Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society: Audio Fishbowl

Universities are drowning in data, not only data produced by their researchers and students, but also data they collect about their communities. Research data are subject to sharing and retention requirements by funding agencies and journals. Data from course management systems, faculty personnel records, security cameras, and social media are being used as indicators for […]

Listen:or download | …also in Ogg Want to create artificially intelligent machines? Want to find aliens? You might want to try talking to nature first. Philosophers, animal behaviorists, and scientists have worked for decades to get animals to speak “human.” Researchers have even cohabited with primates and dolphins to see if they could somehow connect. […]

Fresh from a party, a teen posts a photo on Facebook of a friend drinking a beer. A college student repurposes an article from Wikipedia for a paper. A group of players in a multiplayer online game routinely cheat new players by selling them worthless virtual accessories for high prices. How do youth, and the […]

The world is witnessing a massive expansion of Chinese telecommunications reach and influence, powered entirely by users choosing to participate in it. In Usage of the mobile messaging app WeChat (微信 Weixin), for example, has skyrocketed not only inside China, but outside, as well. Due to these systems being built upon proprietary protocols and software, […]

Listen:or download | …also in Ogg Not long ago, illegally downloading a movie could land you in court facing millions of dollars in fines and jailtime. But Hollywood has begun to weather the storm by offering alternatives to piracy — same day digital releases, better streaming, higher quality in-theater experiences — that help meet some […]

Why do people create and innovate? And how does intellectual property law encourage, or discourage, the process? In this talk Jessica Silbey — Professor at Suffolk University Law School — discusses her recent book The Eureka Myth: Creators, Innovators, and Everyday Intellectual Property, which investigates the motivations and mechanisms of creative and innovative activity in […]

Countries, states & cities across the globe are embracing the idea of ‘open data’: establishing platforms, portals and projects to share government managed data online for re-use. Yet, right now, the anticipated civic impacts of open data rarely materialize, and the gap between the promise and the reality of open data remains wide. In this […]

One of the enduring issues in cyberspace is which laws apply to online activities. We see this most clearly today in the reaction to revelations about government surveillance: on one hand, individuals are increasingly seeking assurances that their content is protected from government overreach, while governments want to ensure they have access to information to […]

In 1787, British philosopher and social reformer Jeremy Bentham conceived of the panopticon, a ring of cells observed by a central watchtower, as a labor-saving device for those in authority. In French philosopher Michel Foucault’s groundbreaking 1975 study, Discipline and Punish, the panopticon became a metaphor to describe the creeping effects of personalized surveillance as […]

Do you have a name? More than one? Does it matter to you who knows it? As digital systems become more integrated into our lives, these questions are becoming very important. We’re in the midst of a literal identity crisis where your identity is quickly becoming, rather than something you define, a social construct that […]

Healthcare professionals worldwide often have extensive non-clinical skills in management, public health, policy, or other fields which are not officially recognized through a degree. In this talk, Rebecca Weintraub, MD — Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and Faculty Director of the Global Health Delivery Project at Harvard University — introduces the concept of digital […]

In 2012, U.S. drone strikes occurred most often in which nation? If you don’t know, you’re not alone. 27 percent of Americans reported they had no a clue and another 60 percent got it wrong. What should the media cover when it comes to drones and military robotics? And what responsibility do journalists have to […]

Learn more about the Berkman Center for Internet & Society — and its incredible network of researchers, activists, faculty, students, technologists, entrepreneurs, artists, policy makers, lawyers, and more — in an interactive conversation led by Faculty Chair Jonathan Zittrain. If you’re curious about connecting with our research, our community, or our events, or are just […]

How are inequality regimes challenged, or sometimes perpetuated, in online environments? In this talk Tressie McMillan Cottom — blogger, PhD candidate in the Sociology Department at Emory University, and PhD Intern at the Microsoft Research Network’s Social Media Collective — discusses inequality in online learning, based on qualitative research with students taking courses online at […]

Our online lives are organized by computer algorithms that select and recommend advertisements, search results, news, and online social interactions. These algorithms are often closely-guarded secrets kept by Internet companies. But researchers, users, and the public might legitimately need to know how these algorithms operate. In this talk, Christian Sandvig (University of Michigan), Karrie Karahalios […]