The Harvard Library Innovation Lab is delighted to welcome Molly White as an academic fellow.

Molly has become a leading critic on cryptocurrency and web3 issues through her blog Web3 is Going Just Great as well as her long-form research and essays, talks, guest lectures, social media, and interviews. Her rigorous, independent, and accessible work has had a substantial impact on legislators, media, and the public debate.

In her work at the Library Innovation Lab, Molly will further examine goals she shares with the web3 community she studies—such as orchestrating community-governed projects, returning power to users from advertisers and tech companies, and increasing access to financial services and reducing wealth inequality—and consider what attracts individuals to web3 and what can be learned from their experience about how to advance those causes.

We are excited for Molly to join the Lab because we share her interest in reinventing traditional institutions to better empower people, while being deeply critical of proposed replacements that may misfire or disempower people. We also admire her skill in translating technical insights into effective advocacy. As libraries continue to rethink our role—as a cultural memory, information network, and social safety net—we have a great deal to learn from her work.

Molly will be joining us for one year, as part of our Democratizing Open Knowledge program supported by the Filecoin Foundation for the Decentralized Web. Welcome, Molly!