Berkman Center Events & Webcasts

Berkman Center Luncheon Series
Guest: Marvin Ammori, General Counsel of Free Press
Topic: “Network Neutrality and the FCC’s Internet Policy Statement: Biased Thoughts from a Lawyer Working with SavetheInternet.com & Free Press”

Friday, December 7, 12:30 pm
Berkman Center Conference Room
23 Everett St., 2nd Floor, Cambridge MA

From Marvin:

I have some thoughts and lingering questions about the role of the FCC’s Internet Policy Statement, which is not an enforceable rule, in the regulatory and legislative battles over network neutrality. This Policy Statement has been central to debates in which my organization has been actively involved—including debate over the 2006 Snowe-Dorgan amendment to legislate network neutrality, major telecommunications mergers, potential state network neutrality regulation, and the Comcast-BitTorrent controversy. I would like to discuss its central role in these debates, the many questions it fails to answer or even pose, and what role I believe the Policy Statement should play.

Background: Since the mid-1990s, scholars, legislators, and the public have debated the merits of network neutrality, and the various regulatory means of attempting to ensure network neutrality. Until 2005, those favoring neutral networks advocated for open access and Title-II-like regulations. In 2005, the FCC rejected open access and Title II, but adopted an unenforceable Internet Policy Statement meant to guide the FCC’s future policy-making activities. This Policy Statement declared, among other things, that consumers were entitled to access the applications and content of their choice. The Policy Statement’s effectiveness, methods of “enforcement,” and very meaning have all remained contested, even while the Statement plays an instrumental role in determining the internet’s future.

About Marvin

Marvin Ammori is the General Counsel of Free Press, which is the Coordinator of the SaveTheInternet.com campaign. Free Press was instrumental in making network neutrality a publicly debated issue, and its policy team has been deeply involved in a range of media and internet issues, including network neutrality, media ownership limits, white spaces regulation, and universal service for broadband. Before joining Free Press, Marvin was outside counsel to Free Press and other public interest media advocacy groups as a staff attorney for the Institute for Public Representation at Georgetown University Law Center. Marvin graduated from HLS in 2003, and worked on JOLT.

Links

Free Press: http://www.freepress.net/

Webcast

This event will be webcast live. Webcast viewers can join the discussion through IRC text chat or in the virtual world Second Life. If you miss the live chat, catch the podcast audio & video at MediaBerkman.

RSVP is required, as space is limited. To RSVP, please send an email to rsvp@cyber.law.harvard.edu by December 6 at 12:00PM.

Berkman Center Luncheon Series

Tuesday, October 30, 12:30 PM
Berkman Center Conference Room
23 Everett St., 2nd Floor, Cambridge MA

Guest: Eszter Hargittai of Northwestern University
Topic: “ Digital Na(t)ives? Skill and Internet Use”

Based on a unique data set on young adults’ Internet uses, skills and participation, this talk will look at differences in daily digital media uses by type of user background. While all young adults in the sample regularly use the Internet, there are systematic variations in their familiarity with the Web and who does what online. In addition to exploring the relationship of socioeconomic factors and Internet usage, the talk also considers the important mediating role of skill in what people do online.

About Eszter

Eszter Hargittai is Assistant Professor of Communication Studies and Sociology, and Faculty Associate of the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University where she heads the Web Use Project. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Princeton University where she was a Wilson Scholar. She spent the 2006-07 academic year as a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.

Her research focuses on the social and policy implications of information technologies with a particular interest in how IT may contribute to or alleviate social inequalities. Her research projects have looked at differences in people’s Web-use skills, the evolution of search engines and the organization and presentation of online content, political uses of information technologies, and how IT are influencing the types of cultural products people consume. Her current work is funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the National Science Foundation.

Webcast

This event will be webcast live. Webcast viewers can join the discussion through IRC text chat or in the virtual world Second Life. If you miss the live chat, catch the podcast audio & video at MediaBerkman.

RSVP is required, as space is limited. To RSVP, please send an email to  rsvp at cyber.law.harvard.edu by October 29 at 12:00PM.

Berkman Center Luncheon Series

Tuesday, September 25, 12:30 pm
Berkman Center Conference Room
23 Everett Street, Second Floor, Cambridge, MA

Guest: Michael Maier
Topic:  Participation, Design, Search: How the Internet is Transforming

Network publishing has become a popular way to inspire journalism on the Internet. Digital Magazines are starting to pick up – by bringing editorial structure and integrated publishing. Search will not remain Google’s monopoly. The Internet is transforming from an experimental space to a quite mature and professional platform. The next generation (which is today’s) of innovation will introduce more sustainable models and hence change the old media much more than the shockwaves of Web 1.0.

