<-- The Filter --> September 2007
FILTER CONTENTS:
[0] From the Center
[1] Features
[2] Networked: Bookmarks, Webcasts, Podcasts, and Blogposts
[3] Global Voices: Digital Dose of Global Conversations
[4] Community Links
[5] Upcoming Conferences
[6] Staying Connected
[7] Filter Facts
[0] From the Center
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Each September we gird ourselves for the return of students, launch of new projects, and the start of new relationships. In spite of our preparations, I never cease to be overwhelmed -- in every sense -- by what actually happens in September and October. With the Summer Doctoral Programme hosted in Cambridge for the first time and our fabulous summer interns, I suppose the students never really left, they merely multiplied. Along with them has grown our capacity for great work and the rise of new ideas. These are particularly welcome as newer projects like Digital Natives, Internet & Democracy, and the Citizen Media Law Project get off to roaring starts. Every bit as welcome and exciting has been our new group of fellows, unprecedented in terms of their diversity of interests, modes and backgrounds, but united in their commitment to fellowship and exploration. Their fabulous energy is palpable and their ideas have begun to infuse all our work. Recognizing they have only just begun to come together as a group, I have high hopes for the remainder of the year, which is a special one for Berkman. Indeed, in case you haven't heard, we are celebrating our tenth anniversary (!) over the course of the year, looking at where we -- and the net -- have come from, and where we're going, as we seek to understand -- and influence -- the future of the Net.
Please join us!
-- Colin Maclay, Managing Director, Berkman Center --
[1] FEATURES: a bit of what's going on at Berkman and where to read more
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One Web Day
by David Weinberger
One Web Day (OWD), recently held for its second time, is not political, but it does support values - the values that have made the Web so prized.
Susan Crawford, currently a visiting professor at the University of Michigan Law School and a good friend of the Berkman Center, started OWD as a celebration of the Web. Like Earth Day, it's up to each locality to decide how exactly it will join in. And, of course, since this is the Web, a locality may not be defined geographically. Susan hoped that OWD would help people remember how important the Web is. And for that to happen, the OWD celebrations themselves should take on the values of the Web:
- Like the Web itself, OWD is more of an opportunity than a structure. Make something. Do something. It all adds to the worth of the day, and of the Web.
- Like the Web itself, it's up to each person to decide what she wants to contribute. There's no top-down management dictating the formula for a OWD celebration.
- Like the Web itself, OWD cherishes the diversity of contributions.
- Like the Web itself, the celebrations should be rooted in the strengths and interests of the locality.
- Like the best of the Web itself, the contributions should leave the environment a little bit better.
The Berkman Center celebrated One Web Day in a way that felt right to us given our strengths and interests. Although One Web Day was September 23 -- which this year unfortunately fell on Yom Kippur -- we spent the prior Tuesday lunch time discussion talking about the future of the Web. That happened to fit nicely with the Center's own theme this year as we celebrate our tenth anniversary. Four of the fellows spoke for just a few minutes each on where they think the Internet will be in ten years, which was followed by an hour of open conversation with our community.
If you couldn't make it to the Center, you can always enjoy the whole session as a video and a podcast on MediaBerkman. The OWD site also highlights events from around the world that solicited everyone's ideas about where the Web will be, could be, and should be.
It was a small way to celebrate what the Web has given us. But that, too, is fitting, for the Web is a quilt of uncountable small contributions like this one.
Happy One Web Day!.
One Web Day Wiki:
<http://www.onewebday.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page>
Berkman's One Web Day Celebration:
<http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/mediaberkman/2007/09/21/the-future-of-the-net/>
About Susan Crawford:
<http://www.scrawford.net/>
About David Weinberger:
<http://cyber.harvard.edu/home/david_weinberger>
Looking Back at SDP 2007
by Ismael Peña-López (2007 SDP Student)
If I were asked to summarize the Oxford Internet Institute Summer Doctoral Programme at the Berkman Center I would, undoubtedly, quote Jonathan Zittrain from the sessions: Why didn't Academia come up with Wikipedia?
To explain why, I can (1) draw a list of all the applications and/or online resources we used during the course, (2) write a little digression about academic blogging and (3) explain one of my recursive reflections during these days: what is Web Science.
Conferences 2.0
Speaking in public has changed, especially if you provoke the audience to interact. Solemn one way speeches are over; prettily packeted content is too. The full deployment of ways to interact with people and information during the course was astonishing. I might be forgetting some of them, but here comes a rough list:
* Presentation tools, such as PowerPoint or the like. Some speakers also used mind-mapping applications. Some of them uploaded here.
* The Live Question Tool, to publish questions on the fly why listening to the speaker
* Wiki, as the main reference, schedule and content manager of the seminar
* Blogs: many of them.
* Flickr, for the photos
* YouTube and other video streaming platforms to watch some footage
* del.icio.us, for the links
* BibCiter, for bibliographies…
* …and eMule and Ares to share them in PDF or other formats on P2P networks
* H2O Playlists, for academic references in general
* Instant messaging, to keep in touch with people home or students
* Skype, to call home
* One ring to rule them all: OII/Berkman 2007 Summer Doctoral Programme planet aggregator
* One ring to find them: Technorati
* One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them: Google Reader
* Facebook, with his corresponding group, to build and manage the social network
* dopplr, for the followup geolocation followup
* Also for followup purposes and appointments Twitter or Upcoming
* In the meantime, some of the attendants are sharing their music tastes through Last.fm
* And, of course, there’s always plenty of e-mail.
* And SMSs
* And phone calls
* All these things on mobile phones, public phones (using fixed lines), handhelds, laptops and desktops either connected via wireless or LAN, some owned, some accessible at public points.
* Somebody even watched TV
And yes, most of them we used simultaneously all of the time, some of them were for post-conference purposes.
