Berkman Announcements

Dan Cohen Named Founding Executive Director of the Digital Public Library of America

kwhitebloom — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 09:30:49 -0500

Cambridge, MA—The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) announced today the appointment of Dan Cohen as the DPLA’s founding Executive Director. Cohen, currently a tenured professor in the Department of History and Art History at George Mason University and the Director of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, brings to the DPLA more than a decade of experience in digital humanities and a deep commitment to the future of libraries, archives, and museums. Cohen will begin his tenure on April 18, 2013.

“Dan Cohen's appointment is exceptionally good news for the future of the DPLA,” said John Palfrey, President of the DPLA Board of Directors. “Dan's contributions to the field of digital humanities and to libraries are already extraordinary. He has led major open source development projects, helped to digitize important works of culture, supported teachers and students in accessing fantastic digital materials, and written about the importance of libraries, archives, and museums in a digital age. We are very fortunate that he has agreed to lead the DPLA as the founding executive director.”

As the Executive Director, Cohen will work to further the DPLA’s mission to make the cultural and scientific heritage of humanity available, free of charge, to all. He will manage the day-to-day operations of the new organization, will serve as the DPLA’s spokesperson, and will advocate for partners within and outside the larger DPLA community, among a range of other critical duties.

“I am so honored to be entrusted with leading the team that will take the next steps in making the wonderful idea of the Digital Public Library of America a reality,” said Cohen. “The notion of a large-scale open digital library for all, which will connect everyone to the riches of America's libraries, archives, and museums, is profoundly important. I am deeply thankful for the hard work and tremendous vision of the DPLA's Secretariat, Steering Committee, and Board of Directors, Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, and the thousands of Americans who have participated in the DPLA’s planning process. I look forward to building upon this incredible foundation, and to partnering with people and institutions across the country to build a new library for the twenty-first century.”

Cohen currently serves as an Associate Professor in the Department of History and Art History at George Mason University, where he is the Director of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media. At the Center, Cohen has overseen projects ranging from new publishing ventures (PressForward) to online collections (September 11 Digital Archive) to software for scholarship (the popular Zotero research tool). His books include Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web (with Roy Rosenzweig) and Equations from God: Pure Mathematics and Victorian Faith. Cohen was an inaugural recipient of the American Council of Learned Societies’ Digital Innovation Fellowship. In 2011 he received the Frederick G. Kilgour Award from the American Library Association for his work in digital humanities, and in 2012 he was named one of the top “tech innovators” in academia by the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Cohen was nominated by the DPLA Search Committee from a deep and competitive pool of candidates from around the world and across the public and private sectors. The Board of Directors gratefully acknowledges those who nominated others or themselves for the position, as well as the hard work of Michele Haertel and Jim Citrin at SpencerStuart for their work to identify and assess a wide range of candidates. The Board also thanks the Search Committee, composed of Robert Darnton (Steering Committee), Laura DeBonis (Board of Directors), Carla Hayden (Steering Committee), Maura Marx (Steering Committee/Secretariat), John Palfrey (Board of Directors), and Doron Weber (Steering Committee), for their valuable contributions to the search process.

“We conducted a comprehensive and intensive search for the right person who could serve as the DPLA’s first head—a historic appointment for a history-making organization—and Dan really impressed us with his unique combination of smarts, experience, passion, and vision,” remarked Doron Weber, Vice Chair of the DPLA Steering Committee. “He is a scholar and blogger who knows the digital world as well the library world, and a teacher and manager who understands the value of building consensus and community—as well as an effective fundraiser, marketer, and communicator—and we are fortunate to have him lead DPLA towards the fulfillment of its grand, unifying vision.”

“Dan's appointment as the founding Executive Director of the DPLA is a significant and exciting milestone in the history of the project,” said Director Laura DeBonis. “Dan's extensive managerial and research experience will be a truly indispensable asset to the development of the DPLA as an essential, sustainable national digital resource.”

Cohen holds a B.A. in Religion and History of Science from Princeton, a Masters in Theological Studies from Harvard University, and a Ph.D. in History from Yale University.

ABOUT THE DIGITAL PUBLIC LIBRARY OF AMERICA

The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) is taking the first concrete steps toward the realization of a large-scale digital public library that will make the cultural and scientific record available to all. This impact-oriented research effort unites leaders from all types of libraries, museums, and archives with educators, industry, and government to define the vision for a digital library in service of the American public.

Over the past two years, the DPLA has partnered with a wide range of organizations—including the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation; Arcadia Fund; Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco Public Libraries; Digital Library of Georgia; Harvard University; Institute of Museum and Library Services; Internet Archive; John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; National Archives and Records Administration; National Endowment for the Humanities; Mountain West Digital Library; and South Carolina Digital Library—to develop the infrastructure for a national digital library. More information can be found at http://dp.la/.

Download a shareable PDF version of the announcement here. You can also find this announcement on the DPLA website.

