Upcoming Events: Wind Farm: Internet Offline Simulation Event (5/16); U.S. Government Practice on Global Information Sharing (5/19)

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>

BiblioTech: Why Libraries Matter More Than Ever In An Age of Google

Monday, June 22, 6:00pm ET, Harvard Law School. Reception to follow. Co-sponsored by the Harvard Law School Library.

John Palfrey will discuss his new book, BiblioTech: Why Libraries Matter More Than Ever In An Age of Google. He argues that anyone seeking to participate in the 21st century needs to understand how to find and use the vast stores of information available online. Libraries play a crucial role in making these skills and information available — and yet are at risk. In order to survive our rapidly modernizing world and dwindling government funding, libraries must make the transition to a digital future as soon as possible—by digitizing print material and ensuring that born-digital material is publicly available online, while continuing to play the vital role as public spaces in our democracy that they have for hundreds of years.

John Palfrey is the Head of School at Phillips Academy, Andover. He serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Knight Foundation and President of the Board of Directors of the Digital Public Library of America. He also serves as a director of the Data + Society Research Institute. John’s research and teaching focus on new media and learning. He has written extensively on Internet law, intellectual property, and the potential of new technologies to strengthen democracies locally and around the world. He is the author or co-author of several books, including BiblioTech: Why Libraries Matter More Than Ever in the Age of Google (Basic Books, 2015); Interop: The Promise and Perils of Highly Interconnected Systems (Basic Books, 2012) (with Urs Gasser); Intellectual Property Strategy (MIT Press, 2012); Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives (Basic Books, 2008) (with Urs Gasser); and Access Denied: The Practice and Politics of Global Internet Filtering (MIT Press, 2008). John served previously as the Henry N. Ess III Professor of Law and Vice Dean for Library and Information Resources at Harvard Law School. He is a director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, where he was executive director from 2002-2008. RSVP Required. more information on our website>

The Arab Networked Public Sphere: Social Mobilization Post-Revolutions

Researchers working with Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, the American University in Cairo’s Access to Knowledge for Development Center, Innova Tunisia and the Arab Policy Institute discuss current research conducted on the evolution of the networked public sphere and social mobilization post-revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia. The networked public sphere has emerged as an influential medium for sharing news, disseminating information, and mediating collective action. Many have pointed to the impact of digital media on politics and public affairs, particularly in promoting and coordinating popular protests. Digitally mediated collective action continues to play a prominent role in the political landscape in Egypt and Tunisia. Nevertheless, rigorous assessments of the networked public sphere’s impact, modalities, and relationship to collective action offline are still rare. In this session, we will present and discuss research that focuses on tracking and analyzing the socio-political topics in online content and their interplay with offline networks based on fieldwork research in Egypt and Tunisia. video/audio on our website>