Why Academic Blogging
The use and goals of these tools were many, but the main philosophy behind was absolutely the same: disclosure. Disclosure and engage in the conversation. As stated by John Palfrey himself the first day, blogging (and diffusion in general) will be the default; anyone interested in not being blogged or whatever, should manifest it explicitly.
I still remember the reticences around when the MIT set up the OpenCourseWare project: nobody’s gonna enroll in your courses anymore, they said. Well, the reaction to this Berkman disclosure policy has been twofold and crystal clear:
* For those not being able to attend the course, infinite gratitude (I’ve got e-mails) for sharing the materials, the experiences, the reflections, etc.
* For those aiming to attend the course, no crowding out effect at all but the contrary: the awaiting of a long long year before the call for applications for SDP2008 is out (I’ve got e-mails too).
But besides this unselfish sharing of knowledge, the real thing has been networking. On one hand, the ones blogging during the seminars have created a densest grid of posts, interlinked ones to others, and by thus enriching one’s own posts about a subject or session.
On the other hand, some posts got out of the circle and were mentioned by some other people such as John Palfrey, Ethan Zuckerman or Doc Searls, to name some of the ones that linked to me. Other faculty linked other attendants as well.
What Is Web Science
This eagerness to use these many online tools leads me to my next topic of reflection. Because, somehow, I think it can be used as some kind of proxy to measure what has been one of the recurrent subjects of personal analysis these days.
Related to the Internet, in particular, and this ICT enhanced society, in general (informational society, information society, knowledge society… whatever), I believe there are two opposite approaches to do research about it.
The first one, the traditional approach, is taking the changes in the society as a second derivative: I do research in Intellectual Property and I found that the Internet is changing my field of knowledge, the target of my research, hence, I will study the interaction between Intellectual Property and the Internet.
Second, the one I’d call the Web Science approach and is better explained with an example: I want to explore the concept of the Digital Native (I actually do, specially his relationship with the concept of e-Awareness). To do so, I must know about psychology and neurosciences (as Mark Prensky did), about how technologies work (Web 2.0, usability, server-client technical relationships, AJAX), sociological implications (social networks, digital identities), economical (broadband diffusion, mobile penetration), legal (cybercrime, intellectual property, spam), political (civic engagement, hacktivism, e-democracy), education (e-portfolio, personal learning environments, long-life learning, e-learning, game-based teaching), communication (citizen journalism), art and culture (mashups, rip-mix-burn), and the longest et cetera ever.
People I know range from one endpoint to the other, being myself, philosophically, no doubt in one of the furthest edges of the Web Science approach. I don’t think there’s a best or a worst approach, but I also believe that:
1. Some aspects of today’s (and tomorrow’s even more) life can only be fully explained (if possible) through a Web Science approach, e.g. Digital Natives
2. Some other aspects can be perfectly approached in the traditional way, but will require a “digital effort” that, if not done, no valid conclusions can emerge from such researches.
Cybercrime is, all in all, crime, but it will be absolutely necessary
to understand what an ISP or an IP is, what and how works digital watermarking or hashing or electronic certificates, the technical difference between phishing and pharming. Or why e-Democracy and e-Governance will be “2.0? (and what this exactly means) or they just won’t be. Or why the number of secure servers is a good proxy to measure e-Business (I owe Michael Best for pointing me to this last one, thank you!).
And I suspect that, besides our darkest geeky side, most of the scholars signing up to each and every new next killer app of the year just pretend to analyze things from the inside, to learn by doing, to catch up with our recent digital nationality.
The answer to the question Why did not Academia come up with Wikipedia? is, under this train of though, quite easy: we were far and outside. In another galaxy. In a dimension made out of atoms and time.
For an extended summary visit: <http://ictlogy.net/category/meet-me-at/sdp2007/>
About Ismael Peña-López:
<http://ictlogy.net/?page_id=243>
About the Summer Doctoral Programme:
<http://cyber.harvard.edu/home/sdp>
Q & A with new Berkman fellow Oliver Goodenough
Q. In your latest paper on why good people steal intellectual property, what is the key message? Do you view intellectual property infringement as an ethical issue or a technical one?
The technical and the ethical are inextricably linked. In a world of difficult copying, a legal standard could be enforced without the necessity of deeply held ethical buy-in from the general population. Once copying becomes trivial, then the standard needs that kind of buy-in, which hasn't occurred.
Q. How do you view intellectual property rights on a cyber platform? How would you advise entrepreneurs who wish to utilize this online platform for their business?
Intellectual property rights has a place in the cyber world - not all things make sense in an open source configuration (of course the reverse is true as well - IP isn't appropriate in all cases either - that is what makes the debate so interesting). In advising cyber platform entrepreneurs, I would urge them to decide on their goals - both as to society and as to their individual financial return. They should also make distinctions between those areas where propertization will actually work - and those where it won't - and plan accordingly. Radiohead's experiment with distributing their new album through request for voluntary payment is a very interesting approach to a new idea where the old property approach wasn't working.
Q. Do you believe that intellectual property and corporate laws that apply to 3D virtual environments should be governed by a new set of international laws since that space is free of physical boundaries?
The idea has merit, but there is a chicken and egg problem. There really isn't an international law-making body at this point - it may need a wide-spread adoption of 3D virtual environments to create such a body. See Linden Dollars.
Q. How do you view the phenomena of the rising demand of real-life lawyers to deal with virtual problems?
As a law professor, it sounds good to me. But they will need training that is a bit different from the current standard, involving understanding the general approaches to cooperation, security, property, etc., and not just a particular legal standard.
Q. Do you know of the game Second Life? If so, could Second Life be used as a tool in which to practice game theory in relation to law or business problems?
I do know of Second Life (see the first question), and believe it does have potential for the kind of "practice" you describe - indeed, although my direct experience is quite limited, it looks to me as if variations are in full swing as a natural outgrowth of social interaction through the web.