CONTACT

Kenny Whitebloom
Project Coordinator
Berkman Center for Internet & Society
dpla(at)cyber.law.harvard.edu

The DMLP Asks the Sixth Circuit to Safeguard Crowdsourced Research and Data-based Journalism

ashar — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 15:01:55 -0500

The Digital Media Law Project (formerly the Citizen Media Law Project), assisted by Harvard Law School’s Cyberlaw Clinic, has asked the Sixth Circuit to make clear that website operators that aggregate citizen reports and rely on that data to draw conclusions cannot be liable for defamation based on those conclusions.

The DMLP submitted an amicus curiae brief (pdf) last week to the Sixth Circuit in the case of Seaton v. TripAdvisor, LLC. The case concerns TripAdvisor’s 2011 “Dirtiest Hotels in America” list. The list, which was based on travelers’ ratings for cleanliness on TripAdvisor, named the Grand Resort Hotel & Convention Center in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee the dirtiest hotel in America. Kenneth Seaton, the hotel’s owner, subsequently filed a claim for defamation and false light. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee granted TripAdvisor’s motion to dismiss the claim, holding that the statements at issue were purely subjective opinion and unverifiable rhetorical hyperbole. Seaton appealed the dismissal of his defamation claim to the Sixth Circuit.

The DMLP submitted its friend of the court brief urging the Sixth Circuit to affirm the district court’s decision. As the DMLP argues, opinions based on disclosed facts are not defamation under Tennessee law, and protecting such opinions is consistent with the goals of the First Amendment. By disclosing the reviews on which it relied, TripAdvisor enabled its readers to independently assess the rankings, subjecting its conclusions to the marketplace of ideas rather than the courts. The DMLP further called to the attention of the court that the use of crowdsourcing to collect data has become common in both data-based journalism and in academic research. Crowdsourcing is now crucial to journalists’ ability to play their traditional watchdog function, as well as their ability to provide up-to-date information in times of crisis. Failure to protect opinions based on such data would jeopardize those crucial functions.

"Crowd-sourced information gathered from online media platforms provides uniquely powerful data about breaking issues and large-scale events which would be difficult if not impossible for journalists and scholars to compile using traditional research techniques." said the DMLP's Director, Jeff Hermes.

The 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. The DMLP was represented on the brief by the Cyberlaw Clinic. The 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. Cyberlaw Clinic students Jillian Stonecipher, Andrew Crocker, and Emma Raviv drafted the brief, alongside DMLP Director Jeff Hermes, DMLP Staff Attorney Andy Sellars, and Cyberlaw Clinic Assistant Director Christopher Bavitz.

Digital Public Library of America Announces Inaugural Board of Directors

kwhitebloom — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 11:30:07 -0400

Cambridge, MA — The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) Steering Committee is pleased to announce the appointment of five members to the inaugural DPLA Board of Directors. The inaugural Board will support the DPLA’s goal of creating and maintaining a free, open, and sustainable national digital library resource.

The inaugural DPLA Board is composed of a group of public and research librarians, technologists, intellectual property scholars, and business experts from around the country:

Cathy Casserly, CEO of Creative Commons
Paul Courant, University Librarian and Dean of Libraries, Harold T. Shapiro Collegiate Professor of Public Policy, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, Professor of Economics and Professor of Information at the University of Michigan; DPLA Steering Committee
Laura DeBonis, Former Director of Library Partnerships for Google Book Search
Luis Herrera, City Librarian for the City and County of San Francisco; DPLA Steering Committee
John Palfrey, Head of School, Phillips Academy, Andover; DPLA Steering Committee

“I am delighted and honored to join the Board of Directors of the Digital Public Library of America,” said Cathy Casserly, CEO of Creative Commons. “Just as libraries are the cornerstone of the educational and cultural life of a community, a digital library that’s open and accessible to everyone is crucial to the future of the Internet.”

Luis Herrera, City Librarian for the City and County of San Francisco, remarked, "I am deeply honored to serve on the inaugural DPLA Board. Thanks to the extraordinary work of the Steering Committee, the workstreams and the DPLA Secretariat, the groundwork is in place to bring the DPLA vision to fruition. I am excited for the opportunity and look forward to helping support the DPLA's goal of creating and maintaining a free, open and sustainable digital library resource."

In coordination with the DPLA’s future Executive Director, the Board will be largely responsible for such fundamental activities as the setting of budgets and general oversight and endorsement of strategy. The new Board will seek to fulfill the DPLA’s broad commitment to openness, inclusiveness, and accessibility, and it will endeavor towards these ends in the best interest of its stakeholders, future employees, future users, and other affected parties.

“The cause of making cultural and scholarly works broadly available to residents of our country is a noble one,” noted Paul Courant, Dean of Libraries at the University of Michigan. “We have a tremendous opportunity to work with people and institutions across the country in the interest of making it easy for all to find and use library collections.”

