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
-
Khan Academy meets Phillips Academy
Sal Khan and his traveling team of six teachers and developers from Khan Academy are on campus at Phillips Academy this morning. We are delighted to welcome them to a special faculty meeting. We are pleased to welcome friends from the Andover public schools ( Superintendent Marinel McGrath and AHS Principal Christopher Lord), the Lawrence…
-
“Super late to the party: Dan Cohen & the DPLA”
Super late to the party: Dan Cohen & the DPLA. An enthusiastic take by Sarah Barbrow on Dan Cohen’s appointment as the founding executive director of the Digital Public Library of America, which I share.
-
Do We Still Need Libraries?
The New York Times is running one of its Room for Debate series on the future of libraries. The four debaters (so far) are Luis Herrera, director of the San Francisco Public Library (and a board member of the Digital Public Library of America); Susan Crawford, visiting professor at Harvard Law School; Buffy J. Hamilton,…
-
Concussion: Returning the Student Athlete Back to Life, with Dr. Gerard Gioia
Tonight at the Phillips Academy faculty meeting, we are talking with Dr. Gerard Gioia of the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC. The purpose of this discussion is to ensure that we are adopting best practices to protect our students from traumatic brain injury (TBI), or concussions, and that we have sound policies and…
-
Claude Steele’s Whistling Vivaldi: And Other Clues to How Stereoptypes Affect Us
Book page for Claude Steele, Whistling VivaldiTonight in the faculty meeting at Phillips Academy, we will discuss Claude Steele’s Whistling Vivaldi. It’s an exceptionally good book on many levels. The social science is deep and revealing; the personal narratives are compelling; and the ideas for concrete action at schools are constructive. It seems fitting to be…
-
Mimi Ito Comes to Andover
This morning, Prof. Mizuko (Mimi) Ito is at Phillips Academy, Andover, to lead us, as a faculty, in a community conversation to start off the year. Mimi is setting forth the core data and arguments behind Connected Learning, which is our professional development theme at Andover for the year. She has us all on an…
-
New post on a new blog
With thanks to my friends at Phillips Academy and the Berkman Center, I’ve got a new look to my old blog. I’m excited to write my first post to try it out, on the day when all the Phillips Academy faculty return from the summer (welcome back, colleagues!) for our Convocation ceremony together tonight in…
-
New Heads of School Institute (Part II)
We are half-way through the Institute for New Heads of Schools. (This is the second of two posts on this topic; the earlier post is here.) I’ve been looking forward to the first session this morning, led by James P. Honan, senior lecturer on education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. I’ve been an…
-
New Heads of School Institute (Part I)
Last week was my first as head of school at Phillips Academy, Andover. This week, I’m off campus with about 70 (yes, to my surprise: seven-zero) newly minted heads of independent schools for an institute (I am thinking about it as “camp” for new heads) hosted by the NAIS. It’s very well-organized and well-staffed —…
-
Book Experiment #2: Interop
Urs Gasser and I began a research project in 2005 to study Interoperability (Interop, for short). Our gameplan was to answer a straightforward question: do higher levels of interoperability lead to increased innovation? A few years and many case studies later, we had found a general correlation between more interop and more innovation in the…
-
Harvard Initiative on Learning and Teaching: Kick-Off
Today is the kick-off for the brand-new Harvard Initiative on Learning and Teaching (HILT). This is an extraordinary day at Harvard, part symposium and part working session to get HILT underway in earnest. The background: President Drew Faust and two of the university’s most loyal friends, Rita and Gustave Hauser, dreamed up a major new…