Berkman Center Newsfeed

The Nieman-Berkman Fellowship in Journalism Innovation - Application Deadline This Wednesday

rtabasky — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 11:52:50 -0500

We are excited to share that the Berkman Center has partnered with the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard to establish a joint Nieman-Berkman Fellowship in Journalism Innovation for the 2012-2013 academic year. Please find the announcement below.

As part of both the Nieman and Berkman fellowship communities, the Nieman-Berkman fellow will conduct and advance research at the cutting edge of digital journalism.

More information about the fellowship can be found on the Nieman site.

You will find information about proposal scope, candidate eligibility, stipending and benefits, and application requirements and instructions. Applications will be processed through the Nieman Foundation's application system.

As well, Joshua Benton of the Nieman Journalism Lab has written a great blog post expressing some of the promise this opportunity holds.

The deadline for applications for the 2012-2013 academic year is Feb. 15, 2012.

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January 11, 2012

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Addressing the growing need for fresh ideas and research in news reporting, the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society announce the creation of the joint Nieman-Berkman Fellowship in Journalism Innovation.

Candidates for the new yearlong fellowship will be asked to propose a specific course of study or project relating to journalism innovation. The proposal may deal with any issue relating to journalism’s digital transformation. Examples might include ideas for new revenue streams to fund journalism, the construction of new tools for reporting or research into news consumption patterns. The candidate must indicate clearly how his or her proposal will benefit journalism.

Nieman and Berkman share a set of common interests around journalism, innovation and the development of digital space, and both run fellowship programs that offer professionals a year to learn and collaborate with others in the Harvard community.

“We are excited to marry the resources of Nieman with the expertise of our colleagues at Berkman,” said Nieman curator Ann Marie Lipinski. “This partnership offers an excellent opportunity for a fellow to use these assets in support of a project that will help journalism in a meaningful way. We think this sort of collaboration with a great Harvard partner holds much promise.”

“While a great many challenges to journalism and news remain, there is tremendous energy and innovation among the diverse journalists and news organizations embracing digital opportunity,” added Colin Maclay, managing director of the Berkman Center. “This fellowship is a promising step toward catalyzing and deepening our relationship with the Nieman community – and in our joint efforts to better understand and support journalism’s digital future.”

On campus, the Nieman-Berkman Fellow will be a full participant in the Nieman and Berkman fellowship programs and serve as a conduit of information between the two. The fellow also will be expected to share the results of his or her work online through the Nieman Journalism Lab.

The Nieman-Berkman Fellow will be able to draw upon the wealth of resources available at Harvard and in the surrounding area. Along with the Nieman Foundation and the Berkman Center, Cambridge is home to such institutions as Harvard Business School, the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations, the Shorenstein Center for Press, Politics and Public Policy, the MIT Media Lab MIT’s Center for Civic Media and others concerned with journalism’s ongoing evolution.

The Nieman-Berkman Fellowship is open to both United States citizens and citizens of other countries. Working journalists, including independent journalists, and those who work for a news organization in a business, technology, or leadership capacity are welcome to apply.

The deadline for applications for the 2012-2013 academic year is Feb. 15, 2012. American citizens may apply for both the standard Nieman Fellowship (deadline: Jan. 31) and the specialized Nieman-Berkman Fellowship.

The Nieman Foundation and the Berkman Center share a commitment to diversity and encourage applications from members of underrepresented groups.

The Nieman-Berkman Fellow will receive the standard Nieman Fellowship stipend, which is $60,000 over 10 months. Fellows also receive additional allowances for housing, childcare and health insurance. More details about the new fellowship are available on the Nieman Foundation website at www.nieman.harvard.edu/nieman-berkman/

Questions about the application process may be sent to Nieman fellowship administrator John Breen at john_breen@harvard.edu.

The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard administers the oldest fellowship program for journalists in the world. Grants are awarded to accomplished professionals who come to Harvard for a year of study. More than 1,300 journalists from 91 countries have received Nieman Fellowships since 1938. The foundation’s other initiatives include the Nieman Journalism Lab, a website that reports on the future of news and identifies emerging business models, innovation and best practices in journalism in the digital media age; Nieman Reports, an influential quarterly magazine/website that explores contemporary challenges and opportunities in journalism; Nieman Watchdog, a website that poses questions the press should ask and teaches journalists how to monitor and hold accountable all those who exert power in public life; and Nieman Storyboard, a website that showcases exceptional narrative journalism in every medium and explores the future of nonfiction storytelling.

The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University is a research program founded to explore cyberspace, share in its study, and help pioneer its development. Founded in 1997, through a generous gift from Jack N. and Lillian R. Berkman, the Center is home to an ever-growing community of faculty, fellows, staff, and affiliates working on projects that span the broad range of intersections between cyberspace, technology, and society.

Berkman Buzz: February 10, 2012

rheacock — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:49:57 -0500

The Berkman Buzz is selected weekly from the posts of Berkman Center people and projects.
To subscribe, click here.

The deadline for applications for our Summer 2012 Internship Program is this Sunday!
The deadline for applications for the Nieman-Berkman Fellowship in Journalism Innovation is next Wednesday!

Harry Lewis recalls the early days of Facebook at Harvard

After talking to a reporter about the Harvard culture around the time Mark Zuckerberg was here, I dug out some old email to jog my memory about the early efforts to move the Harvard House face books online. These were printed brochures with basic information and photos of members of each House, students and resident staff and tutors, which had long been used to create House community. It seems that some Houses started to create online versions of their Face Books around 1996, while I was dean, and I was involved with the discussions of uncoordinated effort duplication and privacy.

From Harry Lewis's blog post, "Early Online Harvard Facebook Email Thread"
About Harry Lewis | @HarryRoyLewis

DPLA Dev Blog: Karen Coyle on modern data for the modern library http://hrvd.me/xoxrQA
—DPLA Dev Team (@dpladev)

Zeynep Tufekci discusses digital dualism

All these examples of how the online interacts with offline are clear example of why questions like “face-to-face or online friendship?” or “was online or offline more important in the Arab spring?” are not fruitful. The answer is yes. Because there is no “virtual” world separate from this world. As Nathan Jurgenson, who often writes about “digital dualism”, puts it the correct model to understand the Internet is not that the Internet is the “Matrix” and this world is “Zion” a la the movie Matrix. The world is one.

From Zeynep Tufekci's blog post, "Breaking Bread, Breaking Digital Dualism"
About Zeynep Tufekci | @techsoc

The Citizen Media Law Project explores social media in the courtroom

The Federal Judicial Center has released a study which concludes that "detected social media use by jurors is infrequent, and that most judges have taken steps to ensure jurors do not use social media in the courtroom," and implies that juror use of the Internet and social media during trial is not a growing problem.

Alison Frankel of Thompson-Reuters is skeptical about this conclusion, and I agree with her.

From Eric P. Robinson's post for the Citizen Media Law Project blog, "See No Evil: Study Says Judges Don't Find Jurors Using Social Media"
About the Citizen Media Law Project | @citmedialaw

Wayne Marshall explains "the Toto ‘Africa’ meme"

Africa Is a Country, a wry but passionate blog devoted to “Africa” — the idea, not (simply) the song — in contemporary media (but “not about famine, Bono, or Barack Obama”) has been threatening to make a weekly series out of the genuinely remarkable resonance of Toto’s 1982 soft-rock anthem. It’s a begrudging tribute of sorts to the song’s “resilience as a piece of media about Africa.” Did you know that in addition to dozens of covers, which they promise to feature, the song is also popular sampling fodder for hip-hop producers (among them, Madlib).

From Wayne Marshall's blog post, "Is 'Africa' 'Actually' African?"
About Wayne Marshall | @wayneandwax

Brazil may be first to use Twitter's geo-located censorship to block tweets about drunk driving checkpoints http://t.co/nrn8AISy—Herdict (@herdict)

metaLAB cofounder visualizes global art

MetaLAB cofounder Robert Gerard Pietrusko has collaborated with Stewart Smith and Bernd Lintermann in a piece called trans_actions: The Accelerated Art World 1989–2011, which explores the impact of the worldwide explosion of art biennials through immersive, panoramic visualizations of data on the global art market and the migration of art, artists, and their audiences.

From Matthew Battles's blog post for metaLAB, "Visualizing global art "
About metaLAB | @metalabharvard

Weekly Global Voices: Maldives: Marred by Violence

The political crisis in the Maldives took an ugly turn on Wednesday 8 February, 2012, when police brutally beat and injured supporters of the ousted President Mohamed Nasheed as they protested against what they claimed to be a coup that removed the island nation's first democratically elected president from power.

