Other Select Berkman Projects

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Many other research initiatives are underway at the Berkman Center. The below selection of projects will not have full representation via a table at the Berkman Center Fall 2013 Open House Talk and Tinker session, but people on the Berkman staff will be happy to share more information as they are able, and we encourage you to reach out to the contacts listed on each of the projects' web pages.

Broadband

The Broadband Project, led by Yochai Benkler and Rob Faris, conducts policy-relevant research in three areas: spectrum policy, wireline competition, and municipal broadband provision. The spectrum research was punctuated by the Fall 2012 publication of Benkler's paper “Open Wireless vs. Licensed Spectrum: Evidence from Market Adoption” in the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology, which describes the critical and increasing role of open wireless in the United States communication infrastructure. The Broadband team’s municipal broadband provision research has completed in-depth interviews with project planners and operators of municipal fiber-to-the-home projects in the US, which will be incorporated in a paper that describes the current state of play in this dynamic area. The wireline competition research effort, conducted along with HLS Library statisticians Travis Coan and Constantine Boussalis, is drawing upon data from the national broadband map and census data to evaluate the current state of competition in US wireline markets. For more information, visit: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/research/broadband

Cloud Computing

Under the leadership of Urs Gasser, the Cloud Computing Initiative focuses on developing research on emerging issues, law, policy, and current trends related to cloud computing. This year, the team has been working on the third phase of the project, which commenced in Spring 2012, and which aims to comparatively analyze the role of governments across the globe in the development of cloud computing industries and technologies. With the support of collaborating international partners and researchers, this research track focuses on how governments are using, regulating, promoting, and engaging with the cloud computing industry as a whole and the technologies and services that the industry offers to consumers and businesses in particular. The team ultimately aims to develop analytical and educational papers and practice guides for policymakers, industry participants, civil society members, and others on specific areas of interest. For more information, visit: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/node/6082

Cybersecurity

Since spring 2010, under the guidance of Professor Jack Goldsmith, the Berkman Center team has been developing and maintaining the Cybersecurity wiki, which houses an evolving set of more than 350 foundational articles, annotations, literature, and other resources on cybersecurity, broadly-defined. The wiki is intended to be a resource for researchers, technologists, students, policy-makers and others who are interested in cybersecurity issues more broadly. As a starting point, resources were chosen based on the recommendations from select researchers, academics, and other experts. We have continued to build upon and grow this collection. Most recently, we added an evolving Case Studies page and a collection of suggested syllabi on the open H2O online textbook platform for teaching topics related to Cybersecurity. We look forward to adding more recent publications, based on feedback and recommendations from external reviewers, community members, students, and others. For more information, visit: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/cybersecurity/Main_Page

E-Publishing Models

With the generous support of the Revson Foundation, the E-Publishing Models Project is focused on exploring current issues associated with digital publishing business models and access to electronically published materials in libraries. Working collaboratively with publishers and librarians and led by Urs Gasser and John Palfrey, the goal of this initiative is to identify key problems and potential solutions and to lay the groundwork for a suite of activities aimed at developing new models of e-book lending for use in libraries that are acceptable to libraries and publishers alike. After assembling a multi-disciplinary working group of experts and stakeholders in Fall 2011 and conducting an initial literature review and market analysis, the project team convened a meeting with approximately 35 stakeholders from leading publishers, libraries, and academia to discuss key issues and potential solutions relating to access to e-books in libraries. The Berkman team is currently developing follow-up collaborations with these stakeholders based on the potential next steps identified at the meeting. The takeaways from this workshop, related research, and subsequent conversations have resulted in a Briefing Document, which provides an overview of the state of e-book lending in libraries, e-publishing models currently in use, and selected problems; it may be found at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2111396

Global Network Initiative

The Global Network Initiative, a multi-stakeholder coalition comprised of technology companies, investors, academics, and rights groups focused on advancing and protecting online free expression and privacy in the ICT sector. GNI has achieved greater organizational stability, including the addition of new participants ranging from academics such as NEXA Centre and Georgetown Law School to companies like Facebook, and a novel collaboration with twelve European telecommunications companies known as the Industry Dialogue. Further, GNI solidified its methods for outside assessment and established itself as a relevant and credible voice in the global debate,. GNI’s efforts, led by Colin Maclay and Caroline Nolan, have turned to related topics around research and policy change, including developing a primer for tech start-ups on privacy and free expression practices. creating an India-specific case study, exploring the growing practices around company transparency reporting, understanding relevant legal regimes around technology export controls, and responding to the NSA/Prism revelations.

