People
John Palfrey
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‘The Connected Parent’ offers guidance, insight into digital parenting
November 16, 2020
“The Connected Parent,” a new book by John Palfrey ’01 and Urs Gasser LL.M. ’03 is a practical guide for addressing concerns brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and navigating an increasingly digital world.
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Books in Brief: Fall 2020
October 20, 2020
New works on redeeming the administrative state, navigating parenting in a world in which children are immersed in technology, and understanding the importance of understanding how much information you need.
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Cyberlaw Clinic turns 20
April 9, 2020
It was 1999 and the dot-com bubble was about to burst. Corporations were scrambling to address new legal challenges online. Napster was testing the music industry. And at Harvard Law School, the Berkman Klein Center was creating a clinical teaching program specializing in cyberlaw.
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Former HLS professor John Palfrey ’01 takes over the MacArthur Foundation
September 25, 2019
The Harvard Gazette recently spoke with John Palfrey '01, former professor and vice dean for Library and Information Resources at HLS, and former executive director of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society about how his Harvard time prepared him for his new role to lead one of the country’s largest philanthropic organizations.
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Michelle Carter: What the texting suicide case tells us
June 19, 2017
Michelle Carter was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for sending 18-year-old Conrad Roy dozens of text messages that encouraged him to commit suicide. He died in 2014 of carbon monoxide poisoning, after he drove to a secluded parking lot and killed himself. Many legal experts were surprised by the judge's decision, and say from the very onset this was a very strange case, compounded by intense media scrutiny...John Palfrey, the headmaster of the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, a law professor and co-director of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, says many adolescents feel an emotional disconnect when using their devices and will say many hurtful things they'd never say in person. "I think the hard news for young people and their parents is things that young people do everyday on text or social media have extraordinary consequences - those can be life and death consequences, or that can be legal consequences," he says.
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HLS and MIT Media Lab launch innovative course on law and regulation in the digital world
February 22, 2017
For the first time, Harvard Law School and the MIT Media Lab have collaborated to host an innovative January-term course, “Internet & Society: The Technologies and Politics of Control,” dedicated to understanding the legal and technical dynamics of the digital world.
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‘Born Digital’ Redux
December 20, 2016
Earlier this year Urs Gasser, professor of practice and executive director of the Berkman Klein Center, and John Palfrey, Center director and former HLS professor published 'Born Digital: How Children Grow Up in a Digital Age,' an expansion of their critically acclaimed 2008 book 'Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives.'
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Berkman Center launches new internet data dashboard
September 30, 2015
Internet Monitor dashboard, a freely available tool that helps identify trends in Internet activity through data visualization, has been launched by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University.
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Author explains why libraries matter even in the internet age
September 21, 2015
Today, when people want information on the Internet, they turn to Google...All of this is good news for Google and anyone with money for a computer and Internet connection. But it's not great for libraries, the go-to for information in the pre-Google days, says John Palfrey, a director of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society and founder of the Digital Public Library of America. In his new book, "Bibliotech: Why Libraries Matter More Than Ever in the Age of Google," Palfrey argues that society still needs libraries for many reasons, including that the Internet doesn't provide free access to information for anyone as libraries do.
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On June 22 at Harvard Law School, John Palfrey '01, director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, spoke about his new book, "BiblioTech: Why Libraries Matter More Than Ever In An Age of Google." Palfrey, who previously served as vice dean for Libraries and Information Resources at Harvard Law School, made the case that libraries are more relevant than ever in
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A Theory of Connectivity: Gasser and Palfrey on the opportunities and pitfalls of our increasingly interconnected world
December 11, 2012
The highly connected nature of today’s world has all sorts of benefits—but all sorts of potential costs as well, from loss of control of private data to a world financial system so intertwined that when one part of it falls, it’s hard to keep other parts from toppling along with it. In “Interop: The Promise and Perils of Highly Interconnected Systems,” John Palfrey ’01 and Urs Gasser LL.M. ’03 draw on their work at the HLS Berkman Center for Internet & Society to start developing a “normative theory identifying what we want out of all this connectivity.”
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In a hands-on workshop, students use case studies to explore information law and policy
December 5, 2012
Based on a workshop taught at Harvard Law School for the first time last spring by Professor Jonathan Zittrain ’95 and John Palfrey ’01, Information Law and Policy: Advanced Problem Solving Workshop (taught this fall by Visiting Professor Susan Crawford) presents students with several case studies and asks them to complete team exercises, which include conducting negotiations, writing legal briefs, and drafting policies and legislation.
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Harvard Law School has launched a new program to develop and distribute case studies, role plays, hypothetical problems and other experiential tools for the classroom. The centerpiece of the program is a website designed as a one-stop-shop for all participant-centered teaching tools developed and sponsored by HLS.