In the riots that followed, Nasheed's supporters torched and destroyed a number of police stations, courts, local council offices and other public buildings. Scores of police officers were hurt in the violence too.

From Saffah Faroog's blog post for Global Voices Online, "Maldives: Marred by Violence"
About Global Voices Online | @globalvoices

This Buzz was compiled by Rebekah Heacock.

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Mate Choice in an Online Dating Site; "Bully" Film Screening; The Promises of Web-based Social Experiments

ashar — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:37:51 -0500

Berkman Events Newsletter Template

Remember to load images if you have trouble seeing parts of this email. Or click here to view the web version of this newsletter. Below you will find upcoming Berkman Center events, interesting digital media we have produced, and other events of note.

Two great Berkman opportunities with upcoming deadlines: The Berkman Center is currently accepting applications for our Summer 2012 Internship Program - deadline this Sunday, February 12th. Additionally, the deadline for applications for the Nieman-Berkman Fellowship in Journalism Innovation is Wednesday, February 15th. Apply now!

berkman luncheon series

Mate Choice in an Online Dating Site

Tuesday, February 14, 12:30pm ET, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St, Cambridge, MA. This event will be webcast live.

The 21st century has witnessed a transformation of the American dating scene: Online dating—previously a marginalized social practice—has skyrocketed in popularity to become one of the primary ways that singles meet and mate today. While clearly an empirical topic worthy of study in its own right, data from online dating sites also offer an unprecedented opportunity to address questions of longstanding interest to social scientists. In this talk, I introduce a new social network dataset based on behavioral data from a popular online dating site; discuss the utility of these data for understanding the shape of contemporary stratification systems; and provide a first look at the dynamics of inequality, exclusion, and gender asymmetry that characterize the early stages of mate choice. Kevin Lewis is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Sociology and a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society. RSVP Required. more information on our website>

special event

Film screening: "Bully" and Forum Discussion

Wednesday, February 15, 5:00pm ET, Longfellow Hall, Harvard Graduate School of Education. Hosted and organized by the Harvard Graduate School of Education in conjunction with the Berkman Center and Facing History and Ourselves.

Directed by Sundance and Emmy-award winning filmmaker, Lee Hirsch, Bully follows five kids and families over the course of a school year. As teachers, administrators, kids and parents struggle to find answers, Bully examines the dire consequences of bullying through the testimony of strong and courageous youth. Through the power of their stories, the film aims to be a catalyst for change in the way we deal with bullying as parents, teachers, children and society as a whole. more information on our website>

berkman luncheon series

The Promises of Web-based Social Experiments

Tuesday, February 21, 12:30pm ET, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St, Cambridge, MA. This event will be webcast live.

The advent of the internet provides social scientists with a fantastic tool for conducting behavioral experiments online at a very large-scale and at an affordable cost. It is surprising, however, how little research has leveraged the affordances of the internet to set up such social experiments so far. In this talk, Jerome Hergueux will introduce the audience to one of the first online platforms specifically designed for conducting interactive social experiments over the internet to date. He will present the preliminary results of a randomized experiment that compares behavioral measures of social preferences obtained both in a traditional University laboratory and online, with a focus on engaging the audience in a reflection about the specificities, limitations and promises of online experimental economics as a tool for social science research. Jerome Hergueux is a PhD candidate in Economics at Sciences Po Paris and the University of Strasbourg and a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society. RSVP Required. more information on our website>

video/audio

David Weinberger on Too Big To Know

We used to know how to know. Get some experts, maybe a methodology, add some criteria and credentials, publish the results, and you get knowledge we can all rely on. But as knowledge is absorbed by our new digital medium, it's becoming clear that the fundamentals of knowledge are not properties of knowledge but of its old paper medium. Skulls don't scale. But the Net does. Now networked knowledge is taking on the properties of its new medium: never being settled, including disagreement within itself, and becoming not a set of stopping points but a web of temptations. Networked knowledge, for all its strengths, has its own set of problems. But, in knowledge's new nature there is perhaps a hint about why the Net has such surprising transformative power. David Weinberger — senior researcher at the Berkman Center and co-director of the Harvard Law School Library Lab — talks about some important take aways from his new book "Too Big to Know." video/audio on our website>

video/audio

Felipe Heusser on Open Government Data for Open Accountability

Felipe Heusser — Founder and Director of Fundación Ciudadano Inteligente, a Latin American NGO based in Chile that uses information technology to promote transparency and active citizen participation, and a Berkman Fellow — gives an overview the spread of transparency policy through freedom of information regulation, and point out to the rise of 'Open Government Data' as the latest chapter of the transparency story, highlighting how it potentially may impact 'open accountability' and the rise of a new breed of online watchdogs. video/audio on our website>

Other Events of Note

Events that may be of interest to the Berkman community:

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Connect & get involved: Jobs, internships, and more

See our events calendar if you're curious about future luncheons, discussions, lectures, and conferences not listed in this email. Our events are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted.

Connecting Democracy: Online Consultation and the Flow of Political Communication

ashar — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:41:57 -0500

Tuesday, February 7, 6:00 pm
Austin West Classroom (111), Austin Hall, Harvard Law School
Free and Open to the Public
RSVP Required via the form below
Sponsored by the Harvard Law School Library and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society

A Panel Discussion about Connecting Democracy: Online Consultation and the Flow of Political Communication

with

Peter Shane, Jacob E. Davis and Jacob E. Davis II Chair in Law at the Ohio State University and Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School Library (co-editor of the book)

David Lazer, Associate Professor, College of Computer and Information Science, Northeastern University

Ethan Zuckerman, Director of the Center for Civic Media at MIT

Matthew Baum, Marvin Kalb Professor of Global Communications, Professor of Public Policy, Shorenstein Center, Harvard Kennedy School of Government

John Palfrey, Berkman Faculty Co-Director, Henry N. Ess III Professor of Law, Vice Dean, Library and Information Resources, Harvard Law School

Open Government Data for Open Accountability

ashar — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:18:14 -0500

Tuesday, February 7, 12:30 pm
Berkman Center, 23 Everett Street, second floor
RSVP required for those attending in person via the form below
This event will be webcast live at 12:30 pm ET and archived on our site shortly after.

Over the past decade 'transparency' has become one of those key words in the debates on modern governance. A pervasive cliché captured by the rhetoric of politics, which has raised 'transparency' as a perfect paracetamol to potentially remedy problems as diverse as accountability, growth, public service delivery and participation. For years, the cornerstone of transparency policies has been the 'Freedom of Information Act', a regulation that since the mid 1960's has spread from 3 to nearly 80 countries around the globe, but which maybe increasingly gaining obsolesce in the context of the digital age.

Open Government Data policy, is the latest chapter of the transparency story. It is moving the paradigm from 'access to public documentation' (FOIA) towards 'access to public data', avoiding obsolesce, and keeping up to date our right to access public information that increasingly flows through a digital ecosystem.

Though the implementation of Open Data policies is likely to impact a diverse variety of sectors, 'accountability' is certainly one of the main domains of impact. The bursting rise and spread of online accountability tools and watch-dogs such as the Sunlight Foundation (US.), MySociety (UK), Ushahidi (Kenya), and Ciudadano Inteligente (Chile), are good examples of how the web is creating a more powerful sort of open and crowd sourced accountability. More eyes now rest upon government, the question is 'how' (if) does this matter.

The talk will quickly overview the spread of transparency policy through freedom of information regulation, and point out to the rise of 'Open Government Data' as the latest chapter of the transparency story, highlighting how it potentially may impact 'open accountability' and the rise of a new breed of online watchdogs.

About Felipe

Felipe is the Founder and Director of Fundación Ciudadano Inteligente, a Latin American NGO based in Chile that uses information technology to promote transparency and active citizen participation. He graduated as a Lawyer from the P. Universidad Católica (Chile) and holds a Master degree in Public Policy from the London School of Economics (UK), where he is also a PhD Candidate in Government with research in the field of Freedom of Information, Regulation, and Internet Technology. Felipe is also an Ashoka Fellow for the News and Knowledge program, and achieves work experience in both the Chilean NGO and Government sectors, working for Un Techo para Chile, and both Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Labour. In 2010, he organized the first Personal Democracy Forum for Latin America, and currently coordinates the Open Data research project for Latin America in collaboration with IDRC, ECLAC (UN) and W3C.

As a Berkman Fellow at Harvard University, Felipe’s research aims to bridge the relationship of traditional Freedom of Information regulation with recent-born open data policies, highlighting how this relationship changes according to the habitat where these policies are embedded.

