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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The first message of a must-read blog
Christopher Lydon, one to whom we all should listen, has started a blog. This will be one to watch. Next stop for XL: audio blogs.
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Roger responds to Worries
I think that Roger Fischer has answered my time-wasting question quite articulately. It pushes me to wonder if perhaps the point is that people who like to think “in the open” (a process-point, ultimately; this iterative process of decision-making takes time to work out answers but a) such a process may have merit on its own terms…
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DP Moynihan
A sad day. George Will, curiously enough, may have captured my feelings best in his Washington Post essay this morning. Among other insights, Will wrote of Sen. Moynihan: “His was the most penetrating political intellect to come from New York since Alexander Hamilton, who, like Moynihan, saw over the horizon of his time, anticipating the…
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Worries
Worries might be too strong a word. Some things that I wonder about with Weblogs: 1) Is more speech necessarily better (think also about what Habermas, Sunstein, Michelman et al. have said about similar questions)? 2) Is more speech of the sort that blogs enables necessarily better? 3) Can people who use the Net really sort through…
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Donna drafted for OSCOM
The OSCOM conference organizers have discovered one of the Berkman Center’s not-so-secret assets: the live-blogging capacity of Donna Wentworth. (She’s not alone in this business among the BCIS team, nor alone in being good at it, as Wendy seems to be hooked and gaining traction, too!).
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Terry Fisher's copyright talk
This is a must from the Rio iLaw. (As usual, Frank Field beat me to the punch. Darn it. Not fast enough on the draw yet.)
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OSCOM Conference registration is open
Check out the OSCOM-3 Web site. Rumor has it some terrific thinkers will have prominent speaking roles. I’m also hoping that we can make some progress on thinking through sustainable open source business models.
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John Perry Barlow, Gilberto Gil live
The first of the iLaw Webcasts is today, 4:00 p.m. Rio time. It’ll be Internet seer and Berkman fellow John Perry Barlow and Brazil’s Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil. They promise to make some interesting watching. It’s free and open. Tune in here.
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Quiet here
The Berkman Center today, unlike the rest of the world, is very quiet. Students are on Spring Break. Most of the staff and faculty are in Rio at iLaw, our week-long extravaganza for lawyers and non-lawyers alike. (BTW, one session of iLaw per day will be Webcast. No special access needed to watch it. Thanks to…
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Is the War "Legal"?
Things in international law are often incredibly hard to divine. It’s a fair and open question — “colorable”, as a lawyer might say — whether the US military action in Iraq is legal or illegal under international law. Jon Bonne of MSNBC — not a lawyer, but one of the smartest and most insightful people I’ve ever met and…
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AP story on rights
That Scalia story is here.
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Big Rights
The AP this morning quotes Justice Scalia as saying: “The Constitution just sets minimums,” Scalia said. “Most of the rights that you enjoy go way beyond what the Constitution requires.” Did I hear that right?