The inaugural DPLA Board of Directors contains a wealth of professional experience from a wide variety of fields:

Catherine M. Casserly is CEO of Creative Commons. Cathy’s career is dedicated to openness, and particularly to leveraging possibilities at the boundaries of formal and informal learning to equalize educational opportunity. She has been a long-time advocate of open educational resources (OER). As the Director of the OER Initiative at The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation she managed investments totaling more than $100 million to harness the efficiency and effectiveness of knowledge sharing worldwide. At the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Cathy spearheaded work in the areas of transparency and technology as a Senior Partner and the Vice President of Innovation and Open Networks. With the extended Carnegie team she launched a continuous performance improvement system to create alternative mathematics pathways for community college students. Cathy has been instrumental in supporting many young organizations and currently sits on the Startl board, the Peer-2-Peer University board and serves on the advisory committee for MIT OpenCourseWare and the University of the People. She earned her Ph.D. in the economics of education from Stanford University and a B.A. in mathematics from Boston College.

Paul Courant is University Librarian and Dean of Libraries, Harold T. Shapiro Collegiate Professor of Public Policy, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, Professor of Economics and Professor of Information at the University of Michigan. From 2002-2005 he served as Provost and Executive Vice-President for Academic Affairs, the chief academic officer and the chief budget officer of the University. He has also served as the Associate Provost for Academic and Budgetary Affairs, Chair of the Department of Economics and Director of the Institute of Public Policy Studies (which is now the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy). In 1979 and 1980 he was a Senior Staff Economist at the Council of Economic Advisers. Courant has authored half a dozen books, and over seventy papers covering a broad range of topics in economics and public policy, including tax policy, state and local economic development, gender differences in pay, housing, radon and public health, relationships between economic growth and environmental policy, and university budgeting systems. More recently, his academic work has considered the economics of universities, the economics of libraries and archives, and the effects of new information technologies and other disruptions on scholarship, scholarly publication, and academic libraries. Paul Courant holds a BA in History from Swarthmore College (1968); an MA in Economics from Princeton University (1973); and a PhD in Economics from Princeton University (1974).

Laura DeBonis previously worked at Google where, over six years with the company, she held a variety of management positions including her final role as Director of Library Partnerships for Book Search, Google's initiative to make all the world's books discoverable and searchable online. A lifelong lover of books and libraries, Laura started her career in documentary film and multimedia and in strategy consulting for Internet businesses. She is a graduate of Harvard College and has a MBA from Harvard Business School.

Luis Herrera is the City Librarian of the San Francisco Public Library, where he is responsible for the administration of the city’s 28 libraries including a main library and 27 neighborhood branches. Previously, Mr. Herrera served as the Director of Information Services for Pasadena Public Library and the Deputy Director of the San Diego and Long Beach Library systems in California. He has served as President of both the Public Library Association and the California Library Association. In January 2012, Mr. Herrera was named the Library Journal’s Librarian of the Year. Mr. Herrera is currently Chair of the Cal Humanities and was recently nominated by President Barack Obama to serve on the Board of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Mr. Herrera earned his B.S. from the University of Texas at El Paso, a M.P.A. from California State University, and a M.L.S. from the University of Arizona.

John Palfrey is the Head of School at Phillips Academy, Andover. He also serves as a Trustee of the Knight Foundation and the chair of the Steering Committee of the Digital Public Library of America. John’s research and teaching focus on new media and learning. He has written extensively on Internet law, intellectual property, and the potential of new technologies to strengthen democracies locally and around the world, and is the author or co-author of several books. John served previously as the Henry N. Ess III Professor of Law and Vice Dean for Library and Information Resources at Harvard Law School. He is a director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, where he was executive director from 2002-2008. John graduated from Harvard College, the University of Cambridge, and Harvard Law School. He was a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholar to the University of Cambridge and received the U.S. EPA Gold Medal (highest national award).

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About the Digital Public Library of America
The DPLA Steering Committee is leading the first concrete steps toward the realization of a large-scale digital public library that will make the cultural and scientific record available to all. This impact-oriented research effort unites leaders from all types of libraries, museums, and archives with educators, industry, and government to define the vision for a digital library in service of the American public. The DPLA Secretariat is located at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University; the Steering Committee comprises library and foundation leaders across the nation. More information can be found at http://dp.la/.

Digital Public Library of America Steering Committee

Paul Courant, Harold T. Shapiro Professor of Public Policy and Dean of Libraries at the University of Michigan
Robert Darnton, Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor and Director of the Harvard University Library
Carla Hayden, Chief Executive Officer of the Enoch Pratt Free Library (Baltimore, Maryland)
Charles Henry, President of the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR)
Luis Herrera, City Librarian for the City and County of San Francisco
Brewster Kahle, Founder of the Internet Archive
Michael A. Keller, Ida M. Green University Librarian, Director of Academic Information Resources at Stanford University
Deanna Marcum, Managing Director, Ithaka S+R
Maura Marx, Berkman Center Fellow and Executive Director, Open Knowledge Commons
Jerome McGann, John Stewart Bryan University Professor at the University of Virginia
Dwight McInvaill, Director of the Georgetown County Library (South Carolina)
John Palfrey (Chair), Head of School, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA
Peggy Rudd, Executive Director/State Librarian of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission
Amy E. Ryan, President of the Boston Public Library
David Spadafora, President and Librarian of the Newberry (Chicago, IL)
Doron Weber (Vice Chair), Vice President, Programs at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

Contact
Kenny Whitebloom
Project Coordinator
Berkman Center for Internet & Society
dpla@cyber.law.harvard.edu

Digital Public Library of America Announces New Director for Content

rheacock — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 11:25:21 -0400

Cambridge, MA—The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) Secretariat is pleased to announce the appointment of Emily B. Gore as DPLA Director for Content, beginning September 1, 2012.