Berkman Buzz: February 3, 2012

rheacock — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:06:21 -0500

The Berkman Buzz is selected weekly from the posts of Berkman Center people and projects.
To subscribe, click here.

Berkman's currently accepting applications for our Summer 2012 Internship Program!
Also! We have a new Nieman-Berkman Fellowship in Journalism Innovation.

Jeffrey Schnapp cooks up a library smörgåsbord

Bibliotheca II, alias “son of Bibliotheca” (last semester’s seminar/studio jointly run by Jeffrey Schnapp and John Palfrey), has now been launched with the help of Ann Whiteside (chief librarian at the Loeb Design Library), Jeff Goldenson (Law Library Innovation Lab), and Ben Brady (GSD). Otherwise known as The Library Test Kitchen or the “library rapid prototyping lab,” it’s being generously funded by the Harvard Library Lab. Questions of every kind are on the table regarding the future of libraries from signage to furniture, policies to experiences. The point is to build stuff: to translate “ah-ha” insights into actual devices, to fabricate the next new online/offline appliance (or at least a plausible iteration of such an appliance). Once these exist, we plan to deploy and test them in partner libraries, such as the Loeb Design, Widener and Fine Arts Libraries, that allocate portions of their public space to experimentation. We’ll be posting our progress to www.librarytestkitchen.org.

From Jeffrey Schnapp's blog post for metaLAB, "Cooking up some dishes in the Library Test Kitchen "
About Jeffrey Schnapp | @jaytiesse

Saying goodbaaaaahye to @lmiyakawa, who's leaving the @berkmancenter pastures today for a new job at @akamai. We will miss ewe!
—@sheepcave

John Palfrey liveblogs the Harvard Initiative on Learning and Teaching

Today is the kick-off for the brand-new Harvard Initiative on Learning and Teaching (HILT). This is an extraordinary day at Harvard, part symposium and part working session to get HILT underway in earnest. The background: President Drew Faust and two of the university’s most loyal friends, Rita and Gustave Hauser, dreamed up a major new university-wide initiative to focus on the science and practice of learning and teaching. The Hausers gave $40 million to make the initiative’s launch possible.

From John Palfrey's blog post, "Harvard Initiative on Learning and Teaching: Kick-Off"
About John Palfrey | @jpalfrey

The Citizen Media Law Project reviews Twitter's new tweet blocking policy

With all this potential censorship, the tweeting masses have been left wondering: What was Twitter thinking?

I've been chewing on this myself. My first response was much like that of the masses: alarm. But when you consider the ubiquity of censorship laws outside the U.S., Twitter's position is much more understandable.

After all, it's not just authoritarian countries in the Middle East and Asia that censor. While the First Amendment keeps the U.S. (mostly) censorship-free, laws against speech are quite common abroad, even in Western nations.

From Arthur Bright's post for the Citizen Media Law Project blog, "Why Twitter's New Censorship Tool Isn't As Bad As It Seems"
About the Citizen Media Law Project | @citmedialaw

Wayne Marshall discusses the Megaupload indictments

I’ve got a piece in this week’s Boston Phoenix discussing the spectacular shuttering of Megaupload and the collateral damage produced by an increasingly aggressive copyright regime in tandem with a remarkable nonchalance about preserving the digital libraries we build. Some will recognize this as but the latest instance of platform politricks, just another rug yanked out from under folks tryna dance with each other. (Though it looks like another series of SoundClowns may be on its way!)

From Wayne Marshall's blog post, "Mega Uh-Oh"
About Wayne Marshall | @wayneandwax

Experiment in book pricing: My #Mediactive book is just $0.99 for a limited time. Here's why: http://bit.ly/w8UtLR
—Dan Gillmor (@dangillmor)

Ethan Zuckerman teaches on news in the age of participatory media

The class is my attempt to bring a “journalism” class to the Media Lab while avoiding the journalist/citizen media distinction. (This certainly isn’t a first for the lab – Andy Lippman and Walter Bender have done great teaching around newsgathering and journalism in the past.) With advice from Clay Shirky and other friends I consulted, I’m asking students to think very little about how paper and broadcast newsrooms currently operate and instead treat newsgathering and reporting as an engineering challege. How do we know what happens in the world? How do we verify information about what happened? How do we understand what events are important and which we can ignore? How do we make the important relevant and interesting?

From Ethan Zuckerman's blog post, "News in the Age of Participatory Media"
About Ethan Zuckerman | @ethanz

Weekly Global Voices: Mongolia: The Mining Projects Leaving Herders Without Livelihoods

Mining projects in Mongolia promise development of social and economic infrastructure and a way to alleviate poverty, but on the wayside, local communities near the mines are feeling the negative impact as their environment and traditional livelihoods are affected.

The environmental NGO CEE Bankwatch Network has been reporting on mining projects both in Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia, projects which have been encouraged by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Bankwatch's concerns, voiced in ‘Rushing into gold can leave people behind, EBRD‘, are around resource depletion, particularly water, and changes in commodity prices.

From Juliana Rincón Parra's blog post for Global Voices Online, "Mongolia: The Mining Projects Leaving Herders Without Livelihoods"
About Global Voices Online | @globalvoices

This Buzz was compiled by Rebekah Heacock.

To manage your subscription preferences, please click here.

Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom

ashar — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 09:47:25 -0500

Thursday, February 2, 6:00PM
MIT Media Lab, Silverman Room (E14-648) (Map)
Free and Open to the Public; RSVP required for those attending in person via the form below
Co-hosted by the MIT Center for Civic Media

A global struggle for control of the Internet is now underway. At stake are no less than civil liberties, privacy and even the character of democracy in the 21st century. Many commentators have debated whether the Internet is ultimately a force for freedom of expression and political liberation, or for alienation, and repression. It is time to stop arguing over whether the Internet empowers individuals and societies, and address the more fundamental and urgent question of how technology should be structured and governed to support the rights and liberties of all the world’s Internet users. In her timely book, Rebecca MacKinnon warns that a convergence of unchecked government actions and unaccountable company practices is threatening the future of democracy and human rights around the world. Consent of the Networked is a call to action: Our freedom in the Internet age depends on whether we defend our rights on digital platforms and networks in the same way that people fight for their rights and accountable governance in physical communities and nations. It is time to stop thinking of ourselves as passive “users” of technology and instead act like citizens of the Internet – as netizens – and take ownership and responsibility for our digital future.

About Rebecca

Rebecca MacKinnon is a Bernard L. Schwartz Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, where she conducts research, writing and advocacy on global Internet policy, free expression, and the impact of digital technologies on human rights. She is cofounder of Global Voices, an international citizen media network. She also serves on the Boards of Directors of the Committee to Protect Journalists and the Global Network Initiative.

Fluent in Mandarin Chinese, MacKinnon worked as a journalist for CNN in Beijing for nine years and was Beijing Bureau Chief and Correspondent from 1998-2001, then served as CNN’s Tokyo Bureau Chief and Correspondent from 2001-03. From 2004-06 she was a Research Fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, where she began her ongoing research and writing about the Chinese Internet in addition to launching Global Voices with colleague Ethan Zuckerman. In 2007-08 she taught online journalism at the University of Hong Kong’s Journalism and Media Studies Centre. In 2009 she conducted research and writing as an Open Society Fellow, and in the Spring of 2010 she was a Visiting Fellow at Princeton’s Center or Information Technology Policy. MacKinnon received her AB magna cum laude from Harvard College and was a Fullbright scholar in Taiwan in 1991-92.

Consent of the Networked; Open Government Data for Open Accountability; Connected Democracy

ashar — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:15:02 -0500

Berkman Events Newsletter Template

Special Note: The Berkman Center is currently accepting applications for our Summer 2012 Internship Program!

cyberscholars

Harvard-MIT-Yale Cyberscholar Working Group

Wednesday, February 1st, 6:00pm ET, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St, Cambridge, MA.

The "Harvard-MIT-Yale Cyberscholar Working Group" is a forum for fellows and affiliates of the MIT, Yale Law School Information Society Project, and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University to discuss their ongoing research. This month's presentations will include: Jennifer Shkabatur on "Transparency with(out) Accountability: The Effects of the Internet on the Administrative State" and more. RSVP Required. more information on our website>

book launch

Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom

Thursday, February 2, 6:00pm ET, MIT Media Lab. This event is co-sponsored by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society and the Center for Civic Media at MIT.