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Harvard Law School Media Roundup: From Gun Control to the Roberts’s Court to the Arab Spring
July 26, 2012
Over the past week, a number of HLS faculty members shared their viewpoints on events in the news. Here are some excerpts.
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Recent Faculty Books – Summer 2012
July 1, 2012
“After Sex? On Writing Since Queer Theory” (Duke), edited by Professor Janet Halley and Andrew Parker. Contributors to the development of queer studies offer personal reflections on the potential and limitations of the field, asking to what extent it is defined by a focus on sex and sexuality.
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Palfrey and Gasser book launch: ‘Interop: The Promise and Perils of Highly Interconnected Systems’ (video)
June 13, 2012
Harvard Law School Professor John Palfrey ’01 and Urs Gasser LL.M. '03, lecturer on law and executive director of Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, launched their latest book, Interop: The Promise and Perils of Highly Interconnected Systems, at a May 30 event hosted by the Berkman Center, the Harvard Law School Library and the Harvard Book Store.
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Dean Martha Minow has announced that HLS Professor Jonathan Zittrain ’95 and HLS Library’s Assistant Director of Research, Curriculum and Publication Services, Suzanne Wones, will take over leadership of the Harvard Law School Library this summer, following the departure of Professor John G. Palfrey ’01 in July.
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In a recent paper published in the December issue of Science magazine, Harvard Law School Professors Jonathan Zittrain ‘95 and John Palfrey ’01 examine how better forms of measurement of the Internet and the Web can inform Internet policy and regulations.
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Ramping Up New Ramps to Justice
December 6, 2011
How can technology help people gain better and easier access to the judicial system? Are there new technologies—or more efficient ways of using existing ones—that can assist low-income, pro se and other litigants to navigate the legal system while easing the burden on underresourced courts?
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Palfrey on intellectual property strategy (video)
November 29, 2011
According to John Palfrey, businesspeople are often insufficiently attentive to the ways that intellectual property rights can be acquired and exercised. His new book, “Intellectual Property Strategy” (MIT Press), is thus written with businesspeople in mind. Palfrey, Vice Dean for Library and Information Resources and Faculty Co-Director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, argues for leaders of businesses and non-profit organizations to adopt IP policies that go beyond the traditional, highly restrictive “sword and shield” approach, and that instead focus on flexibility and creativity.
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Palfrey appointed as the Head of School at Phillips Academy Andover
November 14, 2011
John G. Palfrey ’01, Harvard Law School’s Henry N. Ess III Professor of Law and vice-dean of Library and Information Resources, has been appointed the 15th Head of School at the Phillips Academy Andover, the academy announced Nov. 14. He will leave HLS and officially begin at Phillips Academy in July 2012.
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Palfrey discusses Network Neutrality at the Open World Forum (video)
October 14, 2011
Professor John Palfrey ’01 was a keynote speaker at the Open World Forum, held September 22-24, in Paris, France. The Open World Forum brings together 160 experts from around the world to discuss technological, economic and social initiatives.
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Constitution Day 2011: Feldman, Palfrey offer some reflections
September 27, 2011
In celebration of Constitution Day—the annual celebration of the signing of the U.S. Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787—HLS professors Noah Feldman and John Palfrey delivered talks to university audiences about the document upon which the American legal and political systems have been built.
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Eleven from HLS named to inaugural Fastcase 50 list
August 3, 2011
In July, Fastcase, a legal research service that provides a comprehensive online national law library, honored 50 leaders in the world of law, scholarship, and legal technology. From lawyers and judges to librarians and government servants, the inaugural list recognized the law’s “smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries, and leaders.”
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Hearsay: Faculty short takes
July 1, 2011
“Private Manning’s Humiliation” Professor Yochai Benkler ’94 and Bruce Ackerman, professor at Yale Law School
The New York Review of Books
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At Berkman Center symposium, experts explore the line between public and private in today’s interconnected world
June 22, 2011
On June 9 and 10, Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society hosted “Hyper-Public: A Symposium on Designing Privacy and Public Space in the Connected World.” The event united computer scientists with ethnographers, architects, historians, artists, and legal scholars in discussions about the line between public and private spaces in the digital world.
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At a recent lecture hosted by HLS Lambda and the Journal of Law & Technology, Harvard Law School’s Henry N. Ess Professor of Law John Palfrey discussed the latest legal and legislative attempts to address cyber-bullying—or, as Palfrey prefers to describe it, bullying in the digital era.
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On March 14, the Library Journal announced 50 new inductees to their Movers & Shakers list, including John Palfrey ’01. Movers & Shakers is a distinguished annual award given to those who are shaping the future of libraries and communities across the United States.
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Professor John G. Palfrey ’01 was declared the winner of an interactive online debate on Internet democracy, hosted by The Economist from Feb. 23 to March 4.
