Upcoming Events: Economic Inequality and Technology: How Knowledge Sharing Helps (5/12); Wind Farm (5/16)

Economic Inequality and Technology: How Knowledge Sharing Helps

Tuesday, May 12, 12:00pm ET, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St, 2nd Floor. This event will be webcast live.

Today we feel the impact of technology everywhere except in our paychecks. In the past, technological advancements dramatically increased wages, but during the last three decades, the median wage has remained stagnant. Machines have taken over much of the work of humans, destroying old jobs while increasing profits for business owners. The threat of ever-widening economic inequality looms, but in his new book, Learning by Doing: The Real Connection Between Innovation, Wages, and Wealth, James Bessen argues that it is not inevitable. Workers can benefit by acquiring the knowledge and skills necessary to implement rapidly evolving technologies. Sharing knowledge is an important part of that process, including via open standards and employee job-hopping.

At this event, Bessen will have a conversation with Berkman Faculty Associate Karim Lakhani about knowledge sharing, past and present, about government policies that discourage sharing, and about the broader issue of slow wage growth.

James Bessen studies the economics of innovation and patents. He has also been a successful innovator and CEO of a software company. Currently, Mr. Bessen is Lecturer in Law at the Boston University School of Law. Karim R. Lakhani is an Associate Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School and the Principal Investigator of the Crowd Innovation Lab and NASA Tournament Lab at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science. RSVP Required. more information on our website>

Wind Farm: Internet Offline Simulation Event

Saturday, May 16, 9:30-4:00, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St.

Have you ever been in a situation where there was no functioning mobile phone service or Internet? Maybe it was during an emergency situation or caused by a force of nature... or perhaps you were in a part of the world where communication services are expensive, hard to find or just not available...or maybe you are you are frustrated with how dependent you are on Verizon, AT&T, Starbucks Wifi, and the like.

If any of these descriptions applies to you, and you would like to start building your skills and knowledge of solutions, then the Wind Farm's Internet Offline Simulation day is for you. This free workshop will include hands-on trainings and talks on both existing and under development apps and services that you can use on your own devices to connect with people around you directly without using the Internet. We'll be out on the Harvard campus, using these tools to practice and role-play a variety of situations and events. Through playing games and hands-on learning, we will share ideas about how to build more types of nearby networks in more places, used and operated by more people and communities.

Wind Farm's Internet Offline Simulation is a fun and interactive day for people of all ages and backgrounds. The only requirement is an open mind and optimistic view of what might be possible. You can be part of helping shape and design what we are calling "Wind", the offline counterpart to the Web, that is free, plentiful and unblockable.

The Guardian Project creates easy to use secure apps, open-source software libraries, and customized mobile devices that can be used around the world by any person looking to protect their communications and personal data from unjust intrusion, interception and monitoring. RSVP Required. more information on our website>

Guide to U.S. Government Practice on Global Information Sharing, Second Edition

Tuesday, May 19, 12:00pm ET, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St, 2nd Floor. This event will be webcast live.

The recently published, “Guide to U.S. Government Practice on Global Sharing of Personal Information, Second Edition”, provides an introduction to the principles, practices, and agreements behind how the U.S. government shares personal information with foreign governments - for purposes ranging from tax to counter terrorism and cyber-crime. This information sharing is not only necessary to strengthen relations with foreign governments but to protect the country from threats, foreign and domestic. In the past year, these issues have been most readily visible in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations and the renegotiation of the Safe Harbor Framework.

John Kropf has worked in privacy and information law and policy since 1995. He serves as the Corporate Privacy Executive for Northrop Grumman. Neal Cohen is a New York and English qualified lawyer in the Privacy & Security practice group at Perkins Coie LLP and a research fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. RSVP Required. more information on our website>

Frank Pasquale on The Black Box Society

Does the increasing velocity, variety, and volume of data make regulators' jobs harder or easier? Some say we are entering a "golden age of surveillance," enabling perfect enforcement of laws. But Frank Pasquale's book The Black Box Society argues that, at least in areas like privacy, antitrust, and financial regulation, big data can also enable obfuscation, stonewalling, and even fraud. video/audio on our website>