Science & Technology

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.

Two Nobel Prize-winning economists—Harvard Professor Amartya Sen and Michael Spence—joined development expert Clotilde Fonseca, and HLS Professor Yochai Benkler ’94, co-director of the HLS Berkman Center for Internet & Society, for a discussion of the role of information and communication technologies in human development, growth and poverty reduction.

At an FCC broadband workshop entitled “International Lessons” held on August 18, Harvard Law School Professor and Faculty Co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society Yochai Benkler ’94 advised the FCC to look to other countries in formulating a national broadband strategy. (Watch a webcast of the workshop.)

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.

The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and the Center for Research in Computation and Society (CRCS), based at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), have joined their fellowship programs for the 2009-2010 academic year. This collaboration will intensify both Centers’ exchanges across the University and stimulate multidisciplinary research efforts in areas ranging from ethics to economics.

The following article, "Authors of 'The Cluetrain Manifesto' assess cyberspace 10 years later," by Colleen Walsh, appeared in the June 18, 2009, issue of the Harvard Gazette.

Harvard Law School Professor Jonathan Zittrain ’95 discussed the social structures that keep the internet “safe from chaos” at this year’s TED Global Conference (Technology, Entertainment, Design). The conference, which took place at Oxford, brought together intellectual leaders from around the world to discuss its theme, “The Substance of Things Not Seen.”

The following commentary by HLS Professor Jonathan Zittrain ’95 on Google’s new operating system, Chrome, appeared in The New York Times on July 19 and in Newsweek on July 9. Zittrain is the author of “The Future of the Internet — And How to Stop It.”

The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University will conduct an independent expert review of existing literature and studies about broadband deployment and usage throughout the world. This project will help inform the FCC’s efforts in developing the National Broadband Plan.

A major research project from Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society’s Internet and Democracy Project has lent enormous insight into the previously unexplored flow of online communication in the Middle East and North Africa. The study, “Mapping the Arabic Blogosphere: Politics, Culture and Dissent,” comes at a time of tremendous political unrest and electronic activism in the Middle East.

The following op-ed by Harvard Law School Professor Jack Goldsmith, “Defend America, one laptop at a time,” appeared in the July 1, 2009, edition of the New York Times.

In March, coinciding with the one-year anniversary of a crackdown on protests in Tibetan regions in China, people across the PRC found they couldn’t access YouTube—which had hosted videos of the protests the year before.

In May, Larry Strickling ’76 was confirmed as assistant secretary for Communications and Information, Department of Commerce, by the Senate Commerce Committee. As head of the National Telecommunications & Information Administration, he oversees billions of dollars in broadband rollout grants and the DTV-to-analog converter box coupon program. 

For students looking for cutting-edge legal work in the realm of new technologies, there may be no better place than the Cyberlaw Clinic at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society. In the fall of 2008, more than 40 students were involved in a wide range of projects that explored areas such as free speech, intellectual property and online child safety in the context of the Internet and other rapidly developing technologies. Many of the projects the center undertook involves issues being litigated for the first time.

Andrew McLaughlin ’94 has been named deputy chief technology officer for the Obama Administration. Most recently, McLaughlin served as head of global public policy for Google.

On May 5, Harvard Law School Professor Jonathan Zittrain ’95 was elected to a three-year term on the Internet Society’s Board of Trustees. A non-profit organization, the Internet Society seeks to provide leadership on internet related standards, education, and policy around the world.

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.

At the Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center’s 20th Anniversary Technical Symposium, Harvard Law School Professor Jonathan Zittrain ’95 discussed why the Internet’s once-celebrated openness has led to the now regularly occurring security threats, and sketched solutions to deal with these threats.

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.

StopBadware.org, a project sponsored by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, and Consumer Reports WebWatch announced today the full launch of BadwareBusters.org, a new online community for people looking for help preventing and countering viruses, spyware, and other “badware” on their computers and web sites.

The Berkman Center for Internet & Society launched a new Web site called ‘Media Cloud’ in conjunction with Thomson Reuters in July. The goal of Media Cloud is to provide a new search tool that illustrates the nature of news and how information flows between blogs and more traditional news outlets like newspapers.