Berkman Center for Internet & Society

Berkman Luncheon Series

Changing the World of Changing the World: Pushing the Models of Online Organizing

Ben Wikler, Avaaz.org

Ben Wikler from Avaaz.org will discuss Avvaz.org's approach to online political organizing by nimbly aggregating small actions by individuals around the world into focused campaigns on issues like conflict, human rights, and climate change.

Berkman Luncheon Series

Skill Matters: The Role of User Savvy in Different Levels of Online Engagement

Eszter Hargittai, Berkman Fellow

Much enthusiasm surrounds the opportunities made available by digital media for people to express themselves and participate in the public sphere without having to go through traditional gatekeepers. While the enthusiasm about new opportunities is thus warranted, little is known about who is actually participating, who is not, and what participation patterns may imply for the democratizing potential of new tools and services. This talk draws on unique survey data collected in 2009 to explore these questions.

Online Discourse in the Arab World: Dispelling the Myths

at the United States Institute of Peace

The Internet & Democracy presents the Berkman Center's new research on the Arabic blogosphere, which analyzes over 10,000 blogs from 18 countries and which follows last year's "Mapping Iran’s Online Public: Politics and Culture in the Persian Blogosphere." The Arabic blogosphere findings will be discussed by an exceptional panel of speakers, with the online participation of bloggers from the Middle East. This event will be webcast live at 10 AM ET.

Cluetrain at 10: So How's Utopia Working Out for Ya?

with Berkman Fellows Doc Searls and David Weinberger, and Berkman faculty co-director Jonathan Zittrain

On the tenth anniversary of The Cluetrain Manifesto, how's all that freedom, that cyberutopianism, that Internet exceptionalism working out for you? Harvard Law professor and co-founder of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society Jonathan Zittrain talks with two of The Cluetrain Manifesto's co-authors, Doc Searls and David Weinberger, in an open forum. This event will be webcast live at 6:00 pm ET.

Upcoming Events and Digital Media Roundup

Next week: Beth Kolko will present on ICTs and their uses in resource constrained environments at next Tuesday's Luncheon Series; Doc Searls, David Weinberger, and Jonathan Zittrain will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Cluetrain Manifesto; and Berkman will present research on "Online Discourse in the Arab World: Dispelling the Myths" in Washington, DC.