Penn CLO Executive Doctoral Program, “Machine Learning and Our Self Understanding,” March 2020
• Five ethics of AI workshops, Denmark, 2019
• C-SPAN, “Book Talk”, May 2019
• International Business Library Conference, Ahmedabad, India, Dec. 4, 2015
• Tufts University, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Dec. 9, 2015
• Deloitte Knowledge Management symposium, Atlanta, Nov., 2015
• Center for Eductation Technology, Tel Aviv, June 2015
• Intelligence Squared NPR Oxford-style debate: “Resolved: Our smart devices are making us dumb.” May, 2015. (I argued against the resolution.)
• MIT Library, May 2015
• Emerson College Honors Lecture, Boston, March 25, 2015
• The Bobinski Lecture, University at Buffalo, March 10, 2015.
• Library 2.014 Distinguished Speaker talk. “Recommendations: Algorithms vs. Humans.” Oct. 2014.
• Simmons Graduate School Commencement Address, May 2014
• Alice Bobb Brendel Lecture, Brown University Library, April 11 2014
• Web Economic Forum closing keynote, Cesena Italy, Mar. 2014
• National Library invited address, Bogota, Dec. 2013
• Harvard Berkman Klein, May 2019, Everyday Chaos book launch, with Joi Ito.
• Interactive Imagination, Sept. 2016, Rome, "Causality and Interoperability"
• International Business Library Conference, Ahmedabad, India, Dec. 4, 2015
• Tufts University, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Dec. 9, 2015
• Deloitte Knowledge Management symposium, Atlanta, Nov., 2015
• Penn. State, honors talk, Nov., 2015
• Emerson College, "Is the Internet Disappointed in Us?", Nov. 2015
• International library conference, Mexico City, Oct. 2015
• ACT-IAC government conference, Washington DC, Oct. 2015
• VIVO, Boston, July 2015.
• Wheelock College, Knowledge Networks, May, 2015
• OCLC Library Conference, Florence Italy, Feb. 10 2015.
• The Next Web, NYC, Dec. 2015
• New England Publishers Collaborative publishing awards event keynote, Oct. 21, 2014
• Chattanooga Startup Week keynote, Oct. 2014.
• Simmons Graduate School Commencement Address, May 2014
• Alice Bobb Brendel Lecture, Brown University Library, April 11 2014
• Web Economic Forum closing keynote, Cesena Italy, Mar. 2014
• Evergreen ILS Conference keynote, Mar. 2014
• Univ. of Pennsylvania Library strategic planning lecture, Feb. 2014
• VALE (NJ research library association) keynote, Jan. 2014
• University of Rhode Island Library School 50th Anniversary gala keynote, Nov. 2013
• iPads in Education keynote, Nov. 2013
• North Atlantic Health and Science Libraries annual meeting keynote, Dec. 2013
• Temple University Presidential Inauguration library panel, Nov. 2013
• Canadian Marketing Association keynote, Sept. 2013
• Real Colegio Comptense Info, July 2013
• Walden University keynote, July 2013
• Building Learning Communities, July 2013
• AIIM, June 2013
• Center for Educational Technology (Tel Aviv), June 2013
• Festival of Science (Milan), June 2013
• Stuttgart Public Library, May, 2013
• Wiley, May 2013
• University of Richmond annual Peple Lecture, Feb. 2013
• American Association of Law Libraries, July 2013
• HELIN Library Conference, January 2013
• NASA invited lecture, January 2013
• Virginia Air and Space Museum lecture series, January 2013
• Endicott College, December 2012
• KMWorld, December 2012
• USAID, December 2012, "Thought Leaders in Learning: Too Big To Know: Scaling Knowledge In A Messy World " [pdf]
• New York Library Association, December 2012
