Cyberscholar Working Group (10/24); The Innovation Intermission (10/29); The Fight for the Future (11/5)

cyberscholars

Cyberscholar Working Group

Thursday, October 24, 6:00pm ET, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St, 2nd Floor.

The Cyberscholar Working Group is a forum for fellows and affiliates of MIT, Yale Law School Information Society Project, Columbia University, and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University to discuss their ongoing research.. Each session is focused on the peer review and discussion of current projects submitted by a presenter. Meeting alternatively at Harvard, MIT, Yale, the working group aims to expand the shared knowledge of young scholars by bringing together these preeminent centers of thought on issues confronting the information age. Discussion sessions are designed to facilitate advancements in the individual research of presenters and in turn encourage exposure among the participants to the multi-disciplinary features of the issues addressed by their own work.

This month's presentations include: (1) "Cyber-Attacking Al Qaeda and the First Amendment's Right to Listen". Sam Kleiner is a student at the Yale Law School where he is an Articles Editor of the Yale Journal of International Law and a Fellow at the Information Society Project. (2) "Mesh networking: analysing the trade-off between decentralisation and control". Primavera De Filippi is a researcher at the CERSA / CNRS / Université Paris II. (3) "Carceral Feminist Technologies & the Automated Detection of Child Pornography". Mitali Thakor is a doctoral candidate in the MIT Program in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology, & Society (HASTS). RSVP Required. more information on our website>

berkman luncheon series

The Innovation Intermission

Tuesday, October 29, 12:30pm ET, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St, 2nd Floor. This event will be webcast live.

The stereotypes of those who are tech-savvy don’t necessarily match the reality. Whites in America currently lag behind all other ethnicities in their use of advanced internet services, smartphones and social media. Women are more likely than men to use mobile social media. Mothers are one of advertisers' most targeted demographic and 93% of American moms use the internet, compared to 60-70% of the U.S. overall population. But current investments in new technology don’t not match the consumers of these technologies. According to the Kaufmann Foundation, only 4% of venture capital of any kind goes to female tech entrepreneurs. This section will explore the trends currently changing the economy and our society.

Does this gap between creators and consumers matter? Are we in an innovation intermission, poised on the threshold of another great wave of technological creativity as access to tools are democratized? Society is being reshaped through increased social connectivity. As each person becomes a technologist, we are actively engaged in creating the future today in which we will live together tomorrow. Come discuss the shape of the future to come and the portending signs that currently surround us

Cheryl Contee, Partner at Fission Strategy, specializes in helping non-profit organizations and foundations use social media to create social good. She is also the co-founder of Jack and Jill Politics writing as “Jill Tubman” on one of the top black blogs online. RSVP Required. more information on our website>

berkman luncheon series

The Fight for the Future: How People Defeated Hollywood and Saved the Internet--For Now

Tuesday, November 5, 12:30pm ET, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St, 2nd Floor. This event will be webcast live.

This talk will explain how a grassroots movement involving millions of people was able to defeat money, politicians, Hollywood, and the copyright lobby, all in the name of a "free and open Internet." People used Facebook, Twitter, other social media, blogs, and websites to organize and launch protests against SOPA and ACTA, two controversial copyright proposals in the United States and European Union that many feared would lead to Internet censorship. Participants will learn how the Internet helped people fight for their Internet freedoms--and do the unthinkable in stopping powerful lobbyists and the entertainment industry in their effort to clamp down on online piracy at all costs.

Edward Lee is a Professor of Law and the Director of the internationally recognized Program in Intellectual Property Law at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. He graduated summa cum laude from Williams College with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy (highest honors) and classics, and cum laude from Harvard Law School. RSVP Required. more information on our website>

video/audio

Aimee Corrigan and Colin Maclay on The New Nollywood

In less than two decades Nollywood (Nigeria's booming movie industry) has grown to an estimated value of $250 million, employing over a million people and producing over 1000 films each year. Nollywood's movies have an audience of millions in Nigeria, throughout Africa and around the world -- from Bombay to Brooklyn. But the industry faces big challenges from limited financing opportunities to rampant piracy. Today, in an effort to overcome these challenges, leading filmmakers in Nigeria consider themselves part of a growing movement they call “New Nollywood," Aimee Corrigan -- Co-Director of Nollywood Workshops, a hub for filmmakers in Lagos, Nigeria -- and Colin M. Maclay -- the Managing Director of the Berkman Center -- discuss increased access to new technology and equipment, training, new sources of financing, and alternative distribution that are helping to make Nollywood the envy of filmmakers around the world. audio on our website>