Civic Technologies and the Future of the Internet

Jonathan Zittrain, Professor, Harvard Law School
Co-Founder and Faculty Co-Director, Berkman Center for Internet & Society
May 4, 2009

In cooperation with the Rockefeller Center

Abstract

Harvard law professor and author Jonathan Zittrain discusses the unusual and distinctive technologies whose power increases in proportion to the people participating in them, contrasted with other technologies that leverage what the few can impose on the many, whether a PC virus maker who crashes millions of machines or a law enforcement officer who can use new consumer platforms to spy without needing help from (m)any private parties.

This talk will discuss the prospects for a new generation of civic technologies to maintain the amazingly productive chaos of the Internet.

Bio

Jonathan Zittrain is Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, where he co-founded its Berkman Center for Internet & Society. Previously he was Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation at Oxford University. His research interests include battles for control of digital property and content, cryptography, electronic privacy, the roles of intermediaries within Internet architecture, and the useful and unobtrusive deployment of technology in education. He performed the first large-scale tests of Internet filtering in China and Saudi Arabia in 2002, and now as part of the OpenNet Initiative he has co-edited a study of Internet filtering by national governments, "Access Denied: The Practice and Policy of Global Internet Filtering." His book "The Future of the Internet -- And How to Stop It" was just released from Yale University Press and Penguin UK -- and under a Creative Commons license. Papers may be found at <http://www.jz.org>.

• Presentation slides [PDF]