Q. Is the hybrid game theory + institutional economics cooperative model part of what you consider is cultural evolution?
It certainly has application in cultural evolution - the emergence of cooperative structures can - and often does - occur through cultural means - see the law. The possibility of making such structures available through institutions like the law is a major advance in human productivity. Means of electronic interaction both expand the reach of these institutions and create new challenges for them.
Q. What is your latest project at the Berkman Center?
I have two projects going - the first is using the insights of cognitive neuroscience to better understand the limits of intellectual property approaches to allocating rights in creative and technical innovation; the second is the exploration of digital institutions - both at the theoretical level and at the level of legal and societal application.
Q. How does the Berkman Center support your studies? What kind of improvements/changes do you want to see?
Berkman gives me an intellectual "room of my own" within which to work and, slightly paradoxically, a vibrant community and network with whom to work. Both are great assets. Improvements and changes? A less cramped fellows office.
Q. Do you find it difficult (or necessary) to juggle multiple projects? How do you keep up with so many issues?
It is a bit difficult - and also necessary. First of all, I used to practice entertainment law, and the model of my producer clients was that you had to have 10 projects cooking to get a couple brought to fruition. Secondly, many of the really interesting problems have to be solved using a number of different tools and knowledge basis sets - so my multiple projects are in fact really just different aspects of one or two central projects, each with a lot of somewhat diverse sub-tasks. Finally, my experience of Berkman is that most players there are taking a similar approach.
About Oliver Goodenough:
<http://cyber.harvard.edu/home/oliver_goodenough>
Oliver's Luncheon Series Podcast:
<http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/mediaberkman/category/people/oliver-goodenough/>
Announcement of '07-'08 Berkman Fellows:
<http://cyber.harvard.edu/home/newsroom/pressreleases/berkman_center_celebrates_10_anniversary_with_announcement_of_0708_fellows>
[2] NETWORKED: PAPERS, BOOKMARKS, WEBCASTS, PODCASTS, TAGS, AND BLOGPOSTS
Links to Berkman conversations happening online
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Berkman @ 10: Our Year-Long Look at the Future of the Net
The future of generativity.
[PAPER] Karim Lakhani and Jill Panetta on the "Principles of Distributed Innovation."
*<http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1021034>
The future of citizen media funding.
[OP-ED] Dan Gillmor on foundations' role in the future of citizen media.
*<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/09/17/ED1OS4OIU.DTL>
The future of public radio.
[BERKMAN.TV] A Conversation with Jake Shapiro.
*<http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/mediaberkman/2007/10/15/berkmantv-presents-a-conversation-with-jake-shapiro-executive-director-of-prx/>
The future of copyright control.
[BERKMAN.TV] Has Common Sense Flown the Coop? A Conversation with Wendy Seltzer and Angela Kang.
*<http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/mediaberkman/2007/10/04/berkmantv-presents-has-common-sense-flown-the-coop/>
Oxford Internet Institute-Berkman Summer Doctoral Programme 2007
[WIKI] 2007 Summer Doctoral Programme.
*<http://cyber.harvard.edu/sdp2007/Main_Page>
[H2O] H2O Playlist: 2007 Summer Doctoral Programme.
*<http://h2obeta.law.harvard.edu/159956>
[BLOGPOST] Ethan Zuckerman discusses the Summer Doctoral Programme.
*<http://ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2007/07/25/summer-doctoral-program-at-berkman/>
[BLOG] Summer Doctoral Programme Student Daithi Mac Sithigh's copious notes.
*<http://www.lexferenda.com/category/sdp2007/>
Internet Politics, Governance, and Regulation:
[BLOGPOST] Larry Lessig announces a "big victory" in Golan v. Gonzales.
*<http://lessig.org/blog/2007/09/a_big_victory_golan_v_gonzales.html>
[VIDEO] YouTube Presidential Primary Debates.
*<http://www.youtube.com/debates>
[BLOGPOST] Wendy Seltzer explains the importance of ICANN after 10 years.
*<http://wendy.seltzer.org/blog/archives/2007/07/01/aging_the_internet_prematurely_one_pdp_at_a_time.html>
[PAPER] Hoachen Sun: Overcoming the Achilles Heel of Copyright Law
*<http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1021027>
Citizen Media and the Future of Journalism:
[BLOG] Internet & Democracy Project Blog.
*<http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/idblog/>
[NEWSLETTER] Citizen Media Law Briefs.
*<http://www.citmedialaw.org/newsletter/citizen-media-law-project-newsletter>
[OP-ED] Jay Rosen in defense of citizen journalism.
*<http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oew-rosen22aug22,0,4771551.story>
[REPORT] American University Center for Social Media & PRX's report on Public Radio's Social Media Experiment.
*<http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/resources/publications/public_radio/>
Security, Filtering and Digital Identity:
[OP-ED] Palfrey & Zittrain on how companies can face censors abroad.
*<http://www.news.com/Catalysts-for-corporate-responsibility-in-cyberspace/2010-1028_3-6202426.html?tag=news.1>
[REPORT] Trends in Badware 2007.
*<http://blogs.stopbadware.org/articles/2007/10/03/trends-report-encourages-caution-users-need-not-panic>
[BLOGPOST] OpenNet Initiative on the Myanmar Internet crisis.
*<http://opennet.net/blog/?cat=16>
[BLOGPOST] Doc Searls on the relationship between VRM and Health Care.
*<http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/doc/2007/10/08/health-care-or-health-snare/>
[REPORT] Citizen Lab's Internet Censorship Circumvention Guide
*<http://deibert.citizenlab.org/Circ_guide.pdf>
3] Global Voices:
Digital Dose of Global Conversations
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David Sasaki, Global Voices Director of Outreach, put together the monthly digest below, a collection of links to the most interesting conversations happening in the global blogosphere. Please check out Global Voices here: <http://www.globalvoicesonline.org>
Recent protests in Myanmar simply would not have been as big a story if there weren’t brave people on the inside (and outside) willing to risk everything to spread news, photos and videos via the internet. Read all about it on Global Voices’ Special Coverage page.
