Berkman Luncheon Series >

mar
16
2010

Cyber-pluralism: Can We Get Along with Each Other in a “Splitting” Internet?

Donnie, Hao Dong, Berkman Fellow

Tuesday, March 16, 12:30 pm
Berkman Center, 23 Everett Street, second floor
RSVP required for those attending in person (rsvp@cyber.law.harvard.edu)
This event will be webcast live at 12:30 pm ET and archived on our site shortly after.

From pervasive doubtable usage of copyright works in Chinese web-sphere to Google’s latest dilemma in China, it seems the Internet as an open, universal and single network is still an “ought to” imagination but not a truth. The numerous “autonomous systems” which consist of the Internet are governed by various regimes, laws and/or even impulse ridden policies. Can we get along with each other in such a “splitting” Internet when the technological factors are giving place of “coding” the networks to the policies and laws in different countries? Donnie Dong will present some new developments about China’s IP (Intellectual Property), IG (Internet Governance) and IB (Internet Business), then discuss a possible perspective of observing the Internet: Cyber-pluralism.

About Donnie

Donnie, Hao Dong is a current Fellow and a Fulbright Junior Scholar at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society. His research interests cover copyright reform, law and social development in digital age, and rule of law in China.

Graduated as an LLB in 2000, Donnie defended his Master's dissertation on Internet Governance in 2003, then he joined Faculty of Law at Yunnan University located in his hometown Kunming. As a "Western Light" Visiting Scholar sponsored by Chinese Academy of Science, he visited China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL) in 2004, and co-led a pioneer course of Cyber Law for LLM students. Then he become a fellow of CUPL’s IP Research Center since 2005. Also in CUPL, he completed his first doctorate degree with the dissertation on the Public Domain in the Context of Chinese Copyright Law. 

Donnie published a few academic papers and co-authored some books in Chinese. He began to publish in English after studying in Hong Kong since 2006. Now he is closing his research on China’s Copyright Reform in Digital Age as a PhD Candiate at City University of Hong Kong. His Curriculum Vitae and publications can be found at BLawgDog, a personal website focusing on cyber law and about to celebrate her 11th birthday.

Links

• David Weinberger liveblogged the talk

Click the play button below to start the audio.

Location

Berkman Center

License

Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution Unported

Copyright Holder

The President and Fellows of Harvard College

Radio Berkman 151: A Non-Unified Theory of the Internet

Does the discussion of a free and open internet really have to be an ideological debate? Some would say the situation is black or white, open or closed. You are either for freedom of content, the right to post anonymously, and to opt out of having your data tracked, or you are in favor of censorship, filtering, and monitoring. But delve deeper into the discussion and you’ll notice the nuance. In fact, if you don’t notice some caveats in the debate you’re probably not looking deeply enough. One person who has spent a lot of time looking at those caveats is legal expert and Berkman Center fellow Donnie Dong. He says there is room for more than one perspective on how the net should work, and cautions against pursuing a common denominator along ideological lines. Culturally, linguistically, and individually we do not see a unified internet, regardless of the technological underpinnings that bring us together on the web. Donnie says the multi-cultural web we are currently experiencing represents a kind of “cyberpluralism,” a phenomenon that would be good to acknowledge as we debate the future of the web.

Produced 28 Apr 2010

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