A global struggle for control of the Internet is now underway. At stake are no less than civil liberties, privacy and even the character of democracy in the 21st century. Many commentators have debated whether the Internet is ultimately a force for freedom of expression and political liberation, or for alienation, and repression. It is time to stop arguing over whether the Internet empowers individuals and societies, and address the more fundamental and urgent question of how technology should be structured and governed to support the rights and liberties of all the world’s Internet users. In her timely book, Rebecca MacKinnon warns that a convergence of unchecked government actions and unaccountable company practices is threatening the future of democracy and human rights around the world. Consent of the Networked is a call to action: Our freedom in the Internet age depends on whether we defend our rights on digital platforms and networks in the same way that people fight for their rights and accountable governance in physical communities and nations. It is time to stop thinking of ourselves as passive “users” of technology and instead act like citizens of the Internet – as netizens – and take ownership and responsibility for our digital future. Rebecca MacKinnon is a Bernard L. Schwartz Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, where she conducts research, writing and advocacy on global Internet policy, free expression, and the impact of digital technologies on human rights. She is cofounder of Global Voices, an international citizen media network. She also serves on the Boards of Directors of the Committee to Protect Journalists and the Global Network Initiative. RSVP Required. more information on our website>

berkman luncheon series

Open Government Data for Open Accountability

Tuesday, February 7, 12:30pm ET, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St, Cambridge, MA. This event will be webcast live.

Over the past decade 'transparency' has become one of those key words in the debates on modern governance. A pervasive cliché captured by the rhetoric of politics, which has raised 'transparency' as a perfect paracetamol to potentially remedy problems as diverse as accountability, growth, public service delivery and participation. For years, the cornerstone of transparency policies has been the 'Freedom of Information Act', a regulation that since the mid 1960's has spread from 3 to nearly 80 countries around the globe, but which maybe increasingly gaining obsolesce in the context of the digital age. Open Government Data policy, is the latest chapter of the transparency story. It is moving the paradigm from 'access to public documentation' (FOIA) towards 'access to public data', avoiding obsolesce, and keeping up to date our right to access public information that increasingly flows through a digital ecosystem. Though the implementation of Open Data policies is likely to impact a diverse variety of sectors, 'accountability' is certainly one of the main domains of impact. The bursting rise and spread of online accountability tools and watch-dogs such as the Sunlight Foundation (US.), MySociety (UK), Ushahidi (Kenya), and Ciudadano Inteligente (Chile), are good examples of how the web is creating a more powerful sort of open and crowd sourced accountability. More eyes now rest upon government, the question is 'how' (if) does this matter. The talk will quickly overview the spread of transparency policy through freedom of information regulation, and point out to the rise of 'Open Government Data' as the latest chapter of the transparency story, highlighting how it potentially may impact 'open accountability' and the rise of a new breed of online watchdogs. Felipe Heusser is a Berkman Center fellow and is the Founder and Director of Fundación Ciudadano Inteligente, a Latin American NGO based in Chile that uses information technology to promote transparency and active citizen participation. RSVP Required. more information on our website>

special event

Connecting Democracy: Online Consultation and the Flow of Political Communication

Tuesday, February 7, 6:00pm ET, Austin Hall, Harvard Law School. This event is co-sponsored by the Harvard Law School Library and Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

A Panel Discussion about Connecting Democracy: Online Consultation and the Flow of Political Communication with Peter Shane, Jacob E. Davis and Jacob E. Davis II Chair in Law at the Ohio State University and Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School Library (co-editor of the book); David Lazer, Associate Professor, College of Computer and Information Science, Northeastern University; Ethan Zuckerman, Director of the Center for Civic Media at MIT; Matthew Baum, Marvin Kalb Professor of Global Communications, Professor of Public Policy, Shorenstein Center, Harvard Kennedy School of Government; John Palfrey, Berkman Faculty Co-Director, Henry N. Ess III Professor of Law, Vice Dean, Library and Information Resources, Harvard Law School RSVP Required. more information on our website>

berkman luncheon series

Mate Choice in an Online Dating Site

Tuesday, February 14, 12:30pm ET, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St, Cambridge, MA. This event will be webcast live.

video/audio

Beth Kolko on Hackademia: Leveraging the Conflict Between Expertise and Innovation to Create Disruptive Technologies

How and why do nonexperts contribute to innovation? The conflict between expertise and innovation sits uneasily in academia, where the enterprise hinges on doling out official credentials. But a lack of expertise can in fact drive people to create the kind of disruptive technologies that really are game-changers. In this presentation Beth Kolko — Professor in the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering at the University of Washington — connects the hacking and making/DIY communities at the point of disruptive technologies, demonstrating how the lack of institutional affiliation and formal credentials within each community opens up the space for creative problem-solving approaches. video/audio on our website>

video/audio

Andres Monroy-Hernandez on Designing for Remixing: Computer-supported Social Creativity

The Scratch Online Community allows young people to share and remix their own video games and animations, as well as those of their peers. In four years, the community has grown to close to a million registered members and more than two million user-contributed projects. Andrés Monroy-Hernández — the developer of Scratch, a post-doctoral researcher at Microsoft Research, and Berkman Fellow — presents a framework for the design and study of an online community of amateur creators, focusing on remixing as a lens to understand the social, cultural, and technical structures of a social computing system that supports creative expression. video/audio on our website>

Other Events of Note

Events that may be of interest to the Berkman community:

Connect & get involved: Jobs, internships, and more

See our events calendar if you're curious about future luncheons, discussions, lectures, and conferences not listed in this email. Our events are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted.

Designing for Remixing: Computer-supported Social Creativity

ashar — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:29:52 -0500

Tuesday, January 31, 12:30 pm
Berkman Center, 23 Everett Street, second floor
RSVP required for those attending in person via the form below
This event will be webcast live at 12:30 pm ET and archived on our site shortly after.

In this talk I present a framework for the design and study of an online community of amateur creators. I focus on remixing as a lens to understand the social, cultural, and technical structures of a social computing system that supports creative expression. I am motivated by three broad questions: 1) what is the functional role of remixing in cultural production and social learning? 2) what are the structural properties of an online remixing community? 3) what are amateur creators' attitudes towards remixing? This research builds on my work on the Scratch Online Community, an online community I conceived, developed and studied. The Scratch website allows young people to share and remix their own video games and animations, as well as those of their peers. In four years, the community has grown to close to a million registered members and more than two million user-contributed projects.

About Andres

Andrés Monroy-Hernández is a post-doctoral researcher at Microsoft Research and a Fellow at Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet & Society. His main area of research is human-computer interaction, with a focus on social computing and social media. He is particularly interested in the design and study of online communities for creative expression. His work has been featured in the New York Times, CNN, Wired, and has received awards from Ars Electronica, and the MacArthur Digital Media and Learning Competition. He was PhD student at the MIT Media Lab and holds a B.S. in computer engineering form Tec de Monterrey in Mexico.

From John Palfrey's blog - "Book Experiment #1: Intellectual Property Strategy as an iPad App (or, reply to Cody Brown)"

rtabasky — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:16:46 -0500

Berkman Buzz: January 27, 2012

rheacock — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:04:35 -0500

The Berkman Buzz is selected weekly from the posts of Berkman Center people and projects.
To subscribe, click here.

Berkman's currently accepting applications for our Summer 2012 Internship Program!
Also! We have a new Nieman-Berkman Fellowship in Journalism Innovation.

Jonathan Zittrain hosts Computers Gone Wild

Computers Gone Wild: Impact and Implications of Developments in Artificial Intelligence on Society was an informal discussion that took place at Harvard Law School on December 8th, 2011. Hosted by Jonathan Zittrain, Marin Soljačić and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, we brought together eighteen mostly local guests to discuss the ways that AI is changing society. Unlike futuristic predictions involving the Singularity or the underlying technology, this workshop explored current technology. Sessions included discussions on warfare, finance, education, and labor. Below is a list of attendees and a summary of the discussion.

From Kendra Albert's post for The Future of the Internet, "Computers Going Wild?"
About Jonathan Zittrain | @zittrain

At fantastic kick-off of @TheXFund w/ @hugovanvuuren. Very exciting initiative for @harvard
—Jesse Shapins (@jshapins)

Yochai Benkler discusses the Megaupload indictment

Last week was a busy one in digital intellectual property. In the wake of a day of online protest by technology companies and individuals opposing the proposed federal Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), the Obama Administration pulled its support for the measures. A day later, federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment against senior officials at Megaupload, one of the Internet's largest file-sharing sites. The officials were arrested in New Zealand and millions of dollars in assets were seized. Bloomberg Law's Lee Pacchia talks with Yochai Benkler, Faculty Co-Director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, about copyright law in the wake of the developments.

