Upcoming Events and Digital Media Roundup

BERKMAN CENTER FOR INTERNET & SOCIETY AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY
December 16, 2009 // Upcoming events and digital media

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[1] [TUESDAY 12/22/09] Berkman Center Luncheon Series: "Lessons from Laramie: Broadband Innovation on the Wireless Frontier" with Brett Glass (http://cyber.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2009/12/glass)

[TUESDAY] BERKMAN LUNCHEON SERIES on BROADBAND INNOVATION ON THE WIRELESS FRONTIER
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12/22/09, 12:30 PM ET, Berkman Center Conference Room @ 23 Everett St., Cambridge, MA
RSVP is required for those attending in person (rsvp@cyber.harvard.edu)
This event will be webcast live

Topic: Lessons from Laramie: Broadband Innovation on the Wireless Frontier
Guest: Brett Glass

18 years ago, Brett Glass -- an electrical engineer, inventor, and technology columnist -- established LARIAT, the first terrestrial wireless Internet service provider (WISP), in Laramie, Wyoming. He did it, initially, not as an entrepreneurial venture (the network started as a nonprofit co-op) but to solve a problem for his community: Laramie had no high speed Internet other than that on the University of Wyoming campus (which at the time had just upgraded from a few T1 lines to an almost unimaginably fast DS-3). The network made innovative use of early spread spectrum digital radio technology -- the great granddaddy of Wi-Fi -- to provide high speed Internet years before DSL or cable modem service was available, and continues to reach areas where these services do not go.

LARIAT and other WISPs -- most of them small, local businesses -- have fought difficult economics, the anticompetitive practices of incumbent telecommunications providers, and an adverse regulatory environment to build out the Internet to places where cable and telephone companies will likely never venture. They now serve approximately a million accounts and an estimated 3 to 4 million people, yet have remained below many policy makers' radar.

What's it like to roll up your sleeves and roll out high speed connectivity to underserved and unserved areas with, literally, one's bare hands? What are the logistics? What are the challenges? How can policy decisions in faraway Washington, DC -- perhaps influenced by scholarship at institutions such as Harvard -- help or hurt WISPs' efforts to boldly go where other network providers cannot or will not? Join us for an animated discussion of broadband technology, competition, and the effects of regulation on Internet innovation and deployment.

About Brett

Brett Glass is an electrical engineer, consultant, author, inventor, and small business owner residing in Laramie, Wyoming. With a BSEE from Case Institute of Technology and an MSEE from Stanford, Brett has designed numerous chips, software products and embedded systems and has authored more than 2,000 technology-related articles, columns, and books. He established LARIAT, the world's first WISP (terrestrial wireless Internet service provider), in 1992; today, LARIAT brings connectivity to hundreds of square miles not covered by any other terrestrial high speed Internet service. When he is not writing software, managing networks, or advocating wireless connectivity, he enjoys playing the Ashbory bass, refurbishing old houses, drinking good coffee, and cooking and eating exotic ethnic foods.

This event will be webcast live; for more information and a complete description, see the event web page: http://cyber.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2009/12/glass

OTHER EVENTS OF NOTE
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[1] 12/17/09: XKCD Volume 0: The Signing with xkcd creator Randall Munroe // MIT (http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=199419123916)

[1] 1/21-22/10: Open Government: Defining, Designing, and Sustaining Transparency // Princeton Center for Information Technology Policy (http://citp.princeton.edu/open-government-workshop/)

[2] 2/24-26/10: Limiting Knowledge in a Democracy // Featuring Berkman Faculty Co-Director Jonathan Zittrain and Berkman Fellow Julie Cohen // New School, NY (http://www.socres.org/limitingknowledge/)

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.

-Berkman Fellow ANDREW MCAFEE on "Enterprise 2.0; The State of An Art" (http://cyber.harvard.edu/interactive/events/2009/12/mcafee)

-Berkman Luncheon Series: REY JUNCO on "Twitter in the College Classroom" (http://cyber.harvard.edu/interactive/events/luncheon/2009/12/junco)

-Law Lab Speaker Series with MARSHALL VAN ALSTYNE on "The Social Efficiency of Fairness" (http://cyber.harvard.edu/interactive/events/lawab/2009/11/alstyne)

-JONATHAN ZITTRAIN on "Minds for Sale" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw3h-rae3uo&feature=player_profilepage)

-RADIO BERKMAN 139: My Fair Economy (http://cyber.harvard.edu/interactive/podcasts/radioberkman139)

-RADIO BERKMAN 137: CORY DOCTOROW - In Defense of © (http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/mediaberkman/2009/11/19/radio-berkman-137-cory-doctorow-in-defense-of-%c2%a9/)

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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.