IT, Security, and Power; Disruptive Innovation in Washington, DC; Work Here

IT, Security, and Power: Bruce Schneier & Jonathan Zittrain in conversation

Thursday, April 4, 6:00pm ET, Harvard Law School, Langdell Hall South Classroom. Co-sponsored by Harvard's Center for Research on Computation and Society.

From Bruce Schneier: What I've Been Thinking About:

I have been thinking about the Internet and power: how the Internet affects power, and how power affects the Internet. Increasingly, those in power are using information technology to increase their power. This has many facets, including the following:

1. Ubiquitous surveillance for both government and corporate purposes -- aided by cloud computing, social networking, and Internet-enabled everything -- resulting in a world without any real privacy.

2. The rise of nationalism on the Internet and a cyberwar arms race, both of which play on our fears and which are resulting in increased military involvement in our information infrastructure.

3. Ill-conceived laws and regulations on behalf of either government or corporate power, either to prop up their business models (copyright protections), enable more surveillance (increased police access to data), or control our actions in cyberspace.

4. A feudal model of security that leaves users with little control over their data or computing platforms, forcing them to trust the companies that sell the hardware, software, and systems.

On the one hand, we need new regimes of trust in the information age. (I wrote about the extensively in my most recent book, Liars and Outliers.) On the other hand, the risks associated with increasing technology might mean that the fear of catastrophic attack will make us unable to create those new regimes.

It is clear to me that we as a society are headed down a dangerous path, and that we need to make some hard choices about what sort of world we want to live in. It's not clear if we have the social or political will to address those choices, or even have the conversations necessary to make them. But I believe we need to try.

Bruce Schneier is an internationally renowned security technologist and author. Described by The Economist as a "security guru," he is best known as a refreshingly candid and lucid security critic and commentator. Jonathan Zittrain is Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Professor of Computer Science at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society. His research interests include battles for control of digital property and content, cryptography, electronic privacy, the roles of intermediaries within Internet architecture, human computing, and the useful and unobtrusive deployment of technology in education. RSVP Required. more information on our website>

Disruptive Innovation in Washington, DC

Tuesday, April 9, 12:30pm ET, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St, 2nd Floor. This event will be webcast live.

How can a complacent Congress address real and systemic problems related to technology and antiquated legislation? I will present a strategy for achieving positive technology policy reforms in Congress. Overall, I argue that we need to re-framing the policy questions, win small battles, and develop a working coalition. I will detail some key areas of reform of which I have been involved. Derek Khanna is a Yale Law Fellow with the Information Society Project, a columnist, policy expert and thought leader on technology and innovation. He has experience on two Presidential campaigns and working for the House and Senate, where he worked for Senator Scott Brown. Until recently, he was a staff member for the House Republican Study Committee, where he authored the widely read House Republican Study Committee report “Three Myths about Copyright Law.” In the two months since he was on Capitol Hill he has taken on the largely unknown issue of phone unlocking and created it as a national issue by spearheading a modern digital advocacy campaign. His unprecedented and unfunded campaign on cellphone unlocking included a White House petition that achieved over 114,000 signatures, which led to a White House endorsement, an FCC investigation, and several pieces of legislation to allow for unlocking. He has spoken widely, since his time on the Hill he has spoken at the Consumer Electronics Show, South by Southwest, Conservative Political Action Conference, Princeton University, Freedom to Connect, and has made regular appearances on television. He is also a prolific writer, as a regular contributor to the National Review, Forbes, the Atlantic, Townhall, Daily Caller, and Human Events. He also has several law journal articles that will be published this spring. While only 25, Derek is considered to be an up and coming thought leader on technology policy. RSVP Required. more information on our website>

Work here: have a voice and change the world

Tuesday, April 16, 12:30pm ET, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St, 2nd Floor. This event will be webcast live.