As Director for Content, Gore will be responsible for the oversight of the DPLA’s hub infrastructure, including implementation of state and regional digital service hubs as part of the Digital Hubs Pilot Program supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as for the oversight of content provider relationships with digital library partners throughout the United States.

"I am excited and honored to be named the DPLA Director for Content,” said Gore. “Throughout my career, collaborative digitization and digital library development have been my first loves. I am looking forward to leading the Digital Hubs Pilot effort, which I see as a way forward for the DPLA. Working together, we will make the DPLA into our national digital library."

“We are delighted to have Emily as the head of our content team,” said John Palfrey, Chair of the DPLA Steering Committee. “Emily has been deeply involved in the DPLA effort as a volunteer workstream member since the beginning, where she has brought a wealth of experience to the table in helping to shape our approach to content. We look forward to working with her on this foundational pilot project.”

Gore currently serves as Associate Dean for Digital Scholarship and Technology Services at Florida State University (FSU), where she oversees Scholarly Communication, E-Science, Electronic Resource Management, Technology and Digital Library services. Prior to joining FSU, Gore held positions at Clemson University, NC ECHO, and East Carolina University, leading technology and digital library efforts. During the course of her career, Gore has managed over $2.5 million in grant funding for technology/digital initiatives. She is an advocate for collaboration and is associated with many collaborative efforts, past and present, including the MetaArchive Cooperative, the South Carolina Digital Library, and North Carolina ECHO; while managing NC ECHO, she coined the term "scannebago," Gore is a member of the Frye Leadership Institute Class of 2011 and has chaired numerous American Library Association Committees, including the Collaborative Digitization Interest Group and the Digital Preservation Interest Group. Over the past year, Gore has also volunteered her time and effort as a convener of the DPLA’s Technical Aspects workstream. Gore is the 2009 Lyrasis NextGen Librarian Award winner for Technology and a 2009 recipient of the Clemson University Outstanding Faculty Award. Gore is a native of North Carolina and holds an MLS from the University of Alabama and a BA from Clemson University.

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Contact
Rebekah Heacock
Project Coordinator
Berkman Center for Internet & Society
dpla@cyber.law.harvard.edu

Berkman Center Announces 2012-2013 Fellows

rtabasky — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 06:25:44 -0400

Cambridge, MA - The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University today announced the fellows who will join the community in the 2012-2013 academic year, continuing a tradition of providing a home for some of the most incisive and creative minds in law, technology, and social science, alongside path-breaking entrepreneurs and activists.

“The 2012-2013 fellows bring to Berkman an astounding level of expertise, a diversity in viewpoints and interests, and a willingness to innovatively and deeply engage the many pressing questions related to the ongoing development of the Internet” said Urs Gasser, Berkman’s Executive Director. “Their commitment to spending the next year in Cambridge provides us the opportunity to build bridges across our shared and independent activities, and to serve the public interest with rigorous research, concerted action, and genuine kinship. We very much look forward to the year ahead with this inspiring group of colleagues.”

Notably, the Berkman Center and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, will host two inaugural Nieman-Berkman Fellows in Journalism Innovation.

In addition to our fellows, each year the Berkman Center’s community is strengthened by relationships with faculty associates, fellows advisory board members, and affiliates and partners the world over. Their contributions are fundamental to the Berkman Center’s work and identity, helping to further bolster ties among organizations around the world and to bolster the capacity of the field.

New 2012-2013 Berkman fellows:

Kendra Albert will deepen her relationship with Berkman and work on the H2O project for open educational resources, as well as explore new topics in generativity and online gatekeeping.

Meg Leta Ambrose, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Colorado's interdisciplinary ATLAS Institute, will explore the legal, social, and technical issues surrounding the proposed digital right to be forgotten.

Laura Norton Amico, editor and founder of Homicide Watch in Washington, D.C., will study criminal justice journalism in the digital age, focusing on best practices, useful tools and new models for crime and courts reporting. She is one of two new Nieman-Berkman Fellows in Journalism Innovation.

Bodó Balázs, a Fulbright Visiting Researcher from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, will work on his book on bottom-up, voluntary intellectual property regimes that emerge in piratical file-sharing communities and other informal media economies.

Matthew Becker, a Harvard Law School 3L and Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, will explore a solution to the problem of adhesive standard form contracts such as terms of service, using an approach that draws on the decentralized nature of the Internet.