Information Quality

The Information Quality Research Initiative (IQRI) builds upon numerous Berkman Center publications and aims to develop a theory of information quality that reflects fundamental shifts in the information ecosystem in the age of digital media. Led by Executive Director Urs Gasser, this research examines the history, contexts, perspectives, intervention tools, coping mechanisms, challenges, and implications of this fundamental shift, paying special attention to the complex interplay of law, norms, technology, and markets. Over the past year, the IQRI has focused on research and theory development. Expanding on work conducted by the Youth and Media Project, Project Manager Alicia Solow-Niederman has helped the team to compile a set of multi-disciplinary academic works about information and data quality issues across many disciplines, as well as a compendium of news articles that involve information quality issues that may serve as case studies for the project. Drawing from this research, the team is developing an academic article to establish the core principles of the IQRI framework. This theoretical piece may also serve as the opening chapter of a university press book, on which Urs Gasser held a brainstorming workshop in Spring 2013. In the year to come, the team looks forward to continuing this research, honing information quality theory, and developing the works currently in progress.

Jamaica Project

Led by Berkman Founder and Faculty Co-Director Charles Nesson, the Jamaica Project was established in 1998 and has expanded with each successive year through a series of interconnected initiatives. The Project focuses on the problems caused by globalization, exploring the thesis that networks based on communication and exchange of social and intellectual capital can help in rehabilitation of developing countries hurt by globalization. True to the Berkman Center's core focus on Internet & Society, the Jamaica project's mission centers on the use of the internet to shape, define and change society and the world around us -- and empowering others to do the same. We are exploring the potential of cyberspace as a means for development, both personal and economic. As such, the Jamaica project seeks to bridge the technological, economic and social disparities between nations, building on reform work already in progress, enriching existing initiatives with a new internet dimension.

Mindsport Research Network

The Mindsport Research Network aims to build multiple experimental frameworks for understanding human strategic thinking in mind sports. Research will extend not only to understanding the intuitive thinking process of outstanding competitors, but also to the potential educational, emotional, intellectual and economic benefits for students in mind sport cooperation and competition. For more information, visit: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/research/mindsport

Network of Interdisciplinary Internet & Society Research Centers

Working closely with international partners, the Berkman Center has been incubating a global Network of interdisciplinary Internet & Society research centers (NoC) that builds upon years of smaller-scale collaborations among researchers, practitioners, technologists, policy makers, activists, and other thought leaders. NoC aspires to support and foster cross-national, cross-disciplinary conversation, research, and policy engagement around the most pressing questions and challenges involving digital technologies, social change, and law, policy, and regulation. NoC seeks to leverage shared expertise, experience, and reach by stimulating the creation of new debate, teaching, learning, and engagement, with an immodest ambition to create meaningful impact locally, nationally, regionally, and globally. For more information, visit: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/research/network_of_centers

New Media Nollywood

New Media Nollywood. Extending past efforts at the intersection of storytelling, intellectual property, economic development, entrepreneurship and development priorities with digitally networked technologies in Nigeria (one of the world's top film producers), New Media Nollywood (NMN) endeavors to help understand the dynamics and embrace the opportunities presented by the emerging media ecosystem. Coordinated by Colin Maclay with Michael Best, Ethan Zuckerman, and various US and Nigeria-based partners, NMN aims to help improve new media’s capacity for storytelling, to make the industry financially viable, and to explore its potential for social impact, while ensuring the values, character and mode of the industry remain Nigerian and true to their core audience.

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