May 20th Strategic Planning Session

[Mary Lambert <lambert@cyber.law.harvard.edu>]

Dear Colleague:

Thanks for signing on to participate in this Thursday's strategic
planning session entitled: Open Code / Open Content / Open Law: Building
a Digital Commons.  As the event title suggests, we hope to pursue
several overlapping themes, particularly as they relate to academia:

  - Open code.  Should universities and other public-minded institutions
care about the software that underlies their activities, particularly
software that supports teaching?  Along what dimensions other than
efficiency might we judge code?  In what principled way should a
university farm out some software tasks, do others in-house, and in
either case hope to draw code from, and share its own results with,
other institutions?

  - Open content.  Many universities are looking at the Net as an
opportunity for profit--a cash cow that can support traditional
operations on campus.  Is there a business model through which giving
content away can work, with or without a credential?  To what extent
should such issues be centrally decided--whether the result be open or
closed--or left to the devices of individual faculty members?  How is
ownership of valuable research, expressed through patent or otherwise,
best allocated?  Are some sponsors of research conditioning their
support on privileged access to the results, and if so, does it matter?

  - Open law.  Law is implicated as soon as anyone mentions "ownership."
Do prevailing legal regimes suit the creation of a digital commons?
Could existing institutions sponsor the formation of a non-profit
steward for the elements of a digital commons?  Can a lawsuit itself be
conducted in the spirit of open source?

If you have any thoughts you would like to share with us on these
disucssion topics, or you are interested in being more involved in a
leadership role during the working group sessions, please contact Mary
Lambert (617-495-7547).  You can also find more schedule and logistics
information online at <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/opencode/schedule/>.
You can also find directions to the Law School at
<http://www.law.harvard.edu/About_HLS/Maps/directns.html> and a map of
the Law School at
<http://www.law.harvard.edu/About_HLS/Maps/hlsmap.html>.  Please note,
the location has been changed to Hauser Hall, Room 104.  

We look forward to your participation, and hope for a productive and
provocative day--one that results in an agenda for further work.

Sincerely,

Charles Nesson & Jonathan Zittrain


Agenda for May 20th Strategic Planning Session
9:15 -9:30 - Welcome 
9:30 - 10:00 - Keynote Speaker: Professor Lawrence Lessig, Harvard Law
School
10:00- 10:30 - Discussion 
10:30- 10:45 - Break 
10:45 - 11:45 - The Values, Challenges, and Effects of Building Open
Platforms: A Case Study of Open Education and Discussion Tools (Panel
Moderated by Jonathan Zittrain)
11:45- 12:15 	- Discussion 
12:15- 1:30 - Lunch 
1:30-2:45 - Working Group Sessions
2:45- 3:45 - Working Group Presentations 
3:45-4:00 - Break 
4:00 -5:00 - Building an Agenda: Where do we go from here? (Panel
Moderated by Lawrence Lessig)