From Bloomberg Law via YouTube, "Harvard Prof: Megaupload-Style Cases Will Kill Prosecuted Companies"
See also: "Seven Lessons from SOPA/PIPA/Megaupload and Four Proposals on Where We Go From Here"
About Yochai Benkler | @ybenkler

Zeynep Tufekci argues that Twitter's new tweet blocking policy is good for free speech

I know many people are upset with Twitter’s announcement that it will now be able to block tweets country by country. There has been a lot of excellent writing / reporting on the content explaining that this is not as bad as it looks. (Check out good posts by my friend Jillian York here or Alex Howard here). My initial reaction upon a cursory reading of the announcement was also that it wasn’t too bad, given the alternatives. However I’ve since looked at the policy in more detail and my conclusion is that this isn’t a mediocre but acceptable policy; rather, this is an excellent policy which will be helpful to free-speech advocates.

From Zeynep Tufekci's blog post, "Why Twitter’s new policy is helpful for free-speech advocates"
About Zeynep Tufekci | @techsoc

Wayne Marshall explores nationalism and tradition in Congolese hip-hop

As if there weren’t already enough to tease out about Konono N°1 and Congotronics, a recent article in the Guardian points to a song and video called “Karibu Ya Bintou” by Baloji, a Congo-born rapper who cut his teeth on the Belgian hip-hop scene but who has worked over the last few years to return to “roots” — in part by incorporating “traditional” sounds of the Congo, from soukous guitars to Konono’s hallmark distorted likembé....

It may be tempting to read something like “Karibu Ya Bintou” as a relatively straightforward exercise in “indigenizing” or localizing hip-hop, but the story of Baloji’s transnational musical moorings — especially his ambivalence toward Congolese pop — complicates such an interpretation:

From Wayne Marshall's blog post, "Very African and Very Modern"
About Wayne Marshall | @wayneandwax

New post: CMLP ANNOUNCEMENT: Amicus Brief Filed Regarding Intersection of Trademark Law & Freedom of Speech http://t.co/ppwP78Sa
—Citizen Media Law Project (@citmedialaw)

Ethan Zuckerman liveblogs the launch of David Weinberger's "Too Big To Know"

David Weinberger‘s new book “Too Big To Know” (#2B2K – be sure to pick book titles that make good hash tags…) launched last night at Harvard Law School with a talk entitled “Unsettling Knowledge”. If you know David’s work, it’s obvious that the title is a pun. And David’s new book is a wonderfully unsettling piece – it challenges our notion of what knowledge is, and introduces the uncomfortable question of how we navigate this new space.

Knowledge as we know it is coming apart, David tells us. The bastions of knowledge, the physical emblems of knowledge, like encyclopedias, newspapers and libraries are undergoing radical transformation. We know we’re heading into a future that’s deeply different, though we don’t know quite how. The manifestations of knowledge are at risk, and all it took was the touch of a hyperlink.

From Ethan Zuckerman's blog post, "David Weinberger: Too Big To Know"
About Ethan Zuckerman | @ethanz

Weekly Global Voices: Serbia: The Media War Against Angelina Jolie

Not so long ago Angelina Jolie was “more concerned” about the reception of her directorial debut movie, ‘In the Land of Blood and Honey‘, in Bosnia and Serbia than in the United States. She was eagerly awating the reactions of local audiences, whom she had portrayed in her war drama, and some of her fears turned out to be justified.

While the Bosnian public has warmly welcomed this war love story of a Serbian policeman and a Bosnian Muslim woman, the Serbian media have launched a war on the American actress, accussing her of spreading hatred toward Serbs.

From Sasa Milosevic's blog post for Global Voices Online, "Serbia: The Media War Against Angelina Jolie"
About Global Voices Online | @globalvoices

This Buzz was compiled by Rebekah Heacock.

To manage your subscription preferences, please click here.

DMLP Advocates Protection for Uses of Trademarks in Critical Speech Online Before Massachusetts Appeals Court

ashar — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 10:51:39 -0500

The Digital Media Law Project (DMLP), assisted by Harvard Law School’s Cyberlaw Clinic, last week asked the Massachusetts Appeals Court to reject a claim of trademark infringement based on the use of a company’s name in metadata on a web page containing speech about that company.

DMLP submitted an amicus curiae brief (PDF) to the Massachusetts Appeals Court in the case of Jenzabar, Inc. v. Long Bow Group Inc. The case concerns a website operated by defendant Long Bow Group, Inc., in connection with a documentary film it produced. The film examines the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square and the protest movement’s student leaders, including the founder of plaintiff, Jenzabar. Long Bow includes the word “Jenzabar” in a web page’s URL and other metadata. In its complaint, Jenzabar alleged that Long Bow defamed the company. It also claimed that – by using the name “Jenzabar” in web page metadata – Long Bow infringed the company’s trademark rights. The Massachusetts Superior Court dismissed the defamation claims and granted summary judgment in favor of Long Bow on the trademark claims. Jenzabar appealed the court's rejection of its trademark claims.

DMLP submitted its friend of the court brief urging the Appeals Court to uphold several fundamental legal principles, including protecting critical speech online and preventing the misuse of trademark law in a distinctly non-trademark context to impede the free flow of information. The use of a trademark to identify the subject of critical commentary is protected by the First Amendment, especially in cases like this one that involve purely communicative uses of trademarked names to convey information. Traditional trademark analysis can lead to lengthy and costly litigation, the brief notes, threatening the free speech rights of parties without resources to defend against frivolous claims.

DMLP points out in its brief that the use of company names in metadata is standard practice for multinational media organizations, citizen journalists, and website operators alike. To block a website operator from using a trademark to identify the subject matter of an online article or to optimize pages for search threatens to expel critical speech to the “hinterlands of the Internet.”

"The Massachusetts Appeals Court has the opportunity to confirm the proper limits of intellectual property doctrines such as trademark law,” said DMLP's Director, Jeff Hermes. “Trademarks cannot be used to make an end run around the protections for critical expression offered by the First Amendment and the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights."

DMLP was represented on the brief by the Cyberlaw Clinic. DMLP and the Cyberlaw Clinic are both based at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, an organization dedicated to studying the development of cyberspace. DMLP regularly contributes to amicus curiae briefs in cases with important implications for online speech, journalism, and the public good that are of direct interest to all members of the news media and, indeed, the public as a whole. Cyberlaw Clinic students Michael Hoven and Andrew Pearson drafted the brief, with assistance from Clinic student Alan Ezekiel, alongside DMLP Director Jeff Hermes, DMLP Staff Attorney Andy Sellars, and Cyberlaw Clinic Assistant Director Christopher Bavitz.

About the Digital Media Law Project

The Digital Media Law Project (formerly the Citizen Media Law Project) endeavors to serve as a catalyst for creative thinking about the intersection of law and journalism on the Internet. Through the project’s website, http://www.citmedialaw.org, the active engagement of lawyers and scholars, and occasional sponsored conferences, project staff are working to build a community of lawyers, academics, and others who are interested in facilitating citizen participation in online media and protecting the legal rights of those engaged in speech on the Internet. The DMLP also operates the Online Media Legal Network, a nationwide legal referral organization for online journalists and digital media creators.

About the Harvard Law School Cyberlaw Clinic

The Cyberlaw Clinic, based at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, engages Harvard Law School students in a wide range of real-world litigation, licensing, client counseling, advocacy, and legislative projects and cases, covering a broad spectrum of Internet, new technology, and intellectual property legal issues. The Clinic was the first of its kind, and it continues its tradition of innovation in its areas of practice. Among many other areas, the scope of the Clinic’s work includes counseling and legal guidance regarding complex open access, digital copyright, and fair use issues; litigation, amicus filings, and other advocacy to protect online speech and anonymity; legal resources and advice for citizen journalists; licensing and contract advice, especially regarding Creative Commons and other “open” licenses; and guidance and amicus advocacy for effective but balanced protection of children in the areas of social networking, child pornography, and online exploitation. More information can be found at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/clinical.

Additional Links

Designing for Remixing; Cyberscholars; Consent of the Networked

ashar — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:38:51 -0500

Berkman Events Newsletter Template

Special Note: The Berkman Center is currently accepting applications for our Summer 2012 Internship Program!

berkman luncheon series

Designing for Remixing: Computer-supported Social Creativity

Tuesday, January 31, 12:30pm ET, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St, Cambridge, MA. This event will be webcast live.