Jacques de Werra, Professor of intellectual property and contract law at the University of Geneva, will conduct research on the development of global intellectual property licensing policies in the online environment.

Ruha Devanesan, Executive Director of Internetbar.org, will research the impact of the digitization of the music industry on developing world music creation and consumption.

Borja Echevarría de la Gándara, Deputy Managing Editor of El País in Spain, will study the structural evolution of newsrooms around the world and how disruptive innovation is altering traditional business and workflow models for news. He is one of two new Nieman-Berkman Fellows in Journalism Innovation.

Eric Gordon, Associate Professor at Emerson College and Director of the Engagement Game Lab, will examine how social media and games are transforming local civic engagement.

Phil Hill, a J.D. candidate at Harvard Law School, will explore copyright law and policies relating to creative expression in the digital age.

Diana Kimball, an MBA candidate at Harvard Business School, will apply an open-source ethos to her work on mentoring and her research on internet culture.

Rosemary Leith, a Director of the World Wide Web Foundation, will join Berkman's Internet Robustness team, building awareness and facilitating partnerships in the effort to support a more stable and reliable Web.

Ching-Yi Liu, Professor of law at National Taiwan University and Principal Investigator of Taiwan's National E-Learning and Digital Archives Program, will explore issues related to network neutrality, technology policies related to digital libraries, and freedom of the press in the Internet age.

Maria Löblich, Assistant Professor at the Department of Communication Science and Media Research, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, will work on civil society's involvement in net neutrality contentions and its intertwining with other political actors in the United States.

Xinlei Lu, a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Journalism at Fudan University, Shanghai will work on how cyber-technology has been employed to prevent HIV/AIDS in the gay community in China, and the political, commercial, and social factors implicated therein.

Jun-Ru Lu, a public prosecutor of Taipei District Prosecutors Office in Taiwan, will develop his research on electronic case files and evidence in criminal procedure.

Silvio Meira, Professor of software engineering at the Center for Informatics at the Federal University of Pernambuco and Chief Scientist at the Recife Center for Advanced Studies and Systems, will work on innovation networks and habitats in developing economies and Brazil in particular and will have a go at The Emerging Web of Machines.

O'Seun Odewale, Personal Assistant and Adviser to Governor of Ekiti State, South West Nigeria will explore Open Society in the context of new technologies and the politics of control.

Jonathon Penney, a research fellow at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab and a Ph.D. candidate at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, will work primarily on his doctoral research concerning regulatory chilling effects online.

Alberto Pepe, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Center for Astrophysics of Harvard University and co-founder of Authorea, will research and promote Open Science and develop the next generation of tools for the collaborative authorship of research projects.

Molly Sauter, a S.M. candidate in Comparative Media Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will be examining conflicts of anonymity and pseudonymity at the intersections of digital activism and "real life" activism.

Elisabeth Staksrud, a research fellow at the Department of Media and Communication at the University of Oslo, will work on her new book, critically exploring the relationship between NGOs and the Internet industry in the field of online protection of children.

Alexander H. Trechsel, Professor of political science at the European University Institute in Florence, will work on internet voting and, more generally, the transformation of representative democracy in the digital era.

Jessica Valenti, a feminist author and activist, will research and develop a plan for a national think tank grounded in digital feminism and its communities.

Heather Whitney, a J.D. candidate at Harvard Law School, will investigate how we can better leverage social platforms and the rise of citizen science and quantified self to improve health and health research.

John Palfrey will take on the role as a senior research fellow at Berkman while he also transitions to his position of Head of School of Phillips Academy, Andover. In addition, he will maintain his position as a member of the Berkman Center’s Board of Directors and serve as a principal investigator on selected projects, including the Digital Public Library of America.

Fellows returning for 2012-2013 include: Dalida Maria Benfield, danah boyd, Ryan Budish, Herbert Burkert, Sandra Cortesi, Juan Carlos de Martin, Judith Donath, Mayo Fuster Morell, Oliver Goodenough, Eszter Hargittai, Jerome Hergueux, Benjamin Mako Hill, Catharina Maracke, Maura Marx, Claire McCarthy, Intisar Rabb, Justin Reich, Hal Roberts, Andy Sellars, Aaron Shaw, Peter Suber, Kevin Wallen, and Christopher Walsh.

Fellowship Advisory Board members, Wendy Seltzer, Jake Shapiro, David Weinberger, and Ethan Zuckerman, will continue their deep involvement in the Center’s activities, fellows program, and growing network of affiliated researchers.

In addition to new and returning fellows and the Fellowship Advisory Board, the Berkman Center will also engage a group of Faculty Associates for the 2012-2013 academic year, including: Mike Ananny, David Ardia, Fernando Bermejo, Jim Bessen, Michael Best, Beth Coleman, Sasha Costanza-Chock, Dan Gillmor, Matt Hindman, Jeffrey Huang, Lewis Hyde, Beth Kolko, Karim Lakhani, Kevin Lewis, Harry Lewis, Wayne Marshall, Miriam Meckel, Carlos Osorio, Mica Pollock, Joseph Reagle, Nagla Rizk, Geanne Rosenberg, Christian Sandvig, Clay Shirky, Zeynep Tufekci, Eric Von Hippel, Dennis Yi Tenen, and Dorothy Zinberg.

