Berkman Study groups are an agile and responsive format for exploring the important questions facing Internet and Society through in-depth discussion and development. Study Groups are designed to encourage public participation among the Berkman Community with members of the greater Boston community. That might include Fellows, students from Harvard and other Boston-area institutions, start up industry entrepreneurs, and so on. Study Groups encourage participation across disciplines and experience to tackle interesting questions with fresh perspective. For the 2014—15 academic year we are experimenting with the format with a number of pilot Study Groups.
Goals
- To contribute to public discourse by offering a venue for more involved discussions with Harvard students and the broader public in the Cambridge area, as well as online with resources and artifacts from Study Group discussions and development.
- To provide an agile and responsive format for in-depth discussion and workshopping as topical interests arise.
- To give Berkman Fellows, Faculty, and Staff opportunities to share and develop ideas, and hone their abilities as teachers and leaders, while drawing upon the expertise and diversity of the broader distributed Berkman community.
Audience
The intended audience for participation includes Study Group conveners and participants. Study Group conveners may be sourced from the extended Berkman community, including Fellows, Affiliates, Faculty, and Staff, as well as members from industry and government partner institutions. Study group participants may include anyone from the broader Boston community, including students from Harvard and other Boston-area institutions, industry experts, policy makers, etc. The goal is to foster diversity of participation across disciplines and experience to tackle interesting questions in novel ways and with fresh perspective. Study Groups just ask that participants commit to preparing for meetings and actively contributing to conversation.
Application is required to participate in Study Groups in order to keep the scale and mix of participants suited to discussion. The make up of the group will be determined by the Study Group convener and by Berkman staff.
Format
Study Group format can be determined by the conveners to match interests, goals, and schedules. Some might choose to meet once a week for two hours of discussion over six weeks. Others may explore a short time frame for workshopping. The format allows for greater discussion than the span of a standard lunch talk, and shorter commitment than a full-semester's worth of a seminar. Study Groups are largely encouraged to be interactive and discussion driven.
Output
So that the value of these interesting conversations is captured, Study Groups are encouraged to produce some collective output to share with the wider community. That could be anything from the shared syllabus, to op-eds, to policy recommendation whitepapers, to more innovative media outputs. Creativity is encouraged!
To Note
- There will be no course credit offered for participation in Study Groups.
- This is not a teaching position. Conveners are not compensated for their facilitation. Benefit comes from working through an interesting challenge or set of questions with a unique group.
- Study Groups are also designed with a confined time scope—shorter than a course, longer than a panel discussion.