From Andres: In this talk I present a framework for the design and study of an online community of amateur creators. I focus on remixing as a lens to understand the social, cultural, and technical structures of a social computing system that supports creative expression. I am motivated by three broad questions: 1) what is the functional role of remixing in cultural production and social learning? 2) what are the structural properties of an online remixing community? 3) what are amateur creators' attitudes towards remixing? This research builds on my work on the Scratch Online Community, an online community I conceived, developed and studied. The Scratch website allows young people to share and remix their own video games and animations, as well as those of their peers. In four years, the community has grown to close to a million registered members and more than two million user-contributed projects. Andrés Monroy-Hernández is a post-doctoral researcher at Microsoft Research and a Fellow at Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet & Society. RSVP Required. more information on our website>

cyberscholars

Harvard-MIT-Yale Cyberscholar Working Group

Wednesday, February 1st, 6:00pm ET, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St, Cambridge, MA.

book launch

Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom

Thursday, February 2, 6:00pm ET, MIT Media Lab. This event is co-sponsored by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society and the Center for Civic Media at MIT.

video/audio

Beth Kolko on Hackademia: Leveraging the Conflict Between Expertise and Innovation to Create Disruptive Technologies

video/audio

Justin Reich on How Free and Open Education Might Widen Digital Divides

The explosion of open education content resources create unprecedented opportunities for teachers to design and personalize curriculum and to give students opportunities to collaborate, publish, and take responsibility for their own learning, free of charge. Is it possible, however, that because affluent schools and students have a greater capacity to take up new innovations, that new tools and resources that appear in the ecology of education could widen rather than ameliorate digital divides? In this presentation Justin Reich — doctoral student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a Fellow at the Berkman Center for the Internet and Society — examines evidence for both the "tech as equalizer" and "tech as accelerator of digital divides" hypotheses. video/audio on our website>

Other Events of Note

Events that may be of interest to the Berkman community:

Connect & get involved: Jobs, internships, and more

See our events calendar if you're curious about future luncheons, discussions, lectures, and conferences not listed in this email. Our events are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted.

Too Big to Know

ashar — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:36:37 -0500

Tuesday, January 24, 6:00PM
Austin North Classroom, Austin Hall, Harvard Law School
Free and Open to the Public
Co-sponsored by the Harvard Law School Library and the Office of the Senior Associate Provost for the Library at Harvard University
Reception to follow

Special guests will include: Ann Blair, Mary Lee Kennedy, Ethan Zuckerman, and more!

We used to know how to know. Get some experts, maybe a methodology, add some criteria and credentials, publish the results, and you get knowledge we can all rely on. But as knowledge is absorbed by our new digital medium, it's becoming clear that the fundamentals of knowledge are not properties of knowledge but of its old paper medium. Indeed, the basic strategies of knowledge that emerged in the West addressed a basic problem: skulls don't scale. But the Net does. Now networked knowledge is taking on the properties of its new medium: never being settled, including disagreement within itself, and becoming not a set of stopping points but a web of temptations. Networked knowledge, for all its strengths, has its own set of problems. But, in knowledge's new nature there is perhaps a hint about why the Net has such surprising transformative power.

About David

David Weinberger writes about the effect of technology on ideas.

He is the author of Small Pieces Loosely Joined and Everything Is Miscellaneous, and is the co-author of The Cluetrain Manifesto. His current book, Too Big to Know, is about the Internet's effect on how and what we know.

Dr. Weinberger is a senior researcher at the Berkman Center. He is also co-director of the Harvard Law School Library Lab, and is a Franklin Fellow at the United States Department of State. He has a doctorate in philosophy.

Hackademia: Leveraging the Conflict Between Expertise and Innovation to Create Disruptive Technologies

ashar — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 09:09:39 -0500

Tuesday, January 24, 12:30 pm
Berkman Center, 23 Everett Street, second floor
This event will be webcast live at 12:30 pm ET and archived on our site shortly after.

This talk describes two projects that tackle the same issue: how and why do nonexperts contribute to innovation? The conflict between expertise and innovation sits uneasily in academia, where the enterprise hinges on doling out official credentials. But a lack of expertise can in fact drive people to create the kind of disruptive technologies that really are game-changers. In this presentation I'll present findings from a book-in-progress based on interviews with hackers and makers tentatively titled "Why Rulebreakers Will Rule the World." That book connects the hacking and making/DIY communities at the point of disruptive technologies, demonstrating how the lack of institutional affiliation and formal credentials within each community opens up the space for creative problem-solving approaches. The presentation will also discuss the results of a two-year experiment I've been running within the university entitled "Hackademia" which is an attempt to infect academic pursuits with a hacker ethos and challenge non-experts to see themselves as potentially significant contributors to innovative technologies. Hackademia is a semi-formal learning group that introduces mostly nontechnical students to basic technical skills and presents them with an open-ended challenge. There have been six iterations of the group so far, and each quarter new students join as we use a participant-observation model to explore how nontechnical adults gain technical skills. Hackademia is driven by a desire to create functional rather than accredited engineers, to position engineering literacy as a skill that's as important to an informed citizenry as science literacy, and to help individuals see themselves as creators rather than consumers.

About Beth

Beth Kolko is a Professor in the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering at the University of Washington. Her academic history includes a background in rhetoric, cultural studies, and online communities. She began researching the Internet in the days of newsgroups and Lynx, and at that point focused on how people used the medium to communicate and interact. In 2000, she co-edited Race in Cyberspace which was the result of several years’ research into how issues of race and gender affected technology usage patterns. She then took those research questions to an international context, spending half a year on a Fulbright in Uzbekistan in 2000. She spent ten years tracking the emergence of information and communication technologies in Central Asia since then, and has worked in several other developing regions, including Cambodia, Kenya, Uganda, Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia. She runs the Design for Digital Inclusion (DDI) lab at UW. DDI researches diversity and technology from a design perspective, focusing on technology development for resource-constrained environments in order to counteract what could be called a failure of imagination in terms of how devices, software, and services are designed. The DDI group thinks about the other five billion potential users, about computing beyond the workplace or the desktop, and broadly about technologies that can help address the challenges of everyday life. Beth works closely with the change (change.washington.edu) group at UW, collaborating with colleagues in computer science on a variety of projects including a low-cost ultrasound system designed for midwives and a new, multi-year global health technology project.

Somewhere in the past several years she started spending time in hackerspaces, attending hacker cons, and diving into DIY and Maker culture. After a few years of that, and after several years marveling at the creativity of students, she started Hackademia in an attempt to bring the habits of mind of hackers and makers into the university setting. Beth is fascinated by creativity, innovation, and how a new perspective on an old problem can be a game changer. Hackademia is an attempt to create a cohort of *functional* rather than *accredited* engineers, to give a wide set of students basic engineering literacy and the tools to explore potential solutions by bringing the creative mindset of the nonexpert into the mix. It's also an attempt to bring the joy of exploration to center stage.

Berkman Buzz: January 20, 2012

rheacock — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:24:24 -0500

The Berkman Buzz is selected weekly from the posts of Berkman Center people and projects.
To subscribe, click here.

Berkman's currently accepting applications for our Summer 2012 Internship Program!
Also! We have a new Nieman-Berkman Fellowship in Journalism Innovation.

The Berkman Community Responds to SOPA/PIPA

Today, many U.S. websites are participating in a blackout in order to express their opposition to pending U.S. legislation—House Bill 3261, The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and S.968, the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA).

The Berkman Center for Internet & Society does not take an institutional position on matters of policy. However, it encourages its faculty, fellows, staff, and community members to express their viewpoints, and invites in-depth conversations on controversial issues. Our goals are to stimulate informed analysis and to catalyze the expression of diverse opinions.

Consistent with this policy, the Berkman Center’s website is not dark today. Also consistent with that policy, many members of our community are contributing to the call for action, and others have written on this subject.

From the Berkman Center's blog post, "The Berkman Community Responds to SOPA/PIPA"
About the Berkman Center | @berkmancenter

Excited to be co-hosting @BTWFoundation, @ladygaga, her mom et al for launch 2/29 @Harvard w/ @BerkmanCenter, @zephoria, @hgse, @macfound!
—John Palfrey (@jpalfrey)

Lady Gaga to Officially Launch Born This Way Foundation at Harvard on February 29th

Lady Gaga and her mother, Cynthia Germanotta, announced today that they will officially launch the Born This Way Foundation (BTWF) on Wednesday, February 29th, 2012 at Harvard University’s Sanders Theatre. Lady Gaga will be joined by some very special guests as she personally unveils BTWF before a crowd of policy makers, non-profit organizations, foundation leaders and youth themselves who are working to create a kinder and braver world. The one-day event will be co-hosted by BTWF, the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard, the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and The California Endowment.