About the Berkman Center for Internet and Society:

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. More information can be found at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu.

Contact:
Rebecca Tabasky
rtabasky@cyber.law.harvard.edu
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Berkman Center Board of Directors welcomes five new members

syoung — Thu, 10 May 2012 11:17:59 -0400

Cambridge, MA — The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University announced today that five new members have been appointed to its Board of Directors, bringing the total number of directors to thirteen. The new members are: Susan Crawford (Visiting Stanton Professor of the First Amendment at the Kennedy School of Government; Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School); Phillip Malone (Clinical Professor of Law; director, Cyberlaw Clinic); Felix Oberholzer-Gee (Andreas Andresen Professor of Business Administration; Chair, MBA Global Program); Jeffrey Schnapp (Professor of Romance Languages & Literatures and Comparative Literature; faculty at the Graduate School of Design; Faculty Director, metaLAB (at) Harvard project); and Mark Wu (Assistant Professor of Law). The renewed Board will help the Center continue to build collaborations that cross disciplinary and institutional boundaries.

“I am delighted to welcome these five outstanding faculty to our leadership group,” said Terry Fisher, Chair of the Board. “Each brings to the Center great expertise and energy – and in some cases a rich history of collaboration. I very much look forward to working with all of them.”

The Board of Directors shapes the Berkman Center’s overall vision and makes significant financial, research, academic, personnel, governance, and other overarching organizational decisions. Terry Fisher remains the Chair of the Board. Continuing as directors are: Professors Yochai Benkler, John Deighton, Charles Nesson, John Palfrey, Stuart Shieber, and Jonathan Zittrain. Urs Gasser continues as Executive Director, leading implementation of the vision and objectives set forth by the Board.

“The Berkman Center is a jewel, preeminent in the study of Internet governance and law, and it is also a model of innovative collaboration, research, and teaching,” said Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow. “The participation of Susan Crawford, Phil Malone, Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Jeffrey Schnapp, and Mark Wu ensures its ongoing dynamism and creativity, and I am delighted that the Center will have the benefit of their vision and expertise which ranges across the fields of intellectual property, internet technology and policy, communications law, cybercrime, cybersecurity, freedom of speech and anonymity, privacy, economics, and globalization. I salute the fine board service of Mark Edwards, Jack Goldsmith, Alex Keyssar, and Charles Ogletree. With the continuing leadership of Terry Fisher, Urs Gasser, Charles Nesson, Yochai Benkler, John Deighton, John Palfrey, Stuart Shieber, and Jonathan Zittrain and the new group of board members, the Berkman Center will dazzle, innovate, and set the standard.”

The Berkman community joins Dean Minow and the Board in thanking those members whose terms are coming to a close. They have contributed enormously to the life of the Center, and in particular have helped to guide its transition from an organization rooted exclusively in the law school to a university-wide Interfaculty Initiative.

About the Berkman Center directors:

Yochai Benkler, Jack N. and Lillian R. Berkman Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies, Harvard Law School, teaches and writes about the Internet and the emergence of networked economy and society, as well as the organization of infrastructure, such as wireless and broadband communications.

Susan Crawford, (Visiting) Stanton Professor of the First Amendment at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government; Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School. Prof. Crawford is on the faculty of Cardozo Law School, where she studies Internet policy, communications law and the use of technology by government.

John Deighton, Harold M. Brierley Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, studies online marketing, conducted largely by close study of specific situations. Recent research has included the use of social media in the Obama/Clinton primary campaign, corporate use of blogging and Facebook presence, management styles and practices in the shift in the music industry from physical to digital product, and a series of cases on the processes by which viral videos were propagated online and offline.

William Fisher, WilmerHale Professor of Intellectual Property Law at Harvard Law School, focuses on Copyright, Patent, and Trademark Law and American legal History.

Urs Gasser, Executive Director, Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. His research and teaching focuses on information law and policy and the interaction between law and innovation.

Phillip Malone, Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School; Director of the Law School’s Cyberlaw Clinic at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. Prof. Malone’s research and teaching focus on cybercrime, online speech and anonymity, online privacy, and intellectual property among the many dimensions of Internet law.

Charles Nesson, William F. Weld Professor of Law, Harvard Law School; founder of Berkman Center. Prof. Nesson’s myriad research interests include evidence, criminal law, cyberlaw and technology in teaching.

Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Andreas Andresen Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School; Chair, MBA Global Program. Prof. Oberholzer-Gee’s research is centered on competitive strategy, international competition, and non-market strategy, a branch of strategic management that studies how companies best work with government and non-governmental groups. In recent work, he studied how entertainment companies can successfully manage the digital transition.

