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Upcoming Events: Open Governance in India (2/10); National Security and Cyberpolicy (2/11); #StopEbola : What Nigeria did right (2/17)

Upcoming Events / Digital Media
February 4, 2015
 
 
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berkman luncheon series

Can the State use information technology to police itself? A study of open governance in Andhra Pradesh, India

Tuesday, February 10, **12:00pm ET** (please note new start time), Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St, 2nd Floor. This event will be webcast live.

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This talk examines the attempted use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to eliminate corruption within a bureaucracy in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. In this initiative, the senior bureaucrats built a digital network to curb corruption at the “last mile.” By increasing the visibility and by controlling the “micro-practices” of the work done by lower-level bureaucrats, this digital system allowed higher-level bureaucrats to exercise more control remotely, bypassing the existing “chain of command” form of control and reducing corruption. Ideally, the system was imagined to centralize power through technology in order to eliminate powers of discretion at the lower-levels of the bureaucracy. What my fieldwork revealed, however, was a constant struggle to control the digital system: the lower-level bureaucrats found creative ways to thwart the intentions of the higher-level bureaucrats. Agency was not removed from local politics; instead it was constant ly renegotiated through efforts by local politicians and local bureaucrats on the one side and higher-level administrators on the other to control the technological instruments of surveillance. The struggle over surveillance is not the "Scottian" state against citizen but contestation within a divided state. ICT did reduce corruption and created a more “Weberian” bureaucracy but only up to a point. Local actors managed to defend their power and some of their ability to extract rents in the last mile. The struggle continues, on the new digital terrain.

Rajesh Veeraraghavan is a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, a Ph.D. candidate at the School of Information, UC Berkeley, and a research fellow at the Transparency and Accountability Initiative at the Open Society Foundation. Rajesh questions the widespread belief that information technology can be used to "solve" either development or governance "problems," both by engaging in activism involving technological interventions and by using empirical methods to critically examine claims about the impact of ICT in governance. He studies how information and communication technology (ICT) is used in practice to regulate economic, social and political relationships. RSVP Required. more information on our website>

 
co-sponsored event

National Security Cyber Operations and Policy Event

Wednesday, February 11, 12:00pm ET, Harvard Law School, Pound Hall, Room 101. Hosted by the HLS Journal of Law and Technology; Co-sponsored by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society

Join Luke Dembosky, the newest Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department's National Security Division, for a discussion on economic espionage, protecting national assets in the digital age, and cyber-based security threats. He has previously worked as the Deputy Chief for Litigation in DOJ's Computer Crimes and Intellectual Property Section and the DOJ representative on matters of transnational crime at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Russia. He has been involved in some of the largest and most groundbreaking cybercrime prosecutions in U.S. history, including the recent GameOver Zeus botnet disruption, coordination of the Silk Road takedown, and U.S. v. Max Ray Butler.

more information on our website>

 
berkman luncheon series

#StopEbola : What Nigeria did right

Tuesday, February 17, **12:00pm ET** (please note new start time), Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St, 2nd Floor. This event will be webcast live.

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On July 20, 2014 the Ebola outbreak landed in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country. Public health officials warned that an outbreak could be catastrophic in Lagos, a densely populated city of 21 million. 19 confirmed cases left 11 dead from the disease, but Nigeria’s nightmare scenario never occurred. Within three months, the World Health Organization declared Nigeria Ebola-free, deeming the nation's efforts to contain the disease a "spectacular success story”. In a country with 130 million mobile-phone users and active social networks, social media and mobile technology played a central role in Nigeria’s Ebola containment. SMS platforms were used to share information on the signs and symptoms of the virus. Ebola Alert, a technology organization formed by group of volunteer doctors, used Facebook and Twitter to increase awareness through 24/7 updates and online Ebola chats. Social media campaigns deployed Nollywood stars to sensitize audiences, manage fear and myths, and reduce stigma. Contract tracers were equipped GPS technology on mobile devices to ensure accountability and accuracy during interviews and monitoring. Health workers were provided with mobile phones and an Android app that allowed for immediate and critical information sharing. Each of these strategies led to fast communication, better self-reporting and identification of Ebola contacts, successful tracking and monitoring - all essential components of an outbreak response that Nigeria got right in record time. What can we learn from Nigeria? And how can these strategies be utilized in public health challenges in Africa and beyond? This discussion will included video interviews with Nigerian doctors, health workers, social media campaigners and Ebola survivors from an upcoming documentary on this subject.

Aimee Corrigan is the Co-Director of Nollywood Workshops, a hub for filmmakers in Lagos, Nigeria that supports and delivers movie production and distribution, training, and research. She is also a documentary photographer and filmmaker. Aimee's passion for Nollywood sparked during her participation in the production of the documentary This Is Nollywood. RSVP Required. more information on our website>

 
video/audio

Radio Berkman: Prometheus and the Dolphins

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Want to create artificially intelligent machines? Want to find aliens? You might want to try talking to nature first. Philosophers, animal behaviorists, and scientists have worked for decades to get animals to speak "human." Researchers have even cohabited with primates and dolphins to see if they could somehow connect. Some suggested that by bringing animals into the human community we could actually keep from killing ourselves with increasingly risky technologies. Disappointingly, we've never quite reached that Dr. Doolittle ideal of sitting down and chatting with any member of the animal kingdom. There are huge gaps between animals and human beings that prevent a satisfying level of comprehension. But these efforts can teach us a lot about how to develop machines that can communicate with us, and how we might understand extra-terrestrials (if and when that ever happens). Matthew Battles of the Berkman Center's MetaLAB has been looking at the cultural dimensions of science in the 20th century. He spoke with us this week about how science helps us understand animals, technology, and our place in the universe. video/audio on Sound Cloud>

 

Other Events of Note

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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.

Berkman Center for Internet & Society