<http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/10/15/special-coverage-burmese-protests-2007/>
Amira Al Hussaini's three-part series looks at how bloggers across the Muslim world chose to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr, the festive end of Ramadan.
<http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/10/14/arabeyes-eid-al-fitr-celebrations-part-1/>
<http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/10/15/arabeyes-eid-al-fitr-celebrations-part-2/>
<http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/10/16/arabeyes-eid-al-fitr-celebrations-part-3/>
Fukuda Yasuo’s victory in the recent Liberal Democratic Party elections means he’s set to be Japan’s next Prime Minister. In Jens Wilkinson’s report, bloggers on both sides of the political divide speculate on what Yasuo’s victory could mean for the country, including its role on the “war against terror”.
<http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/09/25/japan-fukuda-slated-to-be-next-pm/>
On the far edge of Botswana’s Makgadikgadi salt pan lies Nata, a small rural village of 5,000 people who have struggled for years with the devastating effects of AIDS. It is also home to one of Africa’s biggest blogging success stories.
<http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/10/17/nata-blog-a-blog-from-an-african-village/>
From China to Cuba, India to Argentina, the Middle East to South Africa, Global Voices team of editors bring you reactions to the announcement that former US vice president Al Gore and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.
<http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/10/12/first-reactions-to-the-al-goreipcc-nobel-peace-prize-win/>
<http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/10/13/more-reactions-to-al-goreipcc-nobel-peace-prize-win/>
Despite a public apology from the show’s producers, Filipino and Filipino-American bloggers continue to protest a disparaging comment against the Philippine medical community on the hit TV show Desperate Housewives. Tony Cruz explains why.
<http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/10/15/philippines-desperate-housewives-uproar-continues/>
Salam Adil discusses the reactions (including a video of protests) of Iraqi bloggers to Black Water, a private security firm which has recently killed at least eight Iraqi civilians while driving American diplomats through the streets of Baghdad.
<http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/09/22/iraq-repugnant-black-water/>
Victor Yanukovych’s Party of the Regions is pushing for a referendum on granting Russian official status as a national language, in addition to Ukrainian. Veronica Khokhlova serves up a selection of views on the matter from the Ukrainian blogosphere.
<http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/09/23/ukraine-the-language-issue/>
[4] COMMUNITY LINKS:
Featuring our friends and affiliates
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First Monday: Peer-Reviewed Journal on the Internet
<http://www.firstmonday.org/>
Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society
<http://www.gpsts.org/>
Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University
<http://itpolicy.princeton.edu/>
Citizen Lab's "Guide to By-Passing Internet Censorship"
<http://www.citizenlab.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1323>
Public Radio Talent Quest Winners
<http://www.publicradioquest.com/>
Trials in Second Life
<http://cyber.harvard.edu/cyberone/wiki/Trials>
[5] UPCOMING CONFERENCES
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*October 29-31: The Internet Conference and Exhibition for Librarians and Information Managers - Monterey, CA:
<http://www.infotoday.com/il2007/>
* November 1-3: Third Coast International Audio Festival - Chicago, IL:
<http://www.thirdcoastfestival.org/>
*November 2: Amateur Hour at New York Law School - New York, NY:
<http://www.nyls.edu/pages/5851.asp>
*November 6-8: Streaming Media West - San Jose, CA:
<http://www.streamingmedia.com/west/>
*November 8-9: Blogworld and New Media Expo - Las Vegas, NV:
<http://www.blogworldexpo.com/>
*November 12-19: Making Governance Gender Responsive - Manila, Philippines:
<http://www.capwip.org/training/mggr.htm>
*November 14-15: Scandinavian Interactive Media Event - Stockholm, Sweden:
<http://www.sime.nu/media/>
*November 16-17: MIT C3 Futures of Entertainment - Cambridge, MA:
<http://www.convergenceculture.org/futuresofentertainment/2007/>
*November 21: Online Liability in a user-generated world - London, England:
<http://www.conferencesandtraining.com/onlineliability>
[6] STAYING CONNECTED:
How to find out about Berkman's weekly events
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If you'd like to be notified of outgoing Berkman weekly events, research, or job opportunities, you can sign up for our mailing lists here: <http://cyber.harvard.edu/signup>
Every Friday we feature the week's online conversations in the Berkman Buzz. If you would like to receive the Buzz via email, please visit the Berkman Signup page <http://cyber.harvard.edu/signup/signup.pl>to register.
We webcast every Tuesday Luncheon Series Speaker. Luncheon Series events start at 12:30 pm Eastern Time. The webcast link is <rtsp://harmony.law.harvard.edu/webcast.sdp>. You can participate live in our lunch discussions through our IRC chat channel: <irc://irc.freenode.net/Berkman> or on our island in Second Life: <http://tinyurl.com/s6tv4>. Tune in!
If you are unable to tune in to one of our events, please check out MediaBerkman for our Event Archive: <http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/mediaberkman/>
The Berkman Center's audio and podcasts are also available through iTunes, ODEO, and Podnova.
* iTunes: <http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=135238584&s=143441>
* ODEO: <http://odeo.com/channel/79770/view>
* Podnova: <http://www.podnova.com/channel/40831/>
As well, you can stay in touch with us and join our community by friending us on Facebook by searching for "Berkman Center" in the search field.
[7] FILTER FACTS
======================================================================
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Tell us what you think or send feedback and news announcements to:
<filter@cyber.harvard.edu>
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* About Us
The Filter is a publication of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School.
