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.
Weinberger holds a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto[1] and taught college from 1980-1986 primarily at Stockton University (then known as Stockton State College).[2] From 1986 until the early 2000s he wrote about technology, and became a marketing consultant and executive at several high-tech companies, including Interleaf and Open Text.[3] His best-known book is 2000’s Cluetrain Manifesto (co-authored), a work noted for its early awareness of the Net as social medium.[4] From 1997 through 2003 he was a frequent commentator on National Public Radio's All Things Considered, with about three dozen contributions.[5] In addition, he was a gag writer for the comic strip "Inside Woody Allen" from 1976 to 1983.[6]
Beginning in 2015, Weinberger turned much of his attention to the philosophical and ethical implications of machine learning, 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’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,[13] and was on technology policy advisory councils for both of Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign. From 2010-12 he was a Franklin Fellow at the U.S. Department of State, working with the e-Diplomacy Group.[14] He has written and spoken frequently in favor of policies that favor a more open Internet, including in Salon,[15] NPR,[16] We Are the Internet[17] and in a series of video interviews with the Federal Communications Commission.
Axiom named ``Everyday Chaos`` the "Best Business Commentary of 2019",[21] and Inc. magazine listed it as one of 2019's "11 Must-Read Books for Entrepreneurs"[22]
^"...the guiding principles of social media years before Facebook and Twitter existed." Baker, Stephen (2009-12-03). "Beware Social Media Snake Oil". BloombergView. Retrieved 2015-04-09.
^Weinberger, David (2012). 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. New York: Basic Books. ISBN978-0-465-02142-0.
^Weinberger, David (2019). Everyday Chaos: Technology, Complexity, and How We're Thriving in a New World of Possibility. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Review Press. p. 241. ISBN9781633693951.