John G. Palfrey, Henry N. Ess III Professor of Law; Vice Dean, Library and Information Resources, Harvard Law School. Prof. Palfrey studies intellectual property, access to knowledge, Internet & democracy, and youth & technology. He is currently leading Berkman’s involvement in the Digital Public Library of America project.

Jeffrey T. Schnapp, Professor of Romance Languages & Literatures and Comparative Literature; faculty at the Graduate School of Design; faculty director of the metaLAB (at) Harvard project. Prof. Schnapp is a cultural historian with research interests extending from antiquity to the present, largely centering around his pioneering work in the domains of digital humanities and digitally augmented approaches to cultural programming.

Stuart Shieber, James O. Welch, Jr. and Virginia B. Welch Professor of Computer Science, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences; Director, Office for Scholarly Communication. Prof. Shieber studies communications across many dimensions, including programming languages, graphical languages and human linguistics. In his capacity in the Office of Scholarly Communication, Shieber spearheads efforts to open, share and preserve scholarship across Harvard.

Mark Wu, Assistant Professor of Law, Harvard Law School. Prof. Wu’s research focuses on international trade and related issues of intellectual property law, economics and globalization. Prof. Wu is a specialist on legal and economic development of East Asia, particularly China.

Jonathan Zittrain, Professor of Law, Harvard Law School; Harvard Kennedy School of Government; Professor of Computer Science, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Prof. Zittrain’s research includes digital property, privacy, and speech, and the role played by private "middlepeople" in Internet architecture. He has a strong interest in creative, useful, and unobtrusive ways to deploy technology in the classroom.

About the Berkman Center for Internet & Society
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. More information can be found at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu.

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DMLP Guide to the IRS Decision-Making Process under Section 501(c)(3) for Journalism and Publishing Non-Profit Organizations

ashar — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 11:54:17 -0400

The Digital Media Law Project (DMLP), hosted at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, is pleased to announce the publication of its Guide to the Internal Revenue Service Decision-Making Process under Section 501(c)(3) for Journalism and Publishing Non-Profit Organizations.

With the journalism industry in a state of flux, there are a growing number of news ventures attempting to operate as non-profit organizations. Many of these ventures depend upon receiving a federal tax exemption from the IRS under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. However, confusion about the IRS’s standards in applying Section 501(c)(3) has led to applications for tax-exempt status being delayed or denied. It has also led to criticism of the IRS as being arbitrary in its decision-making process and adverse to the journalism industry.

“Over the past several months, the Digital Media Law Project has become aware of a pattern of delays at the IRS in decisions on the tax status of news-oriented non-profits,” said Jeff Hermes, director of the DMLP. “After speaking with some of the affected non-profits and reviewing the applicable law, we determined that there was a gap in understanding of the IRS decision-making process. We have attempted to close that gap with the Guide.”

The Guide provides practical and detailed information regarding the standards that the IRS applies when reviewing a journalism venture’s application for a tax exemption. It is available as an interactive Internet-based resource on the DMLP’s website at http://www.citmedialaw.org/irs, and has also been published in PDF format through the Social Science Research Network at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2031708.

For more information, contact staff@citmedialaw.org.

ABOUT THE DIGITAL MEDIA LAW PROJECT: The DMLP (formerly the Citizen Media Law Project) works to ensure that individuals and organizations involved in online journalism and digital media have access to the legal resources, education, tools, and representation that they need to thrive. The DMLP carries out its mission through its five core initiatives: (1) its detailed Legal Guide on media and business law topics for non-lawyers; (2) its searchable Database of Legal Threats directed at online publishers; (3) its Research & Response initiative to address breaking issues and trends in digital media law; (4) its nationwide attorney referral service, the Online Media Legal Network; and (5) its regularly-updated DMLP Blog on current issues in media law, technology law and journalism.

The DMLP was founded and operates thanks to generous grants from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Open Society Foundations, the Harnisch Foundation and the Philip L. Graham Fund.

ABOUT THE BERKMAN CENTER FOR INTERNET & SOCIETY: The Berkman Center is a research center founded at Harvard Law School in 1997. Now a University-wide Center, it serves as the locus for a network of Harvard and other faculty, students, fellows, lawyers, entrepreneurs, and others working to identify and engage with the challenges and opportunities presented by the Internet. The Center is devoted to research and teaching on issues at the intersection of emerging technologies, law, public policy, industry, and education and to the development of dynamic approaches and rigorous scholarship that can affect and support the public interest. For more information, visit http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/.