Editor: Patrick McKiernan
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To read the public domain dedication, visit:
<http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain>
[0] From the Center
[1] Features
[2] Networked: Bookmarks, Webcasts, Podcasts, and Blogposts
[3] Global Voices: Digital Dose of Global Conversations
[4] Community Links
[5] Upcoming Conferences
[6] Staying Connected
[7] Filter Facts
[0] From the Center
======================================================================
Each September we gird ourselves for the return of students, launch of new projects, and the start of new relationships. In spite of our preparations, I never cease to be overwhelmed -- in every sense -- by what actually happens in September and October. With the Summer Doctoral Programme hosted in Cambridge for the first time and our fabulous summer interns, I suppose the students never really left, they merely multiplied. Along with them has grown our capacity for great work and the rise of new ideas. These are particularly welcome as newer projects like Digital Natives, Internet & Democracy, and the Citizen Media Law Project get off to roaring starts. Every bit as welcome and exciting has been our new group of fellows, unprecedented in terms of their diversity of interests, modes and backgrounds, but united in their commitment to fellowship and exploration. Their fabulous energy is palpable and their ideas have begun to infuse all our work. Recognizing they have only just begun to come together as a group, I have high hopes for the remainder of the year, which is a special one for Berkman. Indeed, in case you haven't heard, we are celebrating our tenth anniversary (!) over the course of the year, looking at where we -- and the net -- have come from, and where we're going, as we seek to understand -- and influence -- the future of the Net.
Please join us!
-- Colin Maclay, Managing Director, Berkman Center --
[1] FEATURES: a bit of what's going on at Berkman and where to read more
======================================================================
One Web Day
by David Weinberger
One Web Day (OWD), recently held for its second time, is not political, but it does support values - the values that have made the Web so prized.
Susan Crawford, currently a visiting professor at the University of Michigan Law School and a good friend of the Berkman Center, started OWD as a celebration of the Web. Like Earth Day, it's up to each locality to decide how exactly it will join in. And, of course, since this is the Web, a locality may not be defined geographically. Susan hoped that OWD would help people remember how important the Web is. And for that to happen, the OWD celebrations themselves should take on the values of the Web:
- Like the Web itself, OWD is more of an opportunity than a structure. Make something. Do something. It all adds to the worth of the day, and of the Web.
- Like the Web itself, it's up to each person to decide what she wants to contribute. There's no top-down management dictating the formula for a OWD celebration.
- Like the Web itself, OWD cherishes the diversity of contributions.
- Like the Web itself, the celebrations should be rooted in the strengths and interests of the locality.
- Like the best of the Web itself, the contributions should leave the environment a little bit better.
The Berkman Center celebrated One Web Day in a way that felt right to us given our strengths and interests. Although One Web Day was September 23 -- which this year unfortunately fell on Yom Kippur -- we spent the prior Tuesday lunch time discussion talking about the future of the Web. That happened to fit nicely with the Center's own theme this year as we celebrate our tenth anniversary. Four of the fellows spoke for just a few minutes each on where they think the Internet will be in ten years, which was followed by an hour of open conversation with our community.
If you couldn't make it to the Center, you can always enjoy the whole session as a video and a podcast on MediaBerkman. The OWD site also highlights events from around the world that solicited everyone's ideas about where the Web will be, could be, and should be.
It was a small way to celebrate what the Web has given us. But that, too, is fitting, for the Web is a quilt of uncountable small contributions like this one.
Happy One Web Day!.
One Web Day Wiki:
<http://www.onewebday.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page>
Berkman's One Web Day Celebration:
<http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/mediaberkman/2007/09/21/the-future-of-the-net/>
About Susan Crawford:
<http://www.scrawford.net/>
About David Weinberger:
<http://cyber.harvard.edu/home/david_weinberger>
Looking Back at SDP 2007
by Ismael Peña-López (2007 SDP Student)
If I were asked to summarize the Oxford Internet Institute Summer Doctoral Programme at the Berkman Center I would, undoubtedly, quote Jonathan Zittrain from the sessions: Why didn't Academia come up with Wikipedia?
To explain why, I can (1) draw a list of all the applications and/or online resources we used during the course, (2) write a little digression about academic blogging and (3) explain one of my recursive reflections during these days: what is Web Science.
Conferences 2.0
Speaking in public has changed, especially if you provoke the audience to interact. Solemn one way speeches are over; prettily packeted content is too. The full deployment of ways to interact with people and information during the course was astonishing. I might be forgetting some of them, but here comes a rough list:
* Presentation tools, such as PowerPoint or the like. Some speakers also used mind-mapping applications. Some of them uploaded here.
* The Live Question Tool, to publish questions on the fly why listening to the speaker
* Wiki, as the main reference, schedule and content manager of the seminar
* Blogs: many of them.
* Flickr, for the photos
* YouTube and other video streaming platforms to watch some footage
* del.icio.us, for the links
* BibCiter, for bibliographies…
* …and eMule and Ares to share them in PDF or other formats on P2P networks
* H2O Playlists, for academic references in general
* Instant messaging, to keep in touch with people home or students
* Skype, to call home
* One ring to rule them all: OII/Berkman 2007 Summer Doctoral Programme planet aggregator
* One ring to find them: Technorati
* One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them: Google Reader
* Facebook, with his corresponding group, to build and manage the social network
* dopplr, for the followup geolocation followup
* Also for followup purposes and appointments Twitter or Upcoming
* In the meantime, some of the attendants are sharing their music tastes through Last.fm
* And, of course, there’s always plenty of e-mail.
* And SMSs
* And phone calls
* All these things on mobile phones, public phones (using fixed lines), handhelds, laptops and desktops either connected via wireless or LAN, some owned, some accessible at public points.
* Somebody even watched TV
And yes, most of them we used simultaneously all of the time, some of them were for post-conference purposes.