From the Berkman Center's press release, "Lady Gaga to Officially Launch Born This Way Foundation at Harvard on February 29th"
Born This Way Foundation | @BTWFoundation

Jeffrey Schnapp opens a "library test kitchen"

The momentum of the seminar was such that, with financial support from Harvard’s Library Lab, Jeff, Anne, Ben Brady and I have gone on to organize a “library test kitchen” for the spring for the full development, building and testing of some of last semester’s student projects as well as the incubation of other brand new ones. Last semester’s work included flexible carrel designs, modular media/reading/event space structures for insertion into existing library facilities, networked scanning stations, spatial Googling, a radical rethinking of the reference desk, a navigational app for library exploration, as well as designs for district libraries in Bogota, Columbia and South Central Africa. Among other things, this semester’s work will include policy proposals, a book project, and the building of curatorial stations.

From Jeffrey Schnapp's blog post, "Bibliotheca (the sequel)"
About Jeffrey Schnapp | @jaytiesse

Wendy Seltzer reviews the Golan decision

Yesterday, while hundreds of sites (including this one, along with Google, Wikipedia, and Reddit) were going black to protest SOPA and PIPA, the Supreme Court released its own copyright blackout, Golan v. Holder (PDF). Justice Ginsburg’s majority opinion held that the First Amendment did not prohibit reclaiming works from the public domain.

Justice Breyer, joined by Justice Alito, gave a stirring dissent. Copyright law, he said, must be “designed to encourage new production,” not just redistribute works already created. Re-copyrighting already-written works “does not encourage anyone to produce a single new work.” Instead, backwards-looking copyright grants create a serious public choice problem.

From Wendy Seltzer's blog post, "Copyright in Congress, Court, and Public"
About Wendy Seltzer | @wseltzer

We need a legal test case, pronto, about whether Apple can insist you sell products made with their tools only through them. @eff?
—Dan Gillmor (@dangillmor)

Mako Hill ponders Internet immortality

Kim Jong-Il is gone. That said, he continues to live on, looking at things, on the popular blog Kim Jong-Il Looking At Things which continues to be updated with new content from the archives.

It is now joined by Kim Jong-Un Looking At Things. I think I agree with João Rocha, creator of the original, that the younger Kim seems to be missing some hard-to-pin-down quality that made the original work well.

From Mako Hill's blog post, "Internet Immortality"
About Mako Hill | @makoshark

Weekly Global Voices: Global Online Community Protests U.S. Anti-Piracy Bills

As Global Voices' Executive Director Ivan Sigal has written, “there are powerful corporate and government forces who would prefer to see the openness and accessibility of the web restricted.” The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect-IP Act (PIPA) would both force websites to pro-actively censor potentially copyrighted information, and could, as Sigal wrote, “inflict broad damage on the work of digital activists living under repressive regimes, as well as restrict basic speech freedoms around the world.”

Because these bills have the potential to affect Internet users worldwide, members of the global community have joined Americans in protest. From German digital rights group Netzpolitik to Open Media Canada to individual bloggers and social media users, the sentiment is the same: Stop these bills.

From Jillian York's blog post for Global Voices Online, "Global Online Community Protests U.S. Anti-Piracy Bills"
About Global Voices Online | @globalvoices

This Buzz was compiled by Rebekah Heacock.

To manage your subscription preferences, please click here.

Hackademia; Too Big to Know; Designing for Remixing; Consent of the Networked

ashar — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:19:34 -0500

Berkman Events Newsletter Template

berkman luncheon series

Hackademia: Leveraging the Conflict Between Expertise and Innovation to Create Disruptive Technologies

Tuesday, January 24, 12:30pm ET, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St, Cambridge, MA. This event will be webcast live.

book launch

Too Big to Know

Tuesday, January 24, 6:00pm ET, Austin North Classroom, Austin Hall, Harvard Law School. This event is co-sponsored by the Harvard Law School Library and the Office of the Senior Associate Provost at Harvard University.

We used to know how to know. Get some experts, maybe a methodology, add some criteria and credentials, publish the results, and you get knowledge we can all rely on. But as knowledge is absorbed by our new digital medium, it's becoming clear that the fundamentals of knowledge are not properties of knowledge but of its old paper medium. Indeed, the basic strategies of knowledge that emerged in the West addressed a basic problem: skulls don't scale. But the Net does. Now networked knowledge is taking on the properties of its new medium: never being settled, including disagreement within itself, and becoming not a set of stopping points but a web of temptations. Networked knowledge, for all its strengths, has its own set of problems. But, in knowledge's new nature there is perhaps a hint about why the Net has such surprising transformative power. David Weinberger will discuss his new book,Too Big to Know. David writes about the effect of technology on ideas. He is the author of Small Pieces Loosely Joined and Everything Is Miscellaneous;, and is the co-author of The Cluetrain Manifesto. RSVP Required. more information on our website>

berkman luncheon series

Designing for Remixing: Computer-supported Social Creativity

Tuesday, January 31, 12:30pm ET, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St, Cambridge, MA. This event will be webcast live.

book launch

Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom

Thursday, February 2, 6:00pm ET, MIT Media Lab. This event is co-sponsored by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society and the Center for Civic Media at MIT.

video/audio

Alison J. Head on Modeling the Information-Seeking Process of College Students in the Digital Age

What is it like to be a college student in the digital age? Alison Head — lead researcher for the national study, Project Information Literacy, Berkman Fellow, and Research Scientist in University of Washington's Information School — presents a working typology of the undergraduate information-seeking process, including students’ reliance on and use of Web sources. video/audio on our website>

video/audio

Justin Reich on How Free and Open Education Might Widen Digital Divides

Other Events of Note

Events that may be of interest to the Berkman community:

Connect & get involved: Jobs, internships, and more

See our events calendar if you're curious about future luncheons, discussions, lectures, and conferences not listed in this email. Our events are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted.

Lady Gaga to Officially Launch Born This Way Foundation at Harvard on February 29th

rtabasky — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:09:07 -0500

Update 1/25/12: More information about the launch of the Born This Way Foundation, tickets for the February 29th event at Harvard, and media/press contacts can be found at the HGSE website.

Los Angeles, CA (January 19, 2012) – Lady Gaga and her mother, Cynthia Germanotta, announced today that they will officially launch the Born This Way Foundation (BTWF) on Wednesday, February 29th, 2012 at Harvard University’s Sanders Theatre. Lady Gaga will be joined by some very special guests as she personally unveils BTWF before a crowd of policy makers, non-profit organizations, foundation leaders and youth themselves who are working to create a kinder and braver world. The one-day event will be co-hosted by BTWF, the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard, the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and The California Endowment.

“My daughter’s foundation was born out of her passion to create a better world where people are kinder and nicer to one another and are accepted for who they are, regardless of how different they may be,” said Cynthia Germanotta. “She has experienced many of the struggles that our youth encounter today, and identifies with the lasting effects they can have without proper support. Together, we look forward to creating a new movement that will engage and empower youth and accept them as valuable members of our society.”

The foundation has partnered with the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The California Endowment and The Berkman Center at Harvard to explore the best ways to reach youth and create a new culture of kindness, bravery, acceptance and empowerment. BTWF, a non-profit charitable organization, will address issues like self-confidence, well-being, anti-bullying, mentoring and career development and advocacy. With a focus on digital mobilization to create positive change, BTWF will lead youth into a braver new society where each individual is accepted and loved as the person they were born to be. BTWF is partnering with the Harvard Graduate School of Education on this special event to raise awareness of these issues and to provide insights on reducing all types of bullying.

“We share the spirit of the Born This Way Foundation in our commitment to inspire social change, empower youth, and foster moral communities. It is an honor to host this historic event on our campus,” said Dean Kathleen McCartney of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Additional details concerning The Born This Way Foundation launch will be announced closer to the event date, February 29th, 2012. Please visit: www.BornThisWayFoundation.org to take the pledge and become part of the movement.

About The John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

The MacArthur Foundation supports creative people and effective institutions committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. MacArthur’s $85 million digital media and learning initiative aims to determine how digital media are changing the way young people learn, play, socialize and participate in civic life. Answers are critical to education and other social institutions that must meet the needs of this and future generations. More information is at www.macfound.org/learning.