Exploring Russian Cyberspace: Digitally-Mediated Collective Action and the Networked Public Sphere - New Berkman Center Research

ashar — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 10:02:08 -0500

In advance of this Sunday’s Russian presidential election, the Berkman Center is pleased to announce the release of a paper that summarizes the major findings for our three-year project investigating the Internet’s impact on Russian politics, media and society:

“Exploring Russian Cyberspace: Digitally-Mediated Collective Action and the Networked Public Sphere”
by Karina Alexanyan, Vladimir Barash, Bruce Etling, Robert Faris, Urs Gasser, John Kelly, John Palfrey, and Hal Roberts

The paper assesses the relationship between Russian cyberspace and Russian political and social life. This work was made possible thanks to the generous support of the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

This paper summarizes the major findings of three-year research project to investigate the Internet’s impact on Russian politics, media and society. We employed multiple methods to study online activity: the mapping and study of the structure, communities and content of the blogosphere; an analogous mapping and study of Twitter; content analysis of different media sources using automated and human-based evaluation approaches; and a survey of bloggers; augmented by infra- structure mapping, interviews and background research. We find the emergence of a vibrant and diverse networked public sphere that constitutes an independent alternative to the more tightly controlled offline media and political space, as well as the growing use of digital platforms in social mobilization and civic action. Despite various indirect efforts to shape cyberspace into an environment that is friendlier towards the government, we find that the Russian Internet remains generally open and free, although the current degree of Internet freedom is in no way a prediction of the future of this contested space.

This is part of a series of papers that will be released over the coming months. Previous research on the Russian Internet includes our study of the Russian blogosphere, "Public Discourse in the Russian Blogosphere: Mapping RuNet Politics and Mobilization". An overview of past and upcoming publications can be found here: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/research/russia/paper_series. Further information about the Berkman Center's project on the Impact of the Internet on Russian Politics, Media, and Society can be found here: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/research/russia.

As always, we welcome your feedback.

More information can also be found at http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/idblog/2012/03/02/exploring-russian-cybersp....

Youth and Digital Media: From Credibility to Information Quality - New Report from the Berkman Center

ashar — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 15:25:23 -0500

The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University is pleased to share a substantial new report from the Youth and Media project: "Youth and Digital Media: From Credibility to Information Quality" by Urs Gasser, Sandra Cortesi, Momin Malik, & Ashley Lee.

Building upon a process- and context-oriented information quality framework, this paper seeks to map and explore what we know about the ways in which young users of age 18 and under search for information online, how they evaluate information, and how their related practices of content creation, levels of new literacies, general digital media usage, and social patterns affect these activities.

A review of selected literature at the intersection of digital media, youth, and information quality—primarily works from library and information science, sociology, education, and selected ethnographic studies—reveals patterns in youth’s information-seeking behavior, but also highlights the importance of contextual and demographic factors both for search and evaluation. To access the full report and additional material, please visit: http://youthandmedia.org/infoquality

Key Findings:
1. Search shapes the quality of information that youth experience online.
2. Youth use cues and heuristics to evaluate quality, especially visual and interactive elements.
3. Content creation and dissemination foster digital fluencies that can feed back into search and evaluation behaviors.
4. Information skills acquired through personal and social activities can benefit learning in the academic context.

"Youth and Digital Media: From Credibility to Information Quality" lays the foundation and raises questions for further explorations in this area. The report also encourages a public policy discussion on youth, digital media, and information quality issues. We hope you will take the time to review the report, to build upon it, and to share it with interested colleagues and networks.

We wish to thank all of our wonderful collaborators at the Berkman Center, our friends at the Harvard Law School Library, and the participants of a workshop on information quality for their valuable contributions and their important work in the field. The report builds upon research enabled by generous grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.

As always, we welcome your feedback.

Urs Gasser, John Palfrey, Sandra Cortesi, and the Youth and Media team

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Infographic

Announcing The Kinder & Braver World Project: Research Series

ashar — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:30:00 -0500

The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University is pleased to announce The Kinder & Braver World Project: Research Series (danah boyd and John Palfrey, editors) as part of its collaboration with the Born This Way Foundation (BTWF), and generously supported by the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. danah boyd has also blogged about the project.

This series of working papers will help synthesize research and provide research-based recommendations for action to BTWF, which officially launched on Wednesday, February 29th before a crowd of policymakers, non-profit organizations, foundation leaders, students and youth at the Harvard Graduate School of Education's Askwith Forum. For more information on the Berkman Center's partnership with BTWF, please see: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/research/youthandmedia/bornthisway.

To date, the Kinder & Braver World Project is comprised of:

"What You Must Know to Help Combat Youth Bullying, Meanness, and Cruelty" by danah boyd and John Palfrey
"An Overview of State Anti-Bullying Legislation and Other Related Laws" by Dena Sacco, Katharine Silbaugh, Felipe Corredor, June Casey, and Davis Doherty
"Bullying Prevention 101 for Schools: Dos and Don'ts" by Susan Swearer, Mia Doces, Lisa Jones, and Anne Collier
"Implementing Bullying Prevention Programs in Schools: A How-To Guide" by Lisa Jones, Mia Doces, Susan Swearer, and Anne Collier
"Changing the Culture: Ideas for Student Action" by Anne Collier, Susan Swearer, Mia Doces, and Lisa Jones

All documents are currently presented in draft form; we welcome feedback on each. Thoughts and suggestions can be sent to kbw-feedback@cyber.law.harvard.edu. Additional material will be released over the coming months, so please stay tuned!