Why Academic Blogging
The use and goals of these tools were many, but the main philosophy behind was absolutely the same: disclosure. Disclosure and engage in the conversation. As stated by John Palfrey himself the first day, blogging (and diffusion in general) will be the default; anyone interested in not being blogged or whatever, should manifest it explicitly.
I still remember the reticences around when the MIT set up the OpenCourseWare project: nobody’s gonna enroll in your courses anymore, they said. Well, the reaction to this Berkman disclosure policy has been twofold and crystal clear:
* For those not being able to attend the course, infinite gratitude (I’ve got e-mails) for sharing the materials, the experiences, the reflections, etc.
* For those aiming to attend the course, no crowding out effect at all but the contrary: the awaiting of a long long year before the call for applications for SDP2008 is out (I’ve got e-mails too).
But besides this unselfish sharing of knowledge, the real thing has been networking. On one hand, the ones blogging during the seminars have created a densest grid of posts, interlinked ones to others, and by thus enriching one’s own posts about a subject or session.
On the other hand, some posts got out of the circle and were mentioned by some other people such as John Palfrey, Ethan Zuckerman or Doc Searls, to name some of the ones that linked to me. Other faculty linked other attendants as well.
What Is Web Science
This eagerness to use these many online tools leads me to my next topic of reflection. Because, somehow, I think it can be used as some kind of proxy to measure what has been one of the recurrent subjects of personal analysis these days.
Related to the Internet, in particular, and this ICT enhanced society, in general (informational society, information society, knowledge society… whatever), I believe there are two opposite approaches to do research about it.
The first one, the traditional approach, is taking the changes in the society as a second derivative: I do research in Intellectual Property and I found that the Internet is changing my field of knowledge, the target of my research, hence, I will study the interaction between Intellectual Property and the Internet.
Second, the one I’d call the Web Science approach and is better explained with an example: I want to explore the concept of the Digital Native (I actually do, specially his relationship with the concept of e-Awareness). To do so, I must know about psychology and neurosciences (as Mark Prensky did), about how technologies work (Web 2.0, usability, server-client technical relationships, AJAX), sociological implications (social networks, digital identities), economical (broadband diffusion, mobile penetration), legal (cybercrime, intellectual property, spam), political (civic engagement, hacktivism, e-democracy), education (e-portfolio, personal learning environments, long-life learning, e-learning, game-based teaching), communication (citizen journalism), art and culture (mashups, rip-mix-burn), and the longest et cetera ever.
People I know range from one endpoint to the other, being myself, philosophically, no doubt in one of the furthest edges of the Web Science approach. I don’t think there’s a best or a worst approach, but I also believe that:
1. Some aspects of today’s (and tomorrow’s even more) life can only be fully explained (if possible) through a Web Science approach, e.g. Digital Natives
2. Some other aspects can be perfectly approached in the traditional way, but will require a “digital effort” that, if not done, no valid conclusions can emerge from such researches.
Cybercrime is, all in all, crime, but it will be absolutely necessary
to understand what an ISP or an IP is, what and how works digital watermarking or hashing or electronic certificates, the technical difference between phishing and pharming. Or why e-Democracy and e-Governance will be “2.0? (and what this exactly means) or they just won’t be. Or why the number of secure servers is a good proxy to measure e-Business (I owe Michael Best for pointing me to this last one, thank you!).
And I suspect that, besides our darkest geeky side, most of the scholars signing up to each and every new next killer app of the year just pretend to analyze things from the inside, to learn by doing, to catch up with our recent digital nationality.
The answer to the question Why did not Academia come up with Wikipedia? is, under this train of though, quite easy: we were far and outside. In another galaxy. In a dimension made out of atoms and time.
For an extended summary visit: <http://ictlogy.net/category/meet-me-at/sdp2007/>
About Ismael Peña-López:
<http://ictlogy.net/?page_id=243>
About the Summer Doctoral Programme:
<http://cyber.harvard.edu/home/sdp>
Q & A with new Berkman fellow Oliver Goodenough
Q. In your latest paper on why good people steal intellectual property, what is the key message? Do you view intellectual property infringement as an ethical issue or a technical one?
The technical and the ethical are inextricably linked. In a world of difficult copying, a legal standard could be enforced without the necessity of deeply held ethical buy-in from the general population. Once copying becomes trivial, then the standard needs that kind of buy-in, which hasn't occurred.
Q. How do you view intellectual property rights on a cyber platform? How would you advise entrepreneurs who wish to utilize this online platform for their business?
Intellectual property rights has a place in the cyber world - not all things make sense in an open source configuration (of course the reverse is true as well - IP isn't appropriate in all cases either - that is what makes the debate so interesting). In advising cyber platform entrepreneurs, I would urge them to decide on their goals - both as to society and as to their individual financial return. They should also make distinctions between those areas where propertization will actually work - and those where it won't - and plan accordingly. Radiohead's experiment with distributing their new album through request for voluntary payment is a very interesting approach to a new idea where the old property approach wasn't working.
Q. Do you believe that intellectual property and corporate laws that apply to 3D virtual environments should be governed by a new set of international laws since that space is free of physical boundaries?
The idea has merit, but there is a chicken and egg problem. There really isn't an international law-making body at this point - it may need a wide-spread adoption of 3D virtual environments to create such a body. See Linden Dollars.
Q. How do you view the phenomena of the rising demand of real-life lawyers to deal with virtual problems?
As a law professor, it sounds good to me. But they will need training that is a bit different from the current standard, involving understanding the general approaches to cooperation, security, property, etc., and not just a particular legal standard.
Q. Do you know of the game Second Life? If so, could Second Life be used as a tool in which to practice game theory in relation to law or business problems?
I do know of Second Life (see the first question), and believe it does have potential for the kind of "practice" you describe - indeed, although my direct experience is quite limited, it looks to me as if variations are in full swing as a natural outgrowth of social interaction through the web.
