Tweeting the Revolution; Yochai Benkler's Book Launch; Digital Public Library of America Plenary Meeting

Harvard Innovation Lab (i-Lab) Information Session

Wednesday, October 12, 12:00pm ET, Pound 100, Harvard Law School

Come meet the directors of the new Harvard Innovation Lab (i-Lab; http://i-lab.harvard.edu/). They will be describing the brand-new i-Lab and answering any questions you have about getting involved with this University-wide initiative to support student-led entrepreneurship and innovation. The i-lab will encourage entrepreneurship and innovation across the University, bringing together many cross-curricular interests, including Harvard Law School, Harvard College, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Business School, the School for Engineering and Applied Science, and the Harvard Kennedy School. The Harvard innovation lab is a new and innovative initiative that will foster team-based and entrepreneurial activities, both for-profit and non-profit, and deepen interactions among students, faculty, entrepreneurs, and members of the Allston and Greater Boston community. Members of the Harvard Law Scho ol community will be important participants in the i-Lab community, whether as social or for-profit entrepreneurs or as providers of legal information and services to entrepreneurs through the HLS Cyberlaw Clinic, Transactional Law Clinic, Harvard Law Entrepreneurship Project (HLEP) and other avenues. Come hear about the many exciting opportunities available at the i-Lab. Co-sponsored by HLEP, the HLS Cyberlaw Clinic and the HLS Transactional Law Clinic. more information on our website>

Tweeting the Revolution: agency, collective action, and the negotiation of risk in a networked age

Tuesday, October 18, 12:30pm ET, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St, Cambridge, MA. This event will be webcast live.

From Beth: This paper looks at the impact of social media platforms on collective action. In particular, it focuses on spheres of activism where personal risk (bodily or otherwise) is the condition of participation. For this analysis, I discuss interviews conducted with Egyptian activists around the events of Tahrir Square. Issues of copresence, witness, and visibility are central to my discussion. This talk is based on a research paper developed with my coauthor Dr. Mike Ananny. Dr. Beth Coleman’s work focuses on the role of human agency in the context of media and data engagement. She is currently a Harvard University Faculty Fellow at Berkman Center for Internet and Society and a visiting professor at the Institute of Network Cultures, Hogeschool van Amsterdam. RSVP Required. more information on our website>

The Penguin and the Leviathan: How Cooperation Triumphs over Self-Interest

Tuesday, October 18, 6:00PM, Austin West Classroom, Austin Hall, Harvard Law School.

Harvard Professor Yochai Benkler (The Wealth of Networks) is one of the world’s top thinkers on cooperative structures. In his new book, The Penguin and the Leviathan: How Cooperation Triumphs over Self-Interest, he uses evidence from neuroscience, economics, sociology, biology, and real-world examples to break down the myth of self-interest and replace it with a model of cooperation in our businesses, our government, and our lives. Yochai Benkler is the Berkman Professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies at Harvard, and faculty co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. (Photo via Joi) RSVP Required. more information on our website>

Digital Public Library of America Plenary Meeting

Friday, October 21, All Day, National Archives, Washington, DC.

The first Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) Plenary Meeting, convened by the DPLA Secretariat at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society and hosted by The National Archives in Washington, DC, will bring together a wide range of stakeholders in a broad, open forum to present the history of and vision for the DPLA effort, to showcase the best ideas and models submitted to the Beta Sprint (an open call for code and concepts defining how the DPLA should operate), and to create multiple points of entry for public participation in the work of the DPLA. Registration Required. more information on our website>

Media Law in the Digital Age: The Rules Have Changed -- Again

Saturday, October 22, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, GA.

Co-produced by the Citizen Media Law Project at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society and Kennesaw State's Center for Sustainable Journalism, Media Law in the Digital Age is a must-attend event for anyone who publishes online content, works in digital media, or studies the way in which technology has influenced journalism and law. Whether you are blogger, social media strategist, journalist, or media attorney, you know that the law governing digital media is constantly changing. The best way to protect your organization, your clients or yourself is to know what the rules are today. Join experts in the field of law, digital media, journalism and academia as they lead panel sessions in an intensive day-long conference. Registration Required. more information on our website>

Doing Science in the Open

Tuesday, October 25, 12:30pm ET, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St, Cambridge, MA. This event will be webcast live.

From Michael: I'll start this talk by describing the Polymath Project, an ongoing experiment in "massively collaborative" mathematical problem solving. The idea is to use online tools -- things like blogs and wikis -- to collaboratively attack difficult mathematical problems. By combining the best ideas of many minds from all over the world, the Polymath Project has made breakthroughs on important mathematical problems. What makes this an exciting story is that it's about much more than just solving some mathematical problems. Rather, the story suggests that online tools can be used to transform the way we humans work together to make scientific discoveries. We can use online tools to amplify our collective intelligence, in much the same way as for millenia we've used physical tools to amplify our strength. This has the potential to accelerate scientific discovery across all disciplines. This is an optimistic story, but there's a major catch. Sci entists have for the most part been extremely extremely conservative in how they use the net, often using it for little more than email and passive web browsing. Projects like Polymath are the exception not the rule. I'll discuss why this conservatism is so common, why it's so damaging, and how we can move to a more open scientific culture. Michael Nielsen is an author and an advocate of open science. RSVP Required. more information on our website>

Benjamin Mako Hill on What Eight Collaborative Encyclopedia Projects Reveal About Mechanisms of Collective Action

Why did Wikipedia succeed in attracting contributors while other projects did so less effectively? Why are some attempts at online collective action successful while most never take off? In this talk Benjamin Mako Hill — a researcher and PhD Candidate in a joint program between the MIT Sloan School of Management and the MIT Media Lab, a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, and a Research Fellow at the MIT Center for Future Civic Media — presents preliminary findings from an analysis of 8 early projects to create online collaborative encyclopedias in the form of interviews of the projects' founders and extensive archival data. video/audio on our website>

Radio Berkman 183: The Cooperation

Are human beings — as consultants, researchers, and the authors of business books have thought for years — fundamentally motivated by self interest? Or is there a deeper cooperative instinct that drives us to work? Those are the questions that fuel Yochai Benkler‘s investigation in The Penguin and the Leviathan: How Cooperation Triumphs over Self-Interest. In it Benkler challenges the rather embarrassing idea that people are primarily selfish by citing examples — from collective farming to neuroscience to the world’s richest corporations — demonstrating that people are a lot more cooperative than they get credit for. Benkler spoke with David Weinberger about his new book for this week’s Radio Berkman. video/audio on our website>