Life on M

sometimes life is pretty cool

CV

Education

Northwestern University (Evanston, IL, US) Anticipated 2028
Ph.D. Media, Technology & Society

New York University (New York, NY, US) 2022
Master's of Arts, Bioethics
University of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, PA, US) 2009
Bachelor of Arts, History and Philosophy of Science
                             Japanese Language and Literature

Publications

  • O’Neil, M., Zacchiroli, S., de Blanc, M. 2016 Debian Project Survey: Work and Volunteers. Digital Commons Policy Council, News and Media Research Centre (2022).
  • de Blanc. M. and Heintzman, K. “Thinking with Consent in the Digital Classroom.” Hybrid Pedagogy (2021).
  • O’Neil, M., Raissi, M., Zacchiroli, S., de Blanc, M. “Preliminary Report on the Influence of Capital in an Ethical-Modular Project: Quantitative Data from the 2016 Debian Survey.” Journal of Peer Production (2017).
  • Machery, E., Olivola, C.Y., de Blanc, M. “Linguistic and Metalinguistic Intuitions in the Philosophy of Language.” Analysis 69 (4) (2009).

Thesis

  • de Blanc, M. “The Right to Repair Medical Devices.” Masters Thesis, New York, New York: New York University, School of Global Public Health, program in Bioethics. Advised by Claudia Passos Ferreira

Keynote Talks

Academic Presentations

  • Graduate Student Symposium (Creativity and Cognition) (2024), Chicago, IL. “Every Body Dance Now: What HCI Can Learn From Dancers With Disabilities.” 
  • Ethical Tensions, Norms, and Directions in the Extraction of Online Volunteer Work (CSCW Workshop) (2022), Remote. “Ethical Tensions in Online Volunteer Work.” (Panel)
  • Privacy Research Group (2021), New York. Work in Progress on privacy, data, and medical devices.

University Guest Lectures

  • Online Communities and Crowds (Winter 2022), Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. Week 6. Governance.
  • Bureaucracy in Media, Politics, and History (Spring, 2017), Sciences Po, Reims, FR. Open Contribution Communities.
  • Introduction au Logiciel Libre (Spring, 2017), Paris Diderot University, Paris, FR. Free Software Leadership and Governance.

Academic Extracurriculars

  • Disability Studies Research Group, Northwestern University (2023-present)
  • Privacy Research Group, New York University Law School (2020 – 2022, student fellow 2021 – 2022)
  • Bioethics Work in Progress Group, New York University (2020 – 2022, co-founder)

Volunteer Experience

  • Open Source Initiative, Board of Directors (2015 – 2019), President of the Board (2018 – 2019) 
  • Debian Project, Debian Developer (non-uploading) (2015 – present)

Professional Experience

Electronic Frontier Foundation, Grassroots Advocacy Organizer (contract)

August 2022 – January 2023

  • Provide support to affiliate community groups and nonprofits organizing around digital civil liberties issues, connecting them with one another and with experts at the EFF, and finding opportunities to promote and uplift their work.

Community Data Science Collective (Northwestern University), Outreach and Operations

September 2021 – September 2023

  • Organize and run (15-30 participant) workshops based on CDSC research about online and peer-production communities for practitioners and researchers in order to increase research impact and help people build and understand their communities.
  • Managed a team of undergrad research assistants on a multi-site interview study designed to understand the origins, purpose, and enforcement of community rules.

GNOME Foundation, Strategic Initiatives Manager

May 2019 – June 2021

  • Organized the first ever end-of-year fundraising drive for the GNOME Foundation increasing the number of monthly donors by 50% and raised $3,500 in small donations. In the second year, we raised $7,000 in small donations.

Free Software Foundation, Campaigns Manager

December 2016 – April 2019

  • Organized the FSF’s annual free software/digital rights conference. We had ~350 attendees. The conference covered two days of sessions with 47 speakers, three-tracks, and related social and networking events.
  • Organized the 2018 fundraiser raising nearly $443,000 and recruited new members at 120% of goals
  • Headed the creation, drafting, editing, and organizing of the Spring/Summer 2017 Free Software Bulletin, the FSF’s bi-annual publication with a distribution of several thousand.

edX, Inc., Community Manager

November 2014 – July 2016

  • Organized two Open edX community conferences and multiple hackathons, bringing together a global audience of Open edX developers for a three day event.

Previous employment and internships at: AI Now, MIT OpenCourseWare, One Laptop Per Child, and the Youth and Media Group at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School.