• Marketing Science Institute, November 2012
• Genoa Festival of Science, October 2012
• Open Access Week, Northeastern U., October 2012
• US Neurologists association, October 2012
• Learning 3.0, October 2012
• Semantic Technologies, October 2012
• Association of Community Colleges, October 2012
• Internet Librarian, October 2012
• American Library Association, October 2012
• Library 2.012 October 2012
• Emerson Presidential Inauguration panel, September 2012
• Future of Story Telling, August 2012
• Aspen Ideas Festival, June 2012 (invited speaker)
• Marketing conferences, Amsterdam and Brussels, June 2012
• Personal Democracy Forum, NYC, June 2012
• American Library Association, Anaheim, June 2012
• Mesh Conference, Toronto, June 2012
• NEXT Conference, Berlin, May 2012
• Art Directors Club (advertising ass’n), Frankfurt, May 2012
• Boston College, Jesuit College Library Association, March 2012
• NELLCO, New England Law Libraries Conference, March 2012
• CNI, Albany, April 2012
• Tech@State (US State Dept.), February 2012
• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Feb. 2012
• Seattle public forum series, Town Hall, January 2012
• Lockheed Martin webinar, Jan 2012
• Authors@Google, January 2012
• Gartner Conference, for Telefonica, Barcelona, Dec. 2011
• Annual John Seely Brown lecture, U of Michigan, 2011
• University of California, Berkeley, invited lecture, Nov. 2011
• “The Net is Ours.” Forum d’Avignon, Nov. 2011
• Internet Governance Forum. Trento, Italy. Nov. 2011
• Westchester Library System, annual meeting, Nov. 2011
• Digital Library Foundation, Nov. 2011
• "Libraries of Knowledge." Vanderbilt University, December 2010
• "Facts, Data, and Knowledge." Princeton Center for Information Technology Policy's "Big Data" conference, Nov. 2010.
• “Internet marketing.” Ketchum, Oct. 2011
• “Diversity.” Canadian Research Council, Ottawa, Nov. 2011
• “Big Data.” Petersberg, Germany. Sept. 2011
• “Big Data.” Information Publishers Association. Dublin, Nov. 2011
• Berlin research foundation, Nov. 2011
• Internet marketing council, Helsinki, Nov. 2011
• Leo Burnett, Sept. 2011
• "Is the Net Exceptional?" Defrag conference, Boulder, November 2010
• "Knowledge and Authority." Nature Publishing Group, London, October 2010.
• "Social marketing." Prudential management training, London, October 2010.
• "Too Big to Know." Brazilian national university librarian's annual meeting, October 2010.
• "The Net as a Human Right." State Department seminar, October 2010.
• "Civil Net." Civil Society 2.0 sponsored by State Department and the World Bank, November 2010
• "Knowledge Networks." SSATB (Admisions officers). Boston, September 2010
• "Web 2.0." CSC, Pebble Beach, August 2010
• "Social Media at the Crossroads." MassTLC, Boston July, 2010
• "Knowing Difference," NRK, Norway, June 2010
• "Knowledge in the Age of Abundance." The Research Board, July, 2010
• "What Marketers are Still Missing." Marketing Professionals, June, 2010
• "Knowledge in the Age of Abundance." Colleges of Vermonth, May, 2010
• "The Ubiquitous Future." FibreFete, Alabama, April, 2010 (invited talk)
• "Knowledge in the Age of Abundance." Simmons, Boston, March 2010
• "Is there an Internet." King Saud Univ., Saudi Arabia, February 2010 "The Morality of the Net." Oklahoma Univ., Feb. 2010
• "Knowledge in the Age of Abundance." Oklahoma Univ. Research Symposium, February 2010
• List of talks before 2010 available upon request

