Meet BSD: Questions with Gene Koo

Gene Koo is a Senior Client Manager at Blue State Digital’s Washington, D.C., office. Coming to us via Cambridge, Massachusetts, Gene was formerly a fellow at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society. He has had a long career spanning law, academia, organizing, and ... video game criticism.

We sat down with the multifaceted Koo for our ongoing segment Meet BSD.

1. What's the role of a client manager at BSD?

As client manager, I coordinate our expertise to ensure that the organizations who have entrusted Blue State Digital with their online strategy achieve their goals. Some days this might mean intense discussions with the client about setting goals and motivating constituents; other days it might mean working with our internal talent to write and deploy email or blog posts.

One of my colleagues once explained our role as CMs as like a point guard's: Keep passing the ball. We have tremendous talent in our various departments, and I think the most important thing I do is to make sure we bring that talent to bear on client needs as efficiently as possible.

2. You were at Harvard for both undergraduate and graduate school. How has your time in Cambridge shaped your outlook on politics and business?

What I loved about the students and other people around Harvard and MIT (where I also hung around a lot) was that they were always working on grand innovations. The undergrads, in particular, just didn't know what couldn't be done and had the egos to believe that they would be able to do it. Enough of them have succeeded that I remain inspired by the real possibility of progress.

I also loved living in Cambridge, and in Massachusetts, where people have this powerful faith that they can improve the world by working together. There's this recognition that finding solutions through better government is an example of — not the opposite of — people doing for themselves.

3. You have a JD. How has that helped you in your career at Blue State Digital?

People like to say that a legal education helps you think more rigorously, but frankly I think the most important thing that the JD has left me (aside from a mountain of debt) is a healthy respect for creative and freeform thinking — and most important, appreciating when rigorous vs. creative thinking is demanded.

Most people believe law is about setting things right after a wrong, but to me the most exciting part of law involved architecting systems that led people to do right in the first place. I think that, at some level, that's what we strive to do at Blue State Digital: Create the conditions where people realize and act upon their core convictions, whether political or charitable.

4. You were a fellow at the Berkman Center. How was the transition from working on the academic side of the Internet to the practical side?

First I should note that for five years before Berkman I was entirely on the "practical side" of the Internet, building websites and establishing distance learning programs for legal aid programs. My stint at Berkman was a chance to reflect upon what I'd learned during my time developing mission-oriented online experiences.

The Harvard Berkman Center for Internet & Society learns and explores new ideas by actually going and doing something. So while I did do my share of research at Berkman, I was also spreading new teaching technologies to law schools and establishing a consortium of schools sharing open source textbooks. Right before I left, one of the projects I helped start (we used virtual worlds to facilitate urban design) won a MacArthur Digital Media Learning grant, and is running quite nicely now. So I think the difference between what I did at Berkman and what I do now with BSD is more a matter of degree than of kind.

5. You worked with Marshall Ganz at Harvard. How does that affect your political philosophy?

I had the distinct privilege of studying with Marshall the very first year he taught organizing at Harvard, as an undergrad tutorial. The very fact that his course made its way into Harvard's sociology curriculum at all taught me something about the power of possibility coupled with will and ingenuity.

But in the bigger picture, what I learned from Marshall was to understand change stereoscopically as the output of both individuals and organizations. We have power in numbers. And yet our individual values, interests, and stories matter. This dual focus is something that our company intuitively gets as both a practice and a technology.

6. What's this about you and video games?

I've done a bit of research into video games as a tool for change, particularly the angle of what's called "pro-social learning." In fact, I co-authored a chapter in a book that's due out early next year on the topic. Video games are still this relatively young medium that will one day take its place among literature and film as a respected art form, though there's still a ways to go before it achieves that status.

7. How can a video game strengthen society?

Video games can convey sophisticated ideas and concepts that other media cannot — particularly complex systems rather than straight narration. I'm particularly interested in games that actually shape behaviors directly rather than requiring an iffy transfer from learning into practice. The dashboard of the Prius is a great example of a game-like interface can encourage people to act differently: drive more efficiently.

8. Tell us about your relationship with mainstream media.

I'm actually a big fan of old-school newspapers and radio. I'm that crazy guy who's constantly writing letters to the editor, and occasionally someone relents and publishes one. My most recent media appearance was just last month on NPR, after I responded to a call for listeners to share their more unusual Thanksgiving traditions. Mine was to go to White Castle after dessert and have a slider-eating contest. I was pretty excited to have my story on the radio. Even though it played on Thanksgiving during dinnertime when no one was listening, thanks to the magic of the Internet, everyone I know has heard it. In fact, you can listen to it right now: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120872723

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