Q. Is the hybrid game theory + institutional economics cooperative model part of what you consider is cultural evolution?
It certainly has application in cultural evolution - the emergence of cooperative structures can - and often does - occur through cultural means - see the law. The possibility of making such structures available through institutions like the law is a major advance in human productivity. Means of electronic interaction both expand the reach of these institutions and create new challenges for them.
Q. What is your latest project at the Berkman Center?
I have two projects going - the first is using the insights of cognitive neuroscience to better understand the limits of intellectual property approaches to allocating rights in creative and technical innovation; the second is the exploration of digital institutions - both at the theoretical level and at the level of legal and societal application.
Q. How does the Berkman Center support your studies? What kind of improvements/changes do you want to see?
Berkman gives me an intellectual "room of my own" within which to work and, slightly paradoxically, a vibrant community and network with whom to work. Both are great assets. Improvements and changes? A less cramped fellows office.
Q. Do you find it difficult (or necessary) to juggle multiple projects? How do you keep up with so many issues?
It is a bit difficult - and also necessary. First of all, I used to practice entertainment law, and the model of my producer clients was that you had to have 10 projects cooking to get a couple brought to fruition. Secondly, many of the really interesting problems have to be solved using a number of different tools and knowledge basis sets - so my multiple projects are in fact really just different aspects of one or two central projects, each with a lot of somewhat diverse sub-tasks. Finally, my experience of Berkman is that most players there are taking a similar approach.
About Oliver Goodenough:
<http://cyber.harvard.edu/home/oliver_goodenough>
Oliver's Luncheon Series Podcast:
<http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/mediaberkman/category/people/oliver-goodenough/>
Announcement of '07-'08 Berkman Fellows:
<http://cyber.harvard.edu/home/newsroom/pressreleases/berkman_center_celebrates_10_anniversary_with_announcement_of_0708_fellows>
[2] NETWORKED: PAPERS, BOOKMARKS, WEBCASTS, PODCASTS, TAGS, AND BLOGPOSTS
Links to Berkman conversations happening online
======================================================================
Berkman @ 10: Our Year-Long Look at the Future of the Net
The future of generativity.
[PAPER] Karim Lakhani and Jill Panetta on the "Principles of Distributed Innovation."
*<http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1021034>
The future of citizen media funding.
[OP-ED] Dan Gillmor on foundations' role in the future of citizen media.
*<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/09/17/ED1OS4OIU.DTL>
The future of public radio.
[BERKMAN.TV] A Conversation with Jake Shapiro.
*<http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/mediaberkman/2007/10/15/berkmantv-presents-a-conversation-with-jake-shapiro-executive-director-of-prx/>
The future of copyright control.
[BERKMAN.TV] Has Common Sense Flown the Coop? A Conversation with Wendy Seltzer and Angela Kang.
*<http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/mediaberkman/2007/10/04/berkmantv-presents-has-common-sense-flown-the-coop/>
Oxford Internet Institute-Berkman Summer Doctoral Programme 2007
[WIKI] 2007 Summer Doctoral Programme.
*<http://cyber.harvard.edu/sdp2007/Main_Page>
[H2O] H2O Playlist: 2007 Summer Doctoral Programme.
*<http://h2obeta.law.harvard.edu/159956>
[BLOGPOST] Ethan Zuckerman discusses the Summer Doctoral Programme.
*<http://ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2007/07/25/summer-doctoral-program-at-berkman/>
[BLOG] Summer Doctoral Programme Student Daithi Mac Sithigh's copious notes.
*<http://www.lexferenda.com/category/sdp2007/>
Internet Politics, Governance, and Regulation:
[BLOGPOST] Larry Lessig announces a "big victory" in Golan v. Gonzales.
*<http://lessig.org/blog/2007/09/a_big_victory_golan_v_gonzales.html>
[VIDEO] YouTube Presidential Primary Debates.
*<http://www.youtube.com/debates>
[BLOGPOST] Wendy Seltzer explains the importance of ICANN after 10 years.
*<http://wendy.seltzer.org/blog/archives/2007/07/01/aging_the_internet_prematurely_one_pdp_at_a_time.html>
[PAPER] Hoachen Sun: Overcoming the Achilles Heel of Copyright Law
*<http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1021027>
Citizen Media and the Future of Journalism:
[BLOG] Internet & Democracy Project Blog.
*<http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/idblog/>
[NEWSLETTER] Citizen Media Law Briefs.
*<http://www.citmedialaw.org/newsletter/citizen-media-law-project-newsletter>
[OP-ED] Jay Rosen in defense of citizen journalism.
*<http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oew-rosen22aug22,0,4771551.story>
[REPORT] American University Center for Social Media & PRX's report on Public Radio's Social Media Experiment.
*<http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/resources/publications/public_radio/>
Security, Filtering and Digital Identity:
[OP-ED] Palfrey & Zittrain on how companies can face censors abroad.
*<http://www.news.com/Catalysts-for-corporate-responsibility-in-cyberspace/2010-1028_3-6202426.html?tag=news.1>
[REPORT] Trends in Badware 2007.
*<http://blogs.stopbadware.org/articles/2007/10/03/trends-report-encourages-caution-users-need-not-panic>
[BLOGPOST] OpenNet Initiative on the Myanmar Internet crisis.
*<http://opennet.net/blog/?cat=16>
[BLOGPOST] Doc Searls on the relationship between VRM and Health Care.
*<http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/doc/2007/10/08/health-care-or-health-snare/>
[REPORT] Citizen Lab's Internet Censorship Circumvention Guide
*<http://deibert.citizenlab.org/Circ_guide.pdf>
3] Global Voices:
Digital Dose of Global Conversations
======================================================================
David Sasaki, Global Voices Director of Outreach, put together the monthly digest below, a collection of links to the most interesting conversations happening in the global blogosphere. Please check out Global Voices here: <http://www.globalvoicesonline.org>
Recent protests in Myanmar simply would not have been as big a story if there weren’t brave people on the inside (and outside) willing to risk everything to spread news, photos and videos via the internet. Read all about it on Global Voices’ Special Coverage page.