About The California Endowment To Empower Youth

The California Endowment, a private, statewide health foundation, was established in 1996 to expand access to affordable, quality health care for underserved individuals and communities, and to promote fundamental improvements in the health status of all Californians. The Endowment challenges the conventional wisdom that medical settings and individual choices are solely responsible for people’s health. The Endowment believes that health happens in neighborhoods, schools, and with prevention. And as such, the Endowment has embarked on a ten-year campaign to improve the health of young people residing in vulnerable, at-risk communities through stronger and innovative prevention approaches. For more information, visit The California Endowment’s homepage at www.calendow.org.

About Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society

About the Harvard Graduate School of Education

Since its founding in 1920, the Harvard Graduate School of Education has been training leaders to transform education in the United States and around the globe. Today, our faculty, students, and alumni are studying and solving the most critical challenges facing education: student assessment, the achievement gap, and teacher effectiveness, to name just a few. Through the Ed School’s 13 master’s programs, two doctoral programs, and extensive executive education programs, the HGSE community is pushing the frontiers of education, and the effects of our entrepreneurship are improving the world. More information can be found at www.gse.harvard.edu.

Media Contacts:

Amanda Silverman
42West
Amanda.Silverman@42West.net
(212)774-3683

Sarah Rothman
42West
Sarah.Rothman@42West.net
(646)254-6030

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The Berkman Community Responds to SOPA/PIPA

rtabasky — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 11:51:37 -0500

January 20 Update - Please find additional commentary from the Berkman community on this page below the original post.

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The Berkman Center for Internet & Society does not take an institutional position on matters of policy. However, it encourages its faculty, fellows, staff, and community members to express their viewpoints, and invites in-depth conversations on controversial issues. Our goals are to stimulate informed analysis and to catalyze the expression of diverse opinions.

Consistent with this policy, the Berkman Center’s website is not dark today. Also consistent with that policy, many members of our community are contributing to the call for action, and others have written on this subject. You can find links to their public comments below.

As well, the Berkman Center and our community aim to track the protest and enable others to participate in the dialogue. Blogs@law offers a facility for engagement by Harvard community members and has a blackout plug-in available. Berkman’s Herdict project is tracking today’s protest s.

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Berkman Center co-founder and faculty director Jonathan Zittrain:
Jonathan Zittrain, along with research assistants Kendra Albert and Alicia Solow-Niederman, wrote an analysis of SOPA that “represents our notes as we sought to understand exactly what it does and how it does it — along with our corresponding sense for why its principal mechanisms make for poor law.”: "Reading SOPA"

Jonathan also visited the Colbert Report to speak on the issue.

Berkman Center faculty director John Palfrey:
In December, John Palfrey published a blog post opposing the argument that research performed by Palfrey and collaborators supports the domain name system filtering mechanism mandated by SOPA: "SOPA and our 2010 Circumvention Study"

Berkman Center faculty director Yochai Benkler:
Last fall, Yochai Benkler's paper, "WikiLeaks and the protect-ip Act:
A New Public-Private Threat to the Internet Commons" appeared in Daedalus. Subsequently, the paper was covered on TechDirt.

Fellows Advisory Board Member Wendy Seltzer: "Keep Copyright Balance: Stop SOPA and PIPA"

Fellows Advisory Board Member David Weinberger: http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/

Fellows Advisory Board Member Ethan Zuckerman, with Berkman affiliate Joichi Ito: "MIT Media Lab opposes SOPA, PIPA"

Faculty Fellow Sasha Costanza-Chock, with Chris Schweidler: On Piracy and "Common Cause : Global Resistance to Intellectual Property Rights"

Faculty Fellow danah boyd: "We need to talk about piracy (but we must stop SOPA first"

Fellow Erin McKeown: "Stop SOPA and PROTECT-IP now!"

Fellow Justin Reich: "My Anti-SOPA Letter"

Fellow Andy Sellars: "Seized Sites: The In Rem Forfeiture of Copyright-Infringing Domain Names"

Faculty Associate Dan Gillmor: "Stop Sopa or the web really will go dark"

Berkman Affiliate SJ Klein: "Preserving Internet freedom: protesting SOPA and the Wikipedia blackout"

Berkman Alum Rebecca MacKinnon: "Stop the Great Firewall of America"

Berkman Alum Doc Searls: "No 2 SOPA"

metaLAB (at) Harvard: "Going dark: SOPA, Wikipedia, and expressive absence"

Digital Public Library of America: http://dp.la/

Colleagues at Global Voices Online: "U.S. Bills Could Threaten the Global Internet"

Colleagues at the MIT Media Lab: "The Media Lab is against SOPA and PIPA"

Colleagues at the Stanford Center for Internet & Society: "CIS Is Going Dark To Stop SOPA"

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January 20 Update: Below we're capturing additional Berkman community SOPA/PIPA commentary, and will continue to add new items.

Berkman Center faculty director Yochai Benkler quoted in McClatchy: "As websites go black, Washington lawmakers react"; at TechPresident: "Seven Lessons from SOPA/PIPA/Megaupload and Four Proposals on Where We Go From Here"; interviewed by Bloomberg Law: "Harvard Prof: Megaupload-Style Cases Will Kill Prosecuted Companies"

Berkman Center co-founder and faculty director Jonathan Zittrain at his blog: "A SOPA Compromise is floated"; quoted in Bloomberg: "Google’s Protest of Anti-Piracy Bills Upends Traditional Lobbying Process"

Global Voices Advocacy's blogpost: "Internet Blackout Day Fires Up Digital Rights Activism Around the World"

Berkman Affiliate Susan Crawford in the New York Times: "A Compromise Makes Sense"

Faculty Associate Clay Shirky's blogpost: "Pick up the pitchforks: David Pogue underestimates Hollywood"

Faculty Associate Dan Gillmor in the Guardian: "The struggle against Sopa and Pipa is not over"

The Citizen Media Law Project's blogpost: "SOPA/PIPA Protest Day is Over, But the Battle is Not"

Fellows Advisory Board Member Wendy Seltzer's blogpost: "Copyright in Congress, Court, and Public"

Fellow Erin McKeown, with other artists: "An Open Letter to Washington about SOPA from Me and Some Other Amazing Creators"

Fellows Advisory Board Member David Weinberger's blogpost: "Four messages from the dark"

Fellow Oliver Goodenough interviewed on Vermont Edition: "PIPA/SOPA: Some Say Protection, Others Say Censorship"

Global Network Initiative: GNI Statement on Protecting Intellectual Property and Upholding Free Expression and Innovation Online

Berkman Alum Rebecca MacKinnon interviewed on Bloomberg Law: "SOPA and PIPA Censor Internet Users, Burden Websites"

Faculty Associate Joseph Reagle's blogpost: "SOPA Protest as a Natural Experiment?"

Ideas for a Better Internet Summit

ashar — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:08:22 -0500

Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Registration @ 5:30 pm
Program @ 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
**New Location** See this page for venue details
Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
Registration for this event is closed due to an overwhelming response
Food and Beverages will be served.

with introductions and moderation by Stanford Law School Dean Larry Kramer and Harvard Law and Computer Science Professor Jonathan Zittrain

About the event: Stanford Law School, Harvard Law School, the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, the Stanford Center for Internet & Society, and TEDxSF are pleased to invite you to a special event and reception on the Stanford campus, featuring a series of talks and a panel from thinkers and innovators working to improve the future of the Internet as we know it. The summit will feature sessions with some leading minds from Silicon Valley alongside an expo of student ideas coming out of the joint Stanford-Harvard Ideas for a Better Internet seminar.

Speakers and moderators are slated to include:

Harvey Anderson, General Counsel of Mozilla
Mitchell Baker, Chairperson of Mozilla
John Battelle, Founder of Federated Media
Lukas Biewald, Founder of Crowdflower
Nick Bilton, Technology Columnist at the New York Times
David Hornik, Partner at August Capital
Brewster Kahle, Founder of Internet Archive
Ji Lee, Communication Designer at Facebook
Mark Lemley, Professor at Stanford Law School
Alex Macgillivray, General Counsel of Twitter
Aza Raskin, Founder of Massive Health
Elizabeth Stark, Lecturer at Stanford
Vivek Wadhwa, Columnist and Fellow at Stanford
Esther Wojcicki, Vice Chair of Creative Commons

Use #betterinternet to join in the real time social media discussion.

Registration and light snacks will begin at 5:30pm and the program will run from 6-9pm with food and drink served.

Parking Information: Parking is available at the Wilbur Lot, PS-6, just steps away from the Munger Graduate Residence. Click here for a map.

Co-sponsored by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, the Stanford Center for Internet & Society, and TEDxSF.