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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Kaye Trammell on what you can't blog in class
An assumption-challenging blog entry about how blogging in the classroom might change the way teachers and students interrelate. I don’t wholly agree with her use of the term “censorship” but I like the re-think it provokes. (You can take it up with Kaye and other educators at BloggerCon this weekend, if you’re coming to Cambridge).
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Michael Best on WiFi, in Digital Democracy class
Michael Best, fellow at the Berkman Center and longtime MIT Media Lab development expert, is talking about WiFi in the developing countries context today here in Hauser 104 at Harvard Law School. He’s wonderfully skeptical, yet also hopeful about how we might use technology to “democratize” not only “consumers” but also “providers.” “VoIP is a killer app,” he says, “and we want…
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Coverage of alternative compensation systems idea
The idea of an alternative compensation system for digital music in the Internet context continues to provoke strong opinions: consider Dan Kennedy’s piece in the Boston Phoenix (part of a long special report on digital music) and one by Jefferson Graham in USA Today as well. If you are interested in seeking to refine such a system,…
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Do not call list decision -> spam
Yesterday’s quite suprising decision by a federal district court judge in Oklahoma City adverse to the kick-off of the “do not call” list (with the House voting 412 – 8 to reinstate it this morning) must have caught the attention of those working on the spam problem. If a “do not call” list passed by Congress can’t withstand legal challenge…
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Jorge Contreras of Hale and Dorr spoke at lunchtime at Berkman
We had the pleasure of welcoming Jorge Contreras, a leading cyberlawyer and Vice-Chair of the Internet and E-commerce group at the firm of Hale and Dorr, to the Berkman Center yesterday for a talk on online liability as part of our speaker series. Wendy Koslow, our program coordinator, took notes (which was particularly good for me, since…
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Class 2.1: Online Transactions
Class notes from our Online Transactions discussion in Cyberlaw and the Global Economy are posted; on to Business Models for this coming week, with two terrific guests, Jeffrey Cunard and Bruce Keller, Esqs., from Debevoise & Plimpton. Messrs Cunard and Keller are leading practictioners in the Internet law field, with extensive cross-border experience, and recently taught a…
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Reactions to Alternative Compensation System proposals
A few thoughtful (though not exactly supportive) reax to Terry Fisher‘s Alternative Compensation System, from Dave Winer (via here) and Richard Tallent (more here). Dave calls it “brilliant” but “unworkable because it’s unfair.” Derek Slater had insight earlier in the week, as did Ernest, on similar topics. I agree with one thing in the posts listed here…
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Heat from Digital Media conference
Derek Slater explores EFF positions on regulation and the music industry, which seems to have generated some heat. Central to Derek’s position: “…I appreciate what the EFF’s doing. I like the idea of getting a CL [Compulsory Licensing system] on the table because I think P2P sharing isn’t going to go away; that DRM is a…
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Lawyers as snobs
A very nice rant on lawyers and snobbery over at Civil Procedure (despite the dig at HLS summer associates — justified or not, I’m not sure) with some back-and-forth at EthicalEsq. “Our profession worships credentials.” Prof. Bainbridge picks up the thread and extends the argument from the legal profession to legal academics, in which he…
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Digital Media in Cyberspace
Today, we’re dug in — as we are on many days — to the Digital Media problem. We’ve got about 100 guests, largely from the technology and media industries, and two partners (Gartner|G2 and IBM) in hosting a conference on this topic. There’s a very live feel to the topic, no doubt a result of the sense that…
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Video link to Johannesburg in DigDem class today
Right now, for the second session of Digital Democracy at Harvard Law School, we’re linked up from Austin Hall East in Cambridge, MA, with a group of African experts on Internet Service Providers gathered (after midnight, their time, which is terribly generous of them) in Johannesburg, South Africa. The idea of the class is to…
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Support for students using weblogs in class: Thursdays
For students using weblogs in classes like Digital Democracy and Cyberlaw and the Global Economy, one way to get support is to come to Thursday evening meetings at Baker House, the Berkman Center‘s home, at 1587 Massachusetts Avenue, at 7:00 p.m. virtually every week. (A question for the education policy and technology types: how should…


