Berkman in the News

October 30, 2009. New York Times. School Sued for Punishing Teens Over MySpace Pix

admin — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:55:56 -0500

''From the standpoint of young people, there's no real distinction between online life and offline life,'' said John Palfrey, a Harvard University law professor and co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. ''It's just life.''

Monday, October 19, 2009. Washington Post. Facebook hits 300 million users. What's next for social networking?

admin — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 23:04:54 -0400

''There are two conflicting processes,'' says Jason Kaufman, a fellow at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society who studies social networking sites. ''On the one hand, the more people who join Facebook, the more useful it is.'' On the other hand, its very ubiquity makes some users uneasy.

October 16, 2009. Harvard Law School. Major new study by Benkler and the Berkman Center released by the FCC for public comment a

admin — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:16:18 -0400

''Following a request by the Federal Communications Commission..., the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University recently conducted a major independent review of existing literature and studies about broadband deployment and usage throughout the world.''

October 17, 2009. Financial Times. Closed networks hinder US broadband access

admin — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:30:09 -0400

''The study by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University could strengthen expectations of change in the stance held by the FCC for much of this decade, bringing the US into line with countries from the Netherlands to South Korea that have 'open access' policies.''

October 15, 2009. Reuters. US Broadband Study Says "Open Access" Fosters Competition

admin — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:38:07 -0400

''The study, commissioned by the FCC, examines global broadband plans and practices and comes as the agency is devising a plan aimed at increasing broadband usage in rural and urban areas of the United States.''

October 14, 2009. CNN. Does your social class determine your online social network?

admin — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 23:00:02 -0400

Jason Kaufman, a research science fellow with the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, examined the Facebook profiles of a group of college students over four years and found that even within Facebook, there's evidence of self-segregation.

October 11, 2009. ITP.net. Creative Commons takes hold in the Middle East

admin — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 22:58:22 -0400

In an interview with Creative Commons CEO Joichi Ito at the recent TEDxDubai event, he revealed that the first Arabic licences will be launched in Jordan on November 15th - a significant milestone for the internet and online content in the Middle East.

October 08, 2009. InfoWorld. Ethiopia only sub-Sahara Africa nation to filter Net

admin — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:06