• “The Uncanny Stepford Valley”, Psychology Today, Feb. 28, 2021  
• “A Radically Unpredictable World Needs Agility, Not Strategy”, Brink News, Feb. 10, 2020  
• “Playing with AI Fairness”, Dec. 2018  
• "Don't make AI artificially stupid in the name of transparency," Wired.com, Jan 28, 2018  
• “Should your self-driving car kill you to save a school bus full of kids?”, Digital Trends, Oct. 27, 2015  
• "Optimization over Explanation: Maximizing the benefits of machine learning without sacrificing its intelligence," Berkman Klein Collection, Jan 28, 2018  
• "Do humans make computers smarter?," Digital Trends, Nov. 9, 2016

• "Order in the Library!", Circulating Ideas podcast, Aug. 8, 2017   
• "Pointing at the Wrong Villain: Cass Sunstein and Echo Chambers," Los Angeles Review of Books, July 20, 2015   
• "Untidiness is good for us," New Scientist, Feb. 8, 2012   
• Early articles and book reviews (1976-1979) for Maclean's magazine.  
• "I’m a Democrat. Here’s why I helped raise money for North Carolina Republicans." Washington Post, Oct. 17, 2016.
• "Rethinking Knowledge in the Internet Age," LA Review of Books, May 2, 2016
• "There's a library-shaped hole in the Internet," The Boston Globe, July 26, 2015
• "So Sayeth Google: The search engine should not be the arbiter of truth." With Dan Gillmor. Slate. March 13, 2015
• “What Is the Future of Knowledge in the Internet Age?”, Nov. 29, 2011, Scientific American (interviewed by Michael Moyer)
• “Transparency is the new objectivity,” July 19, 2009
• AI Outside In: Making data meaningless so AI can learn its meaning,” Feb 2019  
• “AI Outside In: Machine learning’s triangle of error”, Nov. 2018
• “Playing with AI Fairness”, Dec. 2018
• Transcription of Ranganathan's memories of Melvil Dewey, Informatics Studies, Jan. 2018.
• "Public Learning," Ed-Tech (MindCET), 2017  
• “The Power of Crowdsourcing Knowledge in Online Communities,” Harvard Extension School, interviewed by Christina Nagler, July 11, 2017
• "Do humans make computers smarter?," Digital Trends, Nov. 9, 2016 http://www.digitaltrends.com/features/do-humans-make-computers-smarter/
• "The Library as Center of Meaning," Public Library Quarterly, Dec. 12, 2016,
• "Pop culture's fixation on zombies is really the Internet's fault," Digital Trends, Mar. 29, 2016
• "What Facebook should learn from this 'colonialism' debacle, DigitalTrends, Feb. 15, 2016
• “The future no longer works the way we thought it did,” Slate, Dec. 30, 2015
• "Lessons from Reddit for educators," EdTech Mindset, Dec. 2015, p. 22.
• “Spoiler Alert: Why the Internet knows the ending before airtime,” Boston Globe, Dec. 6, 2015
• "Are smartphone making us stupid?" ("Con" side), New York Times Upfront, Sept. 7, 2015, p. 22.
• “YouTube is copying the RIAA’s tactics, except this time you win,” Digital Trends, Nov. 24, 2015
• “Should your self-driving car kill you to save a school bus full of kids?”, Digital Trends, Oct. 27, 2015.
• “The End of Story-telling,” Technologist, Oct. 28, 2014 http://www.technologist.eu/the-end-of-storytelling/
• “A Good, Dumb Way to Learn from Libraries.” Chronicle of Higher Education. Oct. 7, 2014.
• “Let the Future Go.” Library Journal Sept. 22, 20214v
• “Library as Platform.” Library Journal. Sept. 13, 2013.
• "Netzwerke wissen es besser." [“Networks know things better”]. Interview in Die Tageszeitung, August 7, 2012
• “The lasting effect of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions,” invited by The Chronicle of Higher Education (April 2012)
• “The Knowledge Network,” by Steffan Heuer, Best Practice, Issue 1, 2012, pp. 38-9.
• “To Know, but Not Understand: David Weinberger on Science and Big Data.” The Atlantic Online. Jan 3, 2012
• “The Machine that Would Predict the Future.” Scientific American cover story. Dec. 2011
• “The Internet shows the messy truth about science.” New Scientist. Issue 2851. 15 February 2012
• “13 ways the Internet is making us smarter.” Huffington Post. Jan 23, 2011. [Link]
• “Taxonomy Out of the Box.” Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science & Technology 33.3 (2007). 28.
• Publications before 2005 include articles in Release 1.0, The Guardian, Salon, MIT Technology Review, Miam Herald, WomenFuture, Jewish World Review, Cutter IT Journal, CIO, Journal of Brand Management, Information Week, Upside, Journal of Management in Engineeering, Advanced Imaging, Seybold Report on Publishing Systems, USA Today Magazine, Futurist, Byte, PC World, Smithsonian, New York Times, The Globe and Mail, and many more.

Early Wired

• “Have It Your Way.” . June 1999. 190.
• “The Scenic Route.” . Dec. 1998. 216-217.
• “When Your Computer Goes Down.” . Nov. 1998. 202.
• “Immerse Yourself.” . Oct. 1998. 182.
• “Review of Trellix 2.0.” . May 1998.
• “Maximize the Medium.” . May 1998. 154.
• “Idées Fortes: Cyberspace Is Not (Yet) a Tree.” . Nov. 1997.
• “Idées Fortes: Upending the Org Chart.” . Apr. 1997.
• “What’s a Document?” . Aug. 1996.
• “One-on-One with One-to-One’s Martha Rogers.” . Mar. 1996.
• “The Balm of Reading.” . Jan. 1996.
• “In Your Interface.” . Sep. 1995.
• “The Daily Me? No, the Daily Us.” . Apr. 1995.
• “The Ecstatic Document.” . Mar. 1995.
• “When your computer gets a brain” . Nov. 1998.[Link]

