Computer & electronics hardware

Andrew Shapiro


Year Honored
1999

Organization
Aspen Institute Internet Policy Project

Region
Global

"Many intellectuals writing about the Webolution tend toward either cheerleading or nay-saying. Carving out a third way is attorney/advocate Andrew Shapiro, director of the Aspen Institute Internet Policy Project, First Amendment Fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School, and a senior advisor to the Markle Foundation. Shapiro first came to prominence writing about the Internet for The Nation as a student at Yale Law School. Since his admission to the New York State bar in 1996,he has been a fellow of Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society and at The Century Foundation. The latter supported the research and writing of The Control Revolution--his recent tome on the politics of new media. Shapiro may best be known as co-founder of Technorealism, which seeks to define a middle ground between pro and anti-technology thinking. Some critics find Technorealism banal; Newsweek’s Steven Levy described the movement’s founding statement as ""vapid"" and ""muddled."" Not everyone agrees. Mitch Kapor, founder of Lotus Development and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, says Shapiro has ""enormous potential to make lasting contributions to society in the form of better integration and usefulness of computer and communications technology by the citizenry.""