Companies like Google and Twitter and Facebook are thought to provide some of the most envied work environments on the planet. These employers promise not only tons of "perks" but the opportunity to work collaboratively on incredibly important, intellectually challenging, and cool problems that matter. These employers also promise employees a real voice in the company through things like weekly all-hands where employees can ask top level executives tough questions and a generally flat corporate structure. These are high trust, high cooperation, open work environments and studies have shown they pay off -- employees work harder and companies do better. But should employees be worried that their trust in their employer, so purposefully cultivated, has been built on promises that are more illusion than enforceable promise? What happens when employees, enticed by these dream-like environments and promises of doing good, see their employer make choices that appear anything but? From unilateral and dramatic changes in working conditions (e.g. taking away work from home being only a recent example) to normatively-laden business decisions (e.g., entering oppressive regimes and handing over user data to them, using software patents offensively [or not], or even donating money to political candidates employees ideologically oppose), are these employers holding up their end of the bargain? Are employees really getting a voice that commands employer response? Some in the labor movement think these employers create nothing more than a mirage, that like the now-prohibited company unions of the past, these employers work to ensure workers feel a sense of ownership and voice but, when push comes to shove, have nothing the company cannot just as easily take away. Others, including many who work at these companies, disagree. This talk will outline the debate and try to make headway towards some answers. Heather Whitney is a Berkman fellow and J.D. candidate at Harvard Law School, where she heads up Submissions for the Journal of Law and Technology. RSVP Required. more information on our website>

Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) to launch at Boston Public Library

April 18-19, 2013, Boston, MA. This event will be webcast live.

On April 18-19, 2013, the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) will celebrate the groundbreaking work of hundreds of librarians, innovators, and other dedicated volunteers in our collective effort to build the first national digital library. The DPLA invites you to join them at the Boston Public Library for this historic event.

Convened by the DPLA Secretariat at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society and co-hosted by the Boston Public Library, the two-day DPLA Launch will include a brief working day on Thursday, April 18th, followed by a formal reception featuring presentations and a series of interactive exhibits showcasing content from our many partners, including the Digital Hubs and Europeana. On Friday, April 19th, the DPLA will convene a focused half-day plenary meeting highlighting the DPLA’s progress and potential.

Registration for the DPLA Launch is required and is free and open to all. The DPLA invites all those interested from the general public, the educational community, public and research libraries, cultural organizations, state and local government, the creative community, publishers, and private industry to attend the launch.

For those unable to attend in-person, please note that the working meetings, public plenary, and portions of the reception will be livestreamed and/or recorded. The DPLA encourages participation via Twitter, Facebook, and other social tools (hashtag: #dpla).

Limited scholarships to support participation in the DPLA Launch are available for those who are traveling from rural and distant areas. Scholarship amounts will vary, but are intended to apply to travel and accommodation costs for out-of-town participants. Preference will be given to applicants who have not yet attended a DPLA event.

You are encouraged to share this announcement widely with your networks. Please don't hesitate to be in touch with the DPLA Secretariat (dpla@cyber.harvard.edu) if you have any questions.

About the Digital Public Library of America

The DPLA is taking the first concrete steps toward the realization of a large-scale digital public library that will make the cultural and scientific record available to all. This impact-oriented research effort unites leaders from all types of libraries, museums, and archives with educators, industry, and government to define the vision for a digital library in service of the American public. Registration Required. Register now or find more information on the DPLA website>

Dan Gillmor on Permission Taken

Once, personal technology and the Internet meant that we didn't need permission to compute, communicate and innovate. Now, governments and tech companies are systematically restricting our liberties, and creating an online surveillance state. In many cases, however, we're letting it happen, by trading freedom for convenience and (often the illusion of) security. In this talk, Dan Gillmor—a founding director of the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication—suggests steps we can take as individuals to be more secure and free, and to take back the permissions we're losing. video/audio on our website>

RB210: The New Knowledge Worker

As high school and college students transition into a knowledge economy they face both advantages and challenges with how they find information and engage with co-workers as teammates. As a recent study of US employers and recent college graduates discovered, some young hires are pretty good at finding out information online and through social networks, but experience significant difficulty with traditional methods of finding answers — going through bound reports, picking up the phone, or researching with groups. The study, How College Graduates Solve Information Problems Once They Join the Workplace, was conducted by Project Information Literacy, and part of a series of studies supported by the Berkman Center and the Institute for Museum and Library Services to discover how research behavior is changing. David Weinberger spoke with Berkman Fellow and director of Project Information Literacy Alison Head about her research. video/audio on our website>