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Palfrey Proposes a New Digital Legal Information Environment for the Future (video)
December 10, 2010
In a November lecture marking his appointment as the Henry N. Ess III Professor at Harvard Law School, Professor John G. Palfrey ’01 called for a new legal information system "grounded in a set of open data."
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Palfrey in NYT on cyberbullying: Solutions Beyond the Law
October 1, 2010
In an opinion piece in the Room for Debate section of The New York Times, Harvard Law School Professor John Palfrey discusses whether the death of Tyler Clementi, a Rutgers student, calls for tougher laws against malicious acts online.
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Palfrey essay released by Time Warner Cable research program
September 8, 2010
Time Warner Cable recently announced that it has released five essays on the future of digital communications, policy and technical perspectives based on its Research Program on Digital Communications. One of the five was written by Harvard Law School Professor John Palfrey, who contributed an essay entitled "The Challenge of Developing Effective Public Policy on the Use of Social Media by Youth."
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David Pogue interviews John Palfrey in NYT
July 23, 2010
The following column by David Pogue, “Q & A: Rumors, Cyberbullying, and Anonymity,” appeared in the New York Times on July 22, 2010 and featured a q & a with Harvard Law School Professor John Palfrey.
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Harvard University was recognized as one of the world’s top three open-access institutions of the year by BioMed Central, an international publisher of journals in science, technology, and medicine and a pioneer in open-access publishing. Harvard Law School was given special recognition for being one of four schools at Harvard to introduce its own open-access mandates.
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Censorship Without Borders
July 1, 2010
When, in February, Internet law expert Professor John G. Palfrey ’01 spoke at a gathering of the Harvard Law School American Constitution Society, he asked his audience to consider this trio of circumstances.
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Remixing Langdell
June 24, 2010
HLS Professor John Palfrey was appointed vice dean for library and information resources in 2008. A cyberspace visionary, his task is to meld the old, the new and the emerging digital-era library.
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LIVE WEBCAST: Palfrey testifies on cyberbullying before House subcommittee
September 30, 2009
Harvard Law School Professor John Palfrey ’01 will testify before the House subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security today regarding two pieces of legislation designed to address cyberbullying and other online safety issues for children. A live webcast of the testimony will be available beginning at 3 p.m.
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Scholars discuss fall-out of Google Book settlement, at Berkman Center conference on open libraries
August 13, 2009
What will “libraries” in 2075 look like? Can copyright law be re-engineered? Should we trust Google to make decisions in the public interest? Those were some of the questions discussed at a workshop entitled “Alternative Approaches to Open Digital Libraries in the Shadow of the Google Book Search Settlement,” which took place at Harvard Law School on July 31.
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Palfrey in MIT Technology Review: Internet arms race
April 21, 2009
The following article, written by Professor John Palfrey ’01, entitled, “Internet arms race,” appeared in the May/June 2009 issue of the MIT Technology review.
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Palfrey: Searching for solutions to cyberbullying
April 1, 2009
The following article by HLS Professor John Palfrey was published March 31, 2009 on the First Amendment Center Online site. Palfrey’s article is part of an online symposiumtitled Cyberbullying & Public Schools.
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On March 6, HLS Professor John Palfrey ’01, vice dean, library and information resources at HLS, and Adam Thierer, a senior fellow at The Progress & Freedom Foundation and director of its Center for Digital Media Freedom, participated in an online debate on Ars Technica on the Communications Decency Act and whether ISPs and social networking sites should be more liable for the things their users post. The debate, The Future of online obscenity and social networks, is included below.
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Palfrey and Gasser Win Library Journal Prize
March 4, 2009
Born Digital, a book by HLS Professor John Palfrey ’01 and Urs Gasser L.L.M. ’03, executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, was named a Best Science and Technology Book of 2008 by the Library Journal, in March.
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2008 – Year in Review – Books
December 13, 2008
2008 was a prolific year for HLS scholars. Here is a roundup of this year’s faculty books.
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2008 Year in Review – Faculty
December 12, 2008
2008 saw an extraordinary round of faculty appointments at Harvard Law School, with the announcement of 14 new additions.
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Rescuing the Internet for Digital Natives and the Rest of Us
September 9, 2008
In a wide-ranging interview, John Palfrey and Jonathan Zittrain survey the future of the Internet.
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Hearsay: Faculty Short Takes Summer 2008
July 1, 2008
Credit: Wes Duvall From left: Zittrain, Tribe, Heymann, Palfrey, Mack, Goldsmith, and Stuntz The Laws in Wartime Professor Jack Goldsmith
Slate Magazine, April… -
Recent Faculty Books – Summer 2008
July 1, 2008
In “Finding Jefferson: A Lost Letter, a Remarkable Discovery, and the First Amendment in an Age of Terrorism” (Wiley, 2007), Professor Alan Dershowitz contemplates modern-day First Amendment…