Michael Maier, founder and CEO of the German company Blogform Publishing, was previously the Shorenstein Center’s Sagan Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Michael, an Austrian born journalist, has worked as editor for Die Presse, a Vienna daily, for Berliner Zeitung, Stern magazine and Netzeitung, Germany’s first newspaper exclusively published on the internet. Maier also worked as a columnist for the Austrian daily, Der Standard, and is a regular lecturer at the journalism schools in Graz and Vienna. He graduated from Graz University with a degree in law and music. Maier’s research at the Shorenstein Center examined the changes in the media industry and in politics due to blogs, user-generated content, social media and Internet newspapers.

Play Music Magazine: http://www.playmusicmagazine.com
Reader’s Edition: http://www.readersedition.de
People Digital Mag: http://fall.people.com

This event will be webcast live. Webcast viewers can join the discussion through IRC text chat or in the virtual world Second Life. If you miss the live chat, catch the podcast audio & video at MediaBerkman. Unfortunately, we are no longer taking RSVPs for this event, so we encourage you to join us online via the webcast.

Tuesday, May 1, 12:30 pm
Berkman Center Conference Room
23 Everett Street, Second Floor, Cambridge, MA

Guest: Tony Ferraro and David Stone
Topic: Applications of Social Networking Technology to Medical Treatment

Social networks on the Internet are relatively new. Facebook was launched just a few years ago at Harvard, for example. Social networking technology is now finding application in a range of areas including business, education and in medical applications. Global corporations are using it to deliver the right information to the right people at the right time, tailored to their specific needs. This technology is also being implemented to help medical staff serve refugee populations such as those served by Richard Mollica, MD of the Harvard Trauma Center. (Author of Healing Invisible Wounds)

The Berkman Center is proud to have the opportunity to host a presentation by Tony Ferraro, President and CEO of 360Hubs and Dr. David Stone, a practicing psychologist, former Harvard Fellow in computer science and now a Visiting Scholar in GSAS who will speak about applications of social networking technology to the treatment of trauma survivors. Mr. Ferraro and Dr. Stone are currently working on a project that integrates the technology developed by Professor Ron Deibert’s team in Toronto, social networking technology from Mr. Ferraro’s company, and best practices in the treatment of trauma survivors (such as those at Virginia Tech), torture survivors and refugee populations.

This event will be webcast live. Webcast viewers can join the discussion through IRC text chat or in the virtual world Second Life. For information about our event webcasts and remote participation. If you miss the live chat, catch the podcast audio & video at MediaBerkman. Lunch is provided to those who RSVP. Please email rsvp at cyber.law.harvard.edu

University: Knowledge Beyond Authority
Internet & Society Conference 2007
Lead Up Event

Monday, April 30
12:30 pm – Berkman Center Conference Room
23 Everett St., Cambridge, MA

The role and mission of libraries is to collect, organise, preserve and make available the world’s cultural and scientific heritage for current and future generations. Publicly funded libraries operating for the public benefit support access to knowledge, as well as education and training, critical to developing nations whose human resource is central to their advancement. Digital technologies are transforming the way that libraries work. What new opportunities are being created? What challenges do we face and how is eIFL.net addressing them?

Teresa Hackett runs eIFL-IP “Advocacy for Access to Knowledge: copyright & libraries”, a programme to raise awareness in copyright issues for libraries in 50 developing and transition countries. The goal is to build capacity and expertise amongst the eIFL.net library community and to represent the interests of members in key international policy fora such as WIPO, UNESCO and the WTO. Previously, Teresa was the Director of the European library association (EBLIDA), provided technical support to the European Commission library research programme and was part of the team to establish electronic information centres at the British Council Germany. Teresa is currently an Expert Resource Person on the Copyright and Other Legal Matters Committee of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA-CLM). She is a chartered librarian and in 2004 completed a post-graduate diploma in legal studies at the Dublin Institute of Technology. Teresa is a native English speaker and speaks Irish, German and Dutch.

Please note, RSVP is required to attend this event – simply send an email to [rsvp at cyber.law.harvard.edu]

This event will be webcast live. Webcast viewers can join the discussion through IRC text chat or in the virtual world Second Life. If you miss the live chat, catch the podcast audio & video at MediaBerkman. Lunch is provided to those who RSVP. Please email rsvp at cyber.law.harvard.edu