Technology and the Public Interest

Books, essays, and commentary from John Palfrey

Publications Subscribe

Books

Wired Wisdom

Buy Now

The Connected Parent

Buy Now

Born Digital

Buy Now

Commentary from John Palfrey

  • Wikimania is here!

    The excitement is mounting at Harvard Law School as the first attendees of Wikimania 2006 have begun to arrive. The Berkman Center is abuzz. The Phoenix wrote a preview and Tom Ashbrook, at WBUR’s On Point, took up the topic of Wikipedia today on the radio, with Jimbo Wales, among others, as a guest. (Of…

    Read more..

  • JZ's Groklaw FAQ (and law review article smoothie)

    Prof. Jonathan Zittrain has responded to the enormous outpouring of Groklaw reader comments to his paper on The Generative Internet with an FAQ posted back at Groklaw. For instance: wondering how Blackberries and other mobile devices fit into the picture of JZ’s argument about the PC lock-down future we face? Here’s an exchange that picks…

    Read more..

  • Nick Anstead's reax to Generativity

    Oxford Internet Institute SDP 2006 participant Nick Anstead has a reflective post on what he thinks JZ’s Generativity theory might mean. Nick points out some terrific problems it raises, then concludes (and I agree), “Generativity is a compelling and very attractive theory. As well as giving a compelling answer, I think it’s greatest strength is…

    Read more..

  • Following up on the RSS/Copyright debate

    In the past few weeks, I’ve gotten several fresh calls, four in fact (some out of the blue, some from people I know well) about RSS, aggregation, and copyright issues. I think the matter continues to have traction and importance. Two follow-ups: – I never managed, somehow, to see a very fine reply from Nathan…

    Read more..

  • Jump in on the Generative Internet debate

    Totally wild conversation on Groklaw regarding JZ’s paper on generativity in response to JZ’s “RFC”. The original paper, published recently in the Harvard Law Review, is here on SSRN.

    Read more..

  • China's Karaoke police, and dogs dancing jazz

    An extraordinary piece in the LAT, (via John Bracken), on the crackdown on free expression in China. The story’s lead, written by Mark Magnier, goes like this: “BEIJING — With their control over newspapers, television, magazines and the Internet secure, censors in China are now turning their attention to the dim recesses of the nation’s…

    Read more..

  • Hao Wu released

    Remarkably good news coming out of the GV community and beyond: the release of Hao Wu after five months in prison in China. (See Rebecca MacKinnon’s op-ed from April 20 in the Washington Post for more background.)  Congratulations to his family and to the international community of supporters who have been pulling for him all…

    Read more..

  • ONI Bulletin on Further China News Restrictions

    We at the OpenNet Initiative today released a bulletin on restrictions placed by the Chinese state on online news publishers. In summary: “China’s new regulations for Internet news content significantly tighten prior requirements that govern all news-related content transmitted through Internet-based technologies. The regulations target not only existing news organizations, but also individuals and groups…

    Read more..

  • Nicholas Carr review of JZ's Generative Internet piece

    A thoughtful review/critique, plus commentary, of Prof. Jonathan Zittrain’s Harvard Law Review article, The Generative Internet, on Nicholas Carr’s blog. Mr. Carr concludes, about JZ’s conclusions: “Zittrain concludes that the best course is to ‘try to maintain the fundamental generativity of the existing grid while taking seriously the problems that fuel enemies of the Internet…

    Read more..

  • Berkman Island in Second Life

    Rodica Buzescu is doing amazing things with the conversations taking place on Berkman Island in Second Life. The most recent event is a continuation of a great HBR article on marketings in MMOGs by Paul Hemp.

    Read more..

  • Jim Moore's Edge2.0 Top10

    Jim Moore, my partner in various efforts and a former Berkman fellow, wrote up his experience in creating his own Top10 list, which anyone can do as a public aggregator, and comparing Top10Sources and Technorati Top10 lists. My own Top10 is here. Another cool thing is the whole tree of OPML sites that Doc is…

    Read more..

  • "How to Make Money" BloggerCon session

    We didn’t start from scratch this morning in talking about how to make money session at BloggerCon IV, and I think the un-conference group made a lot of progress in exploring the topic. (Dave had duct tape over his mouth.) Dan Farber of ZDNet has got a rockin’ round-up of the session, complete with loads…

    Read more..