• "How Reddit the Business Lost Touch with Reddit the Culture," with Adrienne Debigare, July 14, 2015
• "Powering Down Leadership in the U.S. Army." November 2, 2010. 
• "The American Business Leader's Love Affair with Integrity." Blog. October 29, 2010. 
• "The Problem with the Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom Hierarchy." Blog. February 2, 2010  
• "Authenticity: Is It Real or Is It Marketing? (HBR Case Study)." March, 2008  <
• "The Year of Scale." Blog. December 26, 2007
• "Memo to Amazon.com: Open the Kindle." Blog. November 26, 2007.
• "If you love your information, set it free." June 1, 2007.
• "HBR Breakthrough Ideas of 2007." February 1, 2007.
• "HBR Breakthrough Ideas of 2006." February 1, 2006.
• "Sorting Data to Suit Yourself." March, 2005.
• "A Blogger in Their Midst." (Commenter on case study.) September 1, 2003. 
• "Garbage In, Great Stuff Out." September 1, 2001.

• “Boston Marathon: What we should remember,” Apr. 14, 2014 [Link ]
• “Why the bogus AP tweet tricked us” April 25, 2013 [Link]
• “What the Boston suspects taught you” April 19, 2013 [Link]
• “Rolling Stone Cover: Why We Must Look,” July 19, 2013 [Link ]
• “Texter killer teaches us only one thing,” Jan 15, 2014 [Link]
• “Don’t treat snow as an emergency” Feb. 12, 2013 [Link]

I have led seminars at business meetings on marketing, Web 2.0, etc. For example in 2019 I led five seminars in Copenhagen on machine learning ethics.

1981-1986 Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Stockton State College. Courses included: Logic (formal and informal), Philosophy of Science, History of Philosophy (ancient, modern, contemporary), Existentialism and Phenomenology, Peace and Conflict, Ethics, Introduction to Computing

1980-1986 Assistant Professor of Philosophy at University of Portland. (One-year replacement.)

• 2015 United Nations Museum design workshop
• 2016- Knowledge Futures Institute at University of Management and Technology, Lahore. Honorary Patron (adviser).
• 2014 Knight News Challenge (“Library as Platforms”) reader
• 2014 Co-coordinated Harvard Global Health Initiative’s “unconference” on using social media to improve health initiatives
• 2014 Crowdsourcing for Libraries project member (IMLS)
• 2014 Startup Weekend: Library Edition competition judge (University of Toronto Library)
• 2014 EdTech Startups competition judge (Center for Educational Technology + international consortium)
• 2014 International Conference on Knowledge Management 2014 (Antayla, Turkey), Program Committee.
• 2013-14 Suffolk Law School Center for Intellectual Property in Action founding advisory board.
• 2014 Consultant to Israeli National Library Digital Board
• 2012-13 Board member of the American Society for Cybernetics conference on Acting, Learning, Understanding
• 2011-14 Harvard Library IT Steering Committee and leader of the Library Interoperability Initiative.
• Ongoing I have served as a reviewer of book proposals for MIT Press and the Harvard Business School Press. I have reviewed paper submissions for conferences I cannot remember.
• 2006-9 Initiated and led the Berkman Web of Ideas series.
• 2010-12 Franklin Fellow at the State Department for two years, and have consulted pro bono with many federal agencies and bodies, including intelligence services, USAID, and CPBA.
• 2011- Center for Educational Technology, Israel, advisory board
• 2011-13 Convener for the Digital Public Library of America’s technical workstream
• 2009 At the request of the FCC, conducted a series of podcast interviews with their broadband project leaders
• 2009 Peer reviewer of proposals for federal broadband stimulus funds.
• 2008 Advisor on Internet policy to the presidential campaign of John Edwards (pre-yech)
• 2008-10 One Web Day board of directors
• 2008 Judge of proposals to the Macarthur Foundation.
• 2004 Senior Internet Advisor (uncompensated) to the Howard Dean presidential campaign
• 1993 (approx.) One of the five founders of SGML Open, now known as OASIS, a non-profit group supporting open data standards. I was its first executive director.
• 1979 Co-founder of Concerned Philosophers for Peace. It continues to publish a newsletter and to hold meetings.
• 1995- I have spent a significant portion of my time as a volunteer advocate for an open Internet.

• The Communications Network (board of directors)
• Confabb
• Corante
• Diffeo
• FON (US)
• Global Voices board
• Information Architecture Institute
• Harvard metaLab
• Metacarta
• Microsoft OneNote
• MIT Press open access strategy advisory board
• OneWebDay (board of directors)
• Open Resource Group
• Rosenfeld Media
• Seybold Conference Advisory Board
• SiteAdvisor
• SocialText
• Suffolk Law School Center for Intellectual Property in Action
• Technorati
• Wonder
• World Congress of Philosophy Advisory Board