Upcoming Events and Digital Media Roundup

BERKMAN CENTER FOR INTERNET & SOCIETY AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY
June 17, 2009 // Upcoming events and digital media

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[1] [TODAY 6/17/09] "Online Discourse in the Arab World: Dispelling the Myths" at the United States Institute of Peace (http://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2009/06/usip)

[2] [FRIDAY and SATURDAY 6/19-6/20/09] Open Video Conference in NYC (http://openvideoconference.org/)

[3] [TUESDAY 6/23/09] Berkman Center Luncheon Series on "Skill Matters: The Role of User Savvy in Different Levels of Online Engagement" with Eszter Hargittai, Berkman Fellow (http://cyber.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2009/06/hargittai)

[TODAY] ONLINE DISCOURSE IN THE ARAB WORLD: DISPELLING THE MYTHS
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6/17/09, 10:00 am ET, at the United States Institute for Peace in Washington, DC

Live webcast: http://origin.usip.org/arabblogs/

Bruce Etling and John Kelly will present the Berkman Center's new study of the Arabic blogosphere, which analyzes over 10,000 blogs from 18 countries and which follows last year's "Mapping Iran’s Online Public: Politics and Culture in the Persian Blogosphere." The Arabic blogosphere findings will be discussed by an exceptional panel of speakers, with the online participation of bloggers from the Middle East.

Speakers

Bruce Etling, Harvard University, Berkman Center for Internet & Society
John Palfrey, Harvard University, Berkman Center for Internet & Society
John Kelly, Morningside Analytics
Daniel Brumberg, Georgetown University, Acting Director of USIP's Muslim World Initiative
Saad Ibrahim, Voices for a Democratic Egypt
Hisham Melhem, Al Arabiya, Washington Bureau Chief
Sheldon Himelfarb, United States Institute of Peace (Moderator)

Bloggers from throughout the Arab world will also participate live online and via video, including Raed Jarrar (Iraq), Nora Younis (Egypt), Laila El Haddad (Palestine), and Amira Al Hussaini (Bahrain).

This event is part of the USIP Center of Innovation for Science, Technology, and Peacebuilding's ongoing “Blogs and Bullets” initiative examining the relationship between online discourse and violent conflict.

RSVP for the event and learn more about the webcast at: http://origin.usip.org/arabblogs/

Media Inquiries: Please contact Lauren Sucher (lsucher@usip.org) in the USIP Office of Public Affairs and Communications.

[6/19-6/20/09] OPEN VIDEO CONFERENCE
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in New York City

The upcoming Open Video Conference (June 19-20 in NYC) will tackle a range of issues surrounding online video. The conference is asking big questions regarding the future of the medium.

Open Video Conference
June 19-20 in New York
http://openvideoconference.org

Speakers Include: NYU's Clay Shirky, Harvard's Yochai Benkler & Jonathan Zittrain, Boing Boing's Xeni Jardin, DVD Jon, Free Press' Josh Silver, EFF's Corynne McSherry, and many many more.

About the Open Video Conference: At this very moment, in 2009, we have a chance to ensure that internet video retains these key characteristics. It's still early and things are looking good, but we need devices that play nice with each other, networks that aren't totally neutered, and playback and production tools that are low-cost (ideally free/open source) and easy to use. Developments like Hulu are pretty good for the user, because they can watch what they want, when they want. But we don't want internet video to be a glorified TV on demand service. We want video to be a dynamic medium that invites clipping, archival, remix, collage, repurposing, and many other uses that are currently inhibited by law or by lack of tools.

[TUESDAY] BERKMAN LUNCHEON SERIES on THE ROLE OF USER SAVVY IN DIFFERENT LEVELS OF ONLINE ENGAGEMENT
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6/23/09, 12:30 PM ET, Berkman Center Conference Room
RSVP is required for those attending in person (rsvp@cyber.harvard.edu).

Topic: Skill Matters: The Role of User Savvy in Different Levels of Online Engagement
Guest: Eszter Hargittai, Berkman Fellow

Much enthusiasm surrounds the opportunities made available by digital media for people to express themselves and participate in the public sphere without having to go through traditional gatekeepers (e.g., see Benkler’s Wealth of Networks). Indeed, likely more people than ever before participate in discussions and collaborate on projects yielding heretofore unprecedented outcomes of value to many (e.g., Wikipedia, free software, blog content). While the enthusiasm about new opportunities is thus warranted, little is known about who is actually participating, who is not, and what participation patterns may imply for the democratizing potential of new tools and services. This talk draws on unique survey data collected in 2009 to explore these questions. Findings suggest that even when we control for people's Internet access – currently the main focus of initiatives in the stimulus package concerning broadband dissemination – significant differences remain in how people incorporate the Internet into their lives. While improving universal access is a necessary condition to equalizing online opportunities, the evidence presented in this talk suggests that it is in no way sufficient. This has important implications for questions of social inequality and thus the scope of policy interventions in the domain of broadband dissemination.

This event will be webcast live; for more information and a complete description, see the event web page: http://cyber.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2009/06/hargittai

OTHER EVENTS OF NOTE
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[1] 6/18-6/20/09 19th Annual Conference for Law School Computing // CALI (http://w.cali.org/conference/)

[2] 6/22-6/24/09 Open Translation Tools 2009 (http://aspirationtech.org/events/opentranslation/2009)

[3] 6/26-6/28/09 8th International Conference of Computer Ethics: Philosophical Enquiry (http://cepe2009.ionio.gr/) // Berkman Executive Director Urs Gasser will give a keynote.

DIGITAL MEDIA: Watch and Listen
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Did you miss this week's luncheon talk? Catch up with Berkman videos, podcasts, pictures, and dig in to our archive at http://cyber.harvard.edu/interactive.

-BERKMAN LUNCHEON SERIES: "Form, Function and Fiction: ICTs and Their Uses in Resource Constrained Environments" with Berkman Fellow BETH KOLKO (http://cyber.harvard.edu/interactive/events/luncheons/2009/06/kolko)

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BERKMAN CALENDAR & UPCOMING EVENTS PREVIEW
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See our events calendar if you're curious about future luncheons, discussions, lectures, conferences, and more: http://cyber.harvard.edu/events. All of our events are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted.

ABOUT US
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The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University was founded to explore cyberspace, share in its study, and help pioneer its development. For more information, visit http://cyber.harvard.edu.