Technology and the Public Interest
Books, essays, and commentary from John Palfrey
Essays
Notes from AI Action Summit in Delhi, India, February 2026
Reflections on AI, governance, and the public interest from the AI Action Summit in Delhi.
Read essayConcord Free Public Library 150th Anniversary Celebration
Remarks on libraries, civic institutions, and the enduring importance of public knowledge.
Read essayInvesting in the Arts—in Chicago and Beyond
Thoughts on philanthropy, culture, and why investing in the arts matters for public life.
Read essayCommentary from John Palfrey
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Harvard Library Report
Over the past nine months or so, a group of us have worked on a Harvard-wide Task Force to consider our library systems. The report is being issued today by Harvard’s Provost, Steven E. Hyman, who chaired our Task Force. Over the next year-plus, we will be working to implement changes in five key areas…
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Dawn Nunziato's Virtual Freedom: Net Neutrality and Free Speech in the Internet Age
Dawn Nunziato, a law prof at George Washington University Law School, has written a helpful and interesting new book, entitled Virtual Freedom: Net Neutrality and Free Speech in the Internet Age. Her focus in “Virtual Freedom” is — as the subtitle suggests — free speech on the net, framed primarily for the current net neutrality…
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Love Your Library Fest Today, 2 – 5 p.m. at HLSL
The Harvard Law School Library invites students to come visit today during this year’s “Love Your Library Fest.” In addition to everything you’ll learn about the HLS Library, come over for free movie tickets and a raffle to win an iPod Touch.
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Managing Partners Weigh in on Impact of the Global Financial Crisis (Live-Blog)
At a workshop at Oxford University, HLS Prof. David Wilkins has convened the managing partners of some of the world’s leading law firms. Ted Burke of Freshfields, Simon Davies of Linklaters, Wim Dejonghe of Allen & Overy, Neville Eisenberg og Berwin Leighton Paisner, and Cyril Shroff of India’s Amarchand & Mangaldas are being interviewed by…
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Graduate Seminar on Research Methods on Internet & Society
Amid all the noise of the start of fall semester, Eszter Hargittai and I are launching a new experiment: a course taught jointly (and separately) at Northwestern University and at Harvard University on research methods in Internet & Society. We’ll post as much of the material as makes sense to a publicly-accessible wiki. Students can…
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New Harvard Law School Library Organizational Design
Over the past year, I’ve worked with my colleagues at the Harvard Law School Library, our Library Committee of faculty members, and many others to develop a new organizational design for the HLSL. It goes into effect today. The description of our new organizational form is posted to the Library’s blog, Et Seq. The future…
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Google Books Search Settlement Workshop
Join us in-person or online for the GBS Settlement Workshop at the Berkman Center today. There’s a webcast: webcast, Twitter stream (#gbsworkshop09), and IRC chat, with vibrant conversations going on. Lessig talking now, with an unadvertised-wow-we-are-lucky mini-keynote.
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Skype-ing into Summercore
This summer I’ve been occasionally doing video/audio Skype sessions with Steve Bergen’s Summercore program for teachers. It’s the first time with “distance ed” that I’ve felt the process is natural. The sessions are about a half-hour, focused mostly on issues related to youth media usage, with teachers on the other end asking questions. They’ve done…
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Google Books Settlement: Two Events
Tonight, the Boston Public Library is hosting an event on the GBS: July 21 at 6:00 p.m. at the BPL, moderated by Maura Marx of the Open Knowledge Commons. On July 31, we at the Berkman Center are hosting an open workshop on alternative futures for digitizing of books in the shadow of the GBS. …
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Hiring Empiricists at HLS Library
One of the new efforts underway at the Harvard Law School Library is providing support for the growing number of faculty who perform empirical research. It’s something that a few other libraries have begun to do, and we think it’s a great idea. After a successful pilot this past year (where we were swamped with…
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Daily Kos on Kids, Health and Politics
The Daily Kos has an interview with my mom, Dr. Judy Palfrey, about kids and health care reform. My mom has recently been elected president of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
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The Future of Education: Technology and How People Learn
No small issue on the agenda here at Aspen Ideas Festival — the future of education, technology, and how people learn — but the panel assembled is in fact up to the task. Connie Yowell (MacArthur Foundation, whose brainchild is the $50 million Digital Media and Learning initiative), Howard Gardner (Harvard Graduate School of Education),…