<http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/10/15/special-coverage-burmese-protests-2007/>
Amira Al Hussaini's three-part series looks at how bloggers across the Muslim world chose to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr, the festive end of Ramadan.
<http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/10/14/arabeyes-eid-al-fitr-celebrations-part-1/>
<http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/10/15/arabeyes-eid-al-fitr-celebrations-part-2/>
<http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/10/16/arabeyes-eid-al-fitr-celebrations-part-3/>
Fukuda Yasuo’s victory in the recent Liberal Democratic Party elections means he’s set to be Japan’s next Prime Minister. In Jens Wilkinson’s report, bloggers on both sides of the political divide speculate on what Yasuo’s victory could mean for the country, including its role on the “war against terror”.
<http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/09/25/japan-fukuda-slated-to-be-next-pm/>
On the far edge of Botswana’s Makgadikgadi salt pan lies Nata, a small rural village of 5,000 people who have struggled for years with the devastating effects of AIDS. It is also home to one of Africa’s biggest blogging success stories.
<http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/10/17/nata-blog-a-blog-from-an-african-village/>
From China to Cuba, India to Argentina, the Middle East to South Africa, Global Voices team of editors bring you reactions to the announcement that former US vice president Al Gore and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.
<http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/10/12/first-reactions-to-the-al-goreipcc-nobel-peace-prize-win/>
<http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/10/13/more-reactions-to-al-goreipcc-nobel-peace-prize-win/>
Despite a public apology from the show’s producers, Filipino and Filipino-American bloggers continue to protest a disparaging comment against the Philippine medical community on the hit TV show Desperate Housewives. Tony Cruz explains why.
<http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/10/15/philippines-desperate-housewives-uproar-continues/>
Salam Adil discusses the reactions (including a video of protests) of Iraqi bloggers to Black Water, a private security firm which has recently killed at least eight Iraqi civilians while driving American diplomats through the streets of Baghdad.
<http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/09/22/iraq-repugnant-black-water/>
Victor Yanukovych’s Party of the Regions is pushing for a referendum on granting Russian official status as a national language, in addition to Ukrainian. Veronica Khokhlova serves up a selection of views on the matter from the Ukrainian blogosphere.
<http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/09/23/ukraine-the-language-issue/>
[4] COMMUNITY LINKS:
Featuring our friends and affiliates
======================================================================
First Monday: Peer-Reviewed Journal on the Internet
<http://www.firstmonday.org/>
Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society
<http://www.gpsts.org/>
Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University
<http://itpolicy.princeton.edu/>
Citizen Lab's "Guide to By-Passing Internet Censorship"
<http://www.citizenlab.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1323>
Public Radio Talent Quest Winners
<http://www.publicradioquest.com/>
Trials in Second Life
<http://cyber.harvard.edu/cyberone/wiki/Trials>
[5] UPCOMING CONFERENCES
======================================================================
*October 29-31: The Internet Conference and Exhibition for Librarians and Information Managers - Monterey, CA:
<http://www.infotoday.com/il2007/>
* November 1-3: Third Coast International Audio Festival - Chicago, IL:
<http://www.thirdcoastfestival.org/>
*November 2: Amateur Hour at New York Law School - New York, NY:
<http://www.nyls.edu/pages/5851.asp>
*November 6-8: Streaming Media West - San Jose, CA:
<http://www.streamingmedia.com/west/>
*November 8-9: Blogworld and New Media Expo - Las Vegas, NV:
<http://www.blogworldexpo.com/>
*November 12-19: Making Governance Gender Responsive - Manila, Philippines:
<http://www.capwip.org/training/mggr.htm>
*November 14-15: Scandinavian Interactive Media Event - Stockholm, Sweden:
<http://www.sime.nu/media/>
*November 16-17: MIT C3 Futures of Entertainment - Cambridge, MA:
<http://www.convergenceculture.org/futuresofentertainment/2007/>
*November 21: Online Liability in a user-generated world - London, England:
<http://www.conferencesandtraining.com/onlineliability>
[6] STAYING CONNECTED:
How to find out about Berkman's weekly events
======================================================================
If you'd like to be notified of outgoing Berkman weekly events, research, or job opportunities, you can sign up for our mailing lists here: <http://cyber.harvard.edu/signup>
Every Friday we feature the week's online conversations in the Berkman Buzz. If you would like to receive the Buzz via email, please visit the Berkman Signup page <http://cyber.harvard.edu/signup/signup.pl>to register.
We webcast every Tuesday Luncheon Series Speaker. Luncheon Series events start at 12:30 pm Eastern Time. The webcast link is <rtsp://harmony.law.harvard.edu/webcast.sdp>. You can participate live in our lunch discussions through our IRC chat channel: <irc://irc.freenode.net/Berkman> or on our island in Second Life: <http://tinyurl.com/s6tv4>. Tune in!
If you are unable to tune in to one of our events, please check out MediaBerkman for our Event Archive: <http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/mediaberkman/>
The Berkman Center's audio and podcasts are also available through iTunes, ODEO, and Podnova.
* iTunes: <http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=135238584&s=143441>
* ODEO: <http://odeo.com/channel/79770/view>
* Podnova: <http://www.podnova.com/channel/40831/>
As well, you can stay in touch with us and join our community by friending us on Facebook by searching for "Berkman Center" in the search field.
[7] FILTER FACTS
======================================================================
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<filter@cyber.harvard.edu>
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* About Us
The Filter is a publication of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School.
Editor: Patrick McKiernan
* Not a Copyright
This work is hereby released into the public domain. Please share it.
To read the public domain dedication, visit:
<http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain>