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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Nesson and Zittrain teach Internet Law at HLS
Reflections by longtime cyberlaw teacher Professor Charles Nesson on his teaching technique for winter term Internet Law with fellow Professor Jonathan Zittrain.
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Getting your facts straight: the UMass Patriot Act hoax
There’s a fascinating story to unravel related to the made-up account of a UMass student who claimed to have gotten a visit from the Department of Homeland Security as a result of having borrowed Mao’s Little Red Book via interlibrary loan. After a fair amount of ink on the matter, the student admitted recently that…
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Meeting Dave
It was several years ago this time, over the winter holiday break, that I first met Dave Winer. He came well-introduced and with an extraordinary record of accomplishment behind (and, as it turned out, ahead) of him. We met in the unheated Berkman conference room in a dark building, with all the sane academics burrowed…
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The old becoming new in search
J.D. Amer of Lopico and beyond writes: “Perhaps this is what web2.0 really means, the building of an entirely new information retrevial system based on humans and social interaction. Old methods are new again.”
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Open Standards in Massachusetts: Summary of Remarks
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is making history by considering a policy that would ensure the long-term integrity of our data. The importance of this process cannot be overstated. The implications of a policy that supports the development and implementation of open standards, if done right, would have substantial positive implications over the long run, here…
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Open development of Open Document Format testimony
Today I am finalizing what I will say tomorrow morning at the Massachusetts State House’s forum on the Open Document Format procurement policy issue. It’ll be held from 10 – 12 noon in the Senate Reading Room. I’m trying to read and listen to as many sources as I can in writing up what I’ll…
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New study on recommendations and digital media sales
A new Berkman/Gartner study on the power of recommendations and the impact on digital media sales, by Mike McGuire and Derek Slater, is to be published today.
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Internet and Democracy 2005 (IS2K5): Day 3
The final day of our three-day swing through the UK, the second annual Global Voices conference, was invigorating. The team of 75+ who assembled — bloggers and editors from around the world, actor Richard Dreyfuss, academics like us, the executives from Reuters and foundations like MacArthur and Soros who are supporting it — comprise an…
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Internet and Democracy 2005 (IS2K5): Day 2
Today we’re 50 miles south of Oxford, in London, near Paddington, for a small-group session on Internet, filtering, blogging, and human rights. It’s amazing group that brings some of the global voices crowd — gathered here for GV II tomorrow — together with human rights activists and technologists from the OpenNet Initiative. The idea is…
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Internet and Democracy 2005 (IS2K5): Day 1
Today starts a three-day swing through the UK by those of us at the Berkman Center who work on issues related to Internet & democracy. * Today, we’re with our partners at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) with about 25 scholars and activists who work on e-Participation. The events officially kicked off with a public…
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"The Genre of Podcasting and releasing Top 10 Sources
In a non-Berkman project, I’ve been working with an exceptional team of people to create something I think is cool: Top 10 Sources, which we are releasing today. One of the unexpected parts of developing this site was Dan Bricklin’s work in writing up a piece on “The Genre of Podcasting” — an unexpected bonus,…
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Three insights from Brad Smith of MSFT
Live blogged notes of a lecture and discussion with Brad Smith, Microsoft’s General Counsel, at the Berkman Center at HLS.