Upcoming Events and Digital Media Roundup

Oct 7, 2009

BERKMAN CENTER FOR INTERNET & SOCIETY AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY
October 7, 2009 // Upcoming events and digital media

[1] [TODAY 10/7/09] "Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age" with Viktor Mayer-Schönberger (http://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2009/10/schonberger)

[2] [10/12-10/13] East Coast Vendor Relationship Management Workshop (http://cyber.harvard.edu/node/5663)

[3] [10/16-10/17] Ruby on Rails Workshop for Women (http://cyber.harvard.edu/node/5654)

[TODAY 10/7/09] DELETE: THE VIRTUE OF FORGETTING IN THE DIGITAL AGE
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Wednesday, 10/7/09, 6:00PM, Pound Hall Room 200, Harvard Law School **Please note updated location**
Free and Open to the Public
RSVP for those attending in person: http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dEZFTFBsVERNbUtvRHZSaFM5QVl2Vnc6MA

Map: http://map.harvard.edu/level3.cfm?mapname=camb_allston&tile=F6&quadrant=C&series=N

Topic: Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age
Guest: A book talk with Professor Viktor Mayer-Schönberger

By now the perils of posting indiscrete photographs or information on social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace are well known—jobs are lost or denied, reputations diminished, and families destroyed by a single click. But the problem is far greater than this, argues Viktor Mayer-Schönberger in DELETE: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age (Publication date: October 2009).

DELETE argues that in our quest for perfect digital memories where we can store everything from recipes and family photographs to work emails and personal information, we’ve put ourselves in danger of losing a very human quality—the ability and privilege of forgetting. Our digital memories have become double-edged swords—we expect people to “remember” information that is stored in their computers, yet we also may find ourselves wishing to “forget” inappropriate pictures and mis-addressed emails. And, as Mayer-Schönberger demonstrates, it is becoming harder and harder to “forget” these things as digital media becomes more accessible and portable and the lines of ownership blur (see the recent Facebook controversy over changes to their user agreement).

Mayer-Schönberger examines the technology that’s facilitating the end of forgetting—digitization, cheap storage and easy retrieval, global access, and increasingly powerful software—and proposes an ingeniously simple solution: expiration dates on information.

Join the Berkman Center for a provocative talk and discussion on Viktor Mayer-Schönberger's newest publication Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age.

For more information and a complete description, see the event web page: http://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2009/10/schonberger

[10/12-10/13] VENDOR RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT WORKSHOP
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10/12-10/13/09, Pound Hall at Harvard Law School, John Chipman Gray Room
This event is free. You can register through: http://vrmeastcoast2009.eventbrite.com/.

VRM East Coast Workshop 2009 is coming up soon — on 12-13 October, at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, MA. It’s hosted by the Berkman Center and ProjectVRM at the Center.

As with earlier VRM workshops, it’s a free unconference, organized on the open space model. Participants choose the topics, move those topics forward in open discussion, and share progress with the whole group at the end of each day.

For more information and a complete description, see the event web page: http://cyber.harvard.edu/projectvrm/VRM_East_Coast_Workshop_2009

[10/16-10/17] RUBY ON RAILS WORKSHOP FOR WOMEN
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10/16-10/17/09, Harvard University, Location TBA
Free and Open to the Public. Registration required: http://womenonrailsworkshop.wufoo.com/forms/register-for-the-ruby-on-rails-workshop-for-women/

The Berkman Center at Harvard University in coordination with the Center for Research on Computation and Society is putting together a Ruby on Rails workshop for women on October 16th and 17th.

We are seeking to create an attitude-free, newbie-safe and mama- friendly tech event to encourage women to join the Ruby on Rails community. This is an inclusive event meant to promote mixed gender collaboration.

Women are a minority in most technical communities, but in open source communities the numbers are even smaller — by a factor of about ten or more. Moving forward, we would like to encourage our newly empowered programmers to meet monthly and use their skills towards open source projects in a welcoming, collaborative environment.

For more information and a complete description, see the event web page: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/genderandtech/ruby-on-rails-workshop-for-women/

OTHER EVENTS OF NOTE
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[1] 10/7: Clicking "Refresh": A New Look at Fair Use in the Digital Age with Berkman Faculty Director Terry Fisher // NYC Bar (http://www.nycbar.org/EventsCalendar/show_event.php?eventid=1217)

[2] 10/8: MIT Communications Forum: Race, Politics, and American Media (http://civic.mit.edu/event/communications-forum-race-politics-and-american-media)

[3] 10/8: Lawrence Lessig on Institutional Corruption // Harvard Kennedy School (http://www.ethics.harvard.edu/news-and-events/lectures-and-events)

[4] 10/9: Quest for Innovation (http://www.questforinnovation.com/)

[5] 10/12: Startup Bootcamp // MIT (http://startupbootcamp.mit.edu/)

[6] 10/12-13: Engaging Data: First International Forum on the Application and Management of Personal Electronic Information // MIT (http://senseable.mit.edu/engagingdata/)

[7] 10/14: The Democratization of Innovation: A conversation with Ray Kurzweil // MIT Enterprise Forum (http://www.mitforumcambridge.org/iseries/oct09.html)

[8] 10/17: PublicMediaCamp // Washington, DC (http://www.npr.org/blogs/inside/2009/08/publicmediacamp_strengthening.html)

[9] 10/19-23: Open Access Week (http://www.openaccessweek.org/)

[10] 10/23: Social Networks: Friends or Foes? // UC Berkeley (http://www.law.berkeley.edu/institutes/bclt/socialnetworking/about.html)

[11] 10/24: Tech Futures at the Boston Book Festival (http://www.bostonbookfest.org/index.php/bookfest/blog/tech_futures_at_the_boston_book_festival/)

[12] 10/24: Media Literacy Conference // MIT (http://ezregister.com/events/536/)

DIGITAL MEDIA: Watch and Listen
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Did you miss this week's luncheon talk? Catch up with Berkman videos, podcasts, pictures, and dig in to our archive at http://cyber.harvard.edu/interactive.

-Communication and Human Development: The Freedom Connection with AMARTYA SEN, MICHAEL SPENCE, YOCHAI BENKLER, CLOTILDE FONSECA, and MIKE BEST: http://cyber.harvard.edu/interactive/events/2009/09/idrc/idrcpanel and also on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uuanAaV5Y0&feature=player_profilepage

-BERKMAN LUNCHEON SERIES with HERKKO HIETANEN on Network Recorders and Social Enrichment of Television: http://cyber.harvard.edu/interactive/events/luncheons/2009/09/hietanen

-RADIO BERKMAN 132: Learning to Share with KENNETH CREWS: http://cyber.harvard.edu/interactive/podcasts/radioberkman132

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BERKMAN CALENDAR & UPCOMING EVENTS PREVIEW
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See our events calendar if you're curious about future luncheons, discussions, lectures, conferences, and more: http://cyber.harvard.edu/events. All of our events are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted.

ABOUT US
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The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University was founded to explore cyberspace, share in its study, and help pioneer its development. For more information, visit http://cyber.harvard.edu.