Student Projects

All HLS students seeking credit for the iLaw Program must complete a final project. We’d developed four options, which are listed below and include written, oral, participatory, or video projects. All students are encouraged, although not required, to work in teams. Please let us know what assignment you choose via the sign-up page or by emailing ilaw@cyber.law by Friday, September 2nd.

Please take care in noting the deadlines or respective timeframes for completing projects.

More information regarding the projects will be made available as we approach September 6th.

Option A. Session Participation and In the Moment Technologies

Deep dialogue, hard questions and genuine interactivity are fundamental to the success and mode of the iLaw Program. Participants will be invited to engage with sessions in diverse ways throughout the program—from the wiki to the question tool, open Q&A, structured interposals, open space and invited conversation.

These participants will help us to embed uncertainty and dynamic interplay in the sessions, and help to create genuine opportunities to challenge and test ideas.

They will:

• Choose a session of interest, along with up to 5 other students.
• During the session, you and your team will take charge of the question tool, monitor back channels and help identify key questions and priority issues. You will help the session leader to integrate them into the Q&A periods and other parts of the discussion. You may also document some questions that might be useful during the final “Future of the Internet” session on Friday, September 9th.

9-3 Update: Due to the large amount of interest in this session, we have "closed" certain sessions for Project A Sign-ups. Please see the Sign-up Page to see which sessions are open. Spots in these sessions will be awarded on a first-come first-served basis.

New responsibility (updated 9-1): After the session, please provide a 2-3 paragraph summary of the key thematic areas, open questions, etc. This summary should be posted to the relevant Talk Page and shared with ilaw@cyber.law.harvard.edu. It may become a permanent part of wiki or other outputs from iLaw 2011.

Sign-up Page

Option B. Audio/Video Project

For students with some knowledge/experience with audio/video production, we would be happy to have you record some portion of the proceedings (including interviews with key commentators, session leads and other contributors) and create a multi-media output. This might be a record of the program overall, a deeper dive into a certain topic, etc. Berkman staff may provide some (modest) production support. All final work products are due by the Friday, October 7th.

Note from Charlie Nesson: I'm hoping to do some informal video interviews during ilaw and would welcome student help. i need a soundperson, a relief camera person, and help cutting things together. nesson at gmail.com

9-2 Update in response to questions: For this project, we'd like students to choose a session(s) or topic(s) that they are interested in exploring and write up a project "pitch" for us, explaining their approach to the assignment (what they'd like to cover, identify anyone in particular they might interview, describe how they envision the final product, etc) before next Tuesday. The pitch does not need to be extremely detailed (a few paragraphs will suffice); but, if you choose this project, we'd like to have an idea of what you have in mind. Once we've evaluated and approved the pitch, to the extent that coordination is necessary we can put you in touch with the necessary people to get things moving. If you have any questions about this assignment, please email us: ilaw@cyber.law.harvard.edu.

Sign-up Page

Option C. Final Presentation: Lightning Talk, Provocation, Response Statement

The 2:00-3:30 PM session on Friday afternoon is allotted for student and participant presentations. Audience members who sign up will have 5-10 minutes to provide substantive reflections on the iLaw sessions and the program overall, or offer central issues for the faculty to answer/consider during the “Future of the Internet” discussion. They might also provide a deeper dive into a particular module or interesting case for further study, etc. The focus here would be on developing a short and creative presentation or statement, to be followed by brief and lightly moderated Q&A with the broader audience.

Sign-up Page

Option D. Written Output: Post-iLaw Reflections

In the wake of the program, and in particular, in light of the “Future of the Internet session,” you will provide a reaction statement or op-ed style piece--no longer than 900 words—that examines some of the hard problems at the core of the developing online space. You might choose to reflect on the evolution of traditional concepts such as privacy, security, and liberty, and their evolution in the online space, or to consider emerging issues that may confirm or challenge some of the core themes that were touched on in our discussion. You could also make the case for other themes, issues, or hard questions that require more attention in future iLaws. The best pieces will be posted to the iLaw wiki. All final work products are due by Friday, October 7th. Please submit your assignment by emailing ilaw@cyber.law, and cc'ing Lisa Carlavati: a2jz@law.harvard.

Sign-up Page