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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PDF's Experts Weigh in on Internet & the Election of 2006
The Personal Democracy Forum has published a compilation of reax from Internet & politics types about what the 2006 cycle in the United States can tell us. You should always listen to Ethan Zuckerman (“there’s always something to talk about in an election”) and Chuck DeFeo (a consistently insightful commentator on the GOP’s use of…
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The FTC Shuts Down Team Taylor Made
Bravo to the FTC staff who won a decision to shut down Team Taylor Made, a spyware application that we highlighted earlier this year at StopBadware.org.
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Wired's Sneak Peek into ONI's Next Phase
We’ve just gathered a key subset of our global team of ONI researchers to review the filtering data we’ve gathered from around the world. WIRED’s Mark Anderson sat in on part of the meetings and has a sneak peek. We’ll have a book out on this topic come Springtime.
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2 Million More Young People Voted in 2006 than in 2002
Great initial news from CIRCLE: voter turnout among young people is way up in 2006. Hopefully it is a trend in the making. From their news release: “An estimated ten million young Americans under the age of 30 voted in Tuesday’s midterm elections, an increase of at least two million compared to 2002, according to…
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Boston Herald on Fashion Sites, including SF
Just post-relaunch of StyleFeeder, Kerry Purcell of the Boston Herald has a round-up piece on cool fashion sites, including SF. (Please see my disclosures regarding my role in Top Ten Media, Inc., the parent of SF.)
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StyleFeeder, Revisited
Congrats to Phil and team for the relaunch on StyleFeeder. A cool site just got a whole lot cooler. In addition to the new look, check out the ratings and recommendations features. (SF is part of the Top Ten Media family, of which I am chairman; updates as necessary at my disclosures page.)
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Academic Computing in Law Schools
I’ve got an op-ed in the National Law Journal this coming week on technology and the law school curriculum. It’s a hard problem. No law school has yet solved it.
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Tom Rubin comes to the Berkman Center and Practical Lawyering class
The chief copyright, trademark and trade secret lawyer for Microsoft, Tom Rubin, has been a consistent contributor to our teaching program at the Berkman Center for the past three years. He’s been enormously generous with his time, meeting with Berkman-related students, faculty and fellows over several years. We’ve learned a great deal from Tom and…
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The Day After: Got Democracy?
Confetti is still being swept up from the halls of Democratic victory parties across the country. In Massachusetts, the celebration has been a long time in coming. The election of Deval Patrick as governor — a first of several important kinds — is a shot in the arm to those tired of a state managed…
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Happy Election Day, and Come Blog the Vote at Berkman with BMG and others!
We’re delighted to welcome anyone blogging the vote today at the Berkman Center at Harvard Law School. The Blue Mass Group team have taken us up on it, live and in person, along with others swinging by, which is terrific. Seth Flaxman of Demapples was here until he had class. Anyone and everyone of any…
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Microsoft and Novell make a deal
In big interoperability news, Microsoft and Novell have entered into a deal to work together. Those are some interesting bedfellows. Much to unpack and understand. One insight, from ArsTechnica’s report: “From Microsoft’s standpoint, virtualization is a good thing, especially when Windows is the host operating system. A close linkage between Microsoft and Novell reinforces Microsoft’s…
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Interview with Urs Gasser
The Berkman communications team has been conducting a series of interviews with our fellows. The interviews are written up and posted to the Berkman website. The most recent interview is with Prof. Dr. Urs Gasser, a faculty fellow and the director of a research center at the University of St. Gallen. His center — along…