Geopolitics of Internet Infrastructure; Lessig and Gergen on Republic, Lost; Accessible Web Design

Geopolitics of Internet Infrastructure

Tuesday, November 1, 12:30pm ET, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St, Cambridge, MA. This event will be webcast live.

The growth of the global Internet is still determined, in large part, by local factors: geography, politics, and the economics of interconnection and competition. We'll examine the paths along which Internet traffic flows, focusing on the emerging markets of the Middle East and Central Asia. We'll discuss ways in which the evolution of these paths dictates the choices available to information consumers, and the costs they must pay to interconnect with global information markets. A lot is at stake, as the countries that emerge as Middle Eastern regional transit hubs will play a significant role in the evolution of the region's post-oil information economy. James Cowie is the Chief Technology Officer at Renesys Corporation. RSVP Required. more information on our website>

Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress--and a Plan to Stop It

Tuesday, November 1, 5:00pm ET, Ames Courtroom, Austin Hall, Harvard Law School. Co-hosted by the Harvard Law School Library, Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, HKS Center for Public Leadership, and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society

Professor David Gergen, Director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership converses with Professor Lawrence Lessig about his new book, Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress—and a Plan to Stop It. more information on our website>

Preventing Societal Discrimination: Accessible Web Design for People with Disabilities

Tuesday, November 8, 12:30pm ET, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St, Cambridge, MA. This event will be webcast live.

Technical standards already exist to make web sites accessible for people with perceptual and motor disabilities, while research is underway to better understand web design for cognitive disabilities. Despite the existing resources and knowledge, many categories of web sites continue to be inaccessible for people with perceptual and motor disabilities. For instance, over 90% of federal government web sites are inaccessible for people with disabilities, denying users access to important government information. Social media tools tend to be inaccessible, cutting people with disabilities out of the chance to socialize with friends and contribute to important discussions, both interpersonal and societal. E-commerce web sites are inaccessible, often meaning that people with disabilities are denied the online-only discounts available on the web. Online employment applications are often inaccessible, denying people with disabilities the ability to apply for jobs on an equal footing. This presentation will provide an overview of web accessibility for people with disabilities, including the technical standards and laws, as well as reporting on recent research projects documenting how inaccessible web sites lead to various forms of discrimination against people with disabilities. Jonathan Lazar is a Professor of Computer and Information Sciences, Director of the Undergraduate Program in Information Systems and Director of the Universal Usability Laboratory, all at Towson University. RSVP Required. more information on our website>

Intellectual Property Strategy

Monday, November 21, 6:00PM, Austin Hall, Harvard Law School. Co-sponsored by the Harvard Law School Library and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

Entrepreneurs, corporate managers and nonprofit administrators should look at intellectual property as a key strategic asset. Most managers leave intellectual property issues to the legal department, unaware that an organization’s intellectual property can help accomplish a range of management goals, from accessing new markets to improving existing products to generating new revenue streams. In his new book, Intellectual Property Strategy (MIT Press), intellectual property expert, head of the Harvard Law School Library, and Berkman Center faculty co-director John Palfrey offers a short briefing on intellectual property strategy for them. Palfrey argues for strategies that go beyond the traditional highly restrictive “sword and shield” approach, suggesting that flexibility and creativity are essential to a profitable long-term intellectual property strategy--especially in an era of changing attitudes about media. RSVP Required. more information on our website>

Radio Berkman 185: The Next Generation Library

What would a digital version of your public library look like? There’s more to it than e-books and digital reading devices. Librarians, scholars, innovators, and techno-wizards are collaborating under the mantle of the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) to build a next generation public library. Such a thing could incorporate one or more of many different elements: a set of physical buildings; a purely digital archive with an open API layer for coders to play around with; a full fledged digital lending library. And when the DPLA converge on the National Archives in Washington, DC this Friday they’ll get to work out just a few of those ideas. Today, a special report from Benjamin Naddaf-Hafrey who spoke to a few of the minds behind the DPLA audio on our website>

Radio Berkman 184: Intellectual Property — Not Just For Lawyers Anymore

It’s time to stop thinking about intellectual property as something purely for your legal counsel to deal with. That’s the driving idea behind John Palfrey’s aptly titled new book Intellectual Property Strategy. Companies and institutions that have to worry about creative works, trademarks, or brands would be well-suited, Palfrey says, to seize the sword and shield from the attorneys (who tend to be aggressive and/or defensive about IP) and exercise a little more flexibility and creativity with intellectual property on their own. audio on our website>