Berkman Buzz: January 31, 2014

In less than a month, my new book – “It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens” - will be published. This is the product of ten years worth of research into how social media has inflected American teen life. If you’ve followed this blog for a while, you’ve seen me talk about these issues over the years. Well, this book is an attempt to synthesize all of that work into one tangible artifact.

Now I have a favor…. please consider pre-ordering a copy (or two ). Pre-sales and first week sales really matter in terms of getting people’s attention. And I’m really hoping to get people’s attention with this book. I’ve written it to be publicly accessible in the hopes that parents, educators, journalists, and policy makers will read it and reconsider their attitude towards technology and teen practices. The book covers everything from addiction, bullying, and online safety to privacy, inequality, and the digital natives debate.

new blog post: "Sharp Suits, Warm Beer: Guinness, Sapeurs and the Seduction of Congolese Fashion" http://t.co/MFn3vspwvZ
—Ethan Zuckerman (@ethanz)

The annual Summer Doctoral Programme (SDP) is one of the highlights of the OII's year. It brings together outstanding doctoral students from around the world for a fortnight of study with OII faculty and colleagues in a multi-disciplinary environment that aims to provide constructive advice and support for students' doctoral thesis research. Although students are together for only a brief two weeks of intensive teaching and learning, the peer-groups established endure over the years and deliver concrete examples of research collaboration via publications, conference panels and grant applications.

The program is accepting applications through February 24, 2014.

Google just bought a new Artificial Intelligence firm, DeepMind.

In a nutshell, DeepMind is a Singularity-inspired (see co-founder Shane Legg’s talk at 2010 Singularity Summit) and London-based AI firm. This is reported to be a talent aquisition.

Founded by neuroscientists, DeepMind’s goal is to create computers that can function as human brains. Legg sees this happenning by 2013 – of course, in the process of making intelligent machines, they also wonder about what exactly is intelligence, and how to measure it (see Legg’s paper here).

On December 19, 2013, the French Loi de Programmation Militaire (the Military Program law, or "LPM"), was enacted. Article 20 of the LPM, which will come into force on January 1, 2015, authorizes the government to require Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and web hosts to provide "information and documents processed or stored," including geolocation data and metadata in real time, without having to first ask for an authorization from a judge. The new law raises serious questions regarding separation of powers and the extent of administrative authority in France.

What I learned from a 185 mile walk across New Hampshire. http://ow.ly/t9xcz #NHRebellion
—Larry Lessig (@lessig)

The Ukrainian Parliament voted on January 28, 2014 to revoke nine of the 11 controversial so-called “dictatorship laws“, which were meant to stifle the ongoing Euromaidan protests in the country, only twelve days after they were brought into law by the very same Parliament.

Ukrainians and the international community, however, still seem to be displeased with the results, and while the the country's Prime Minister Nikolay Azarov and his cabinet resigned on the same day, protesters are still in the streets of several Ukrainian cities and opposition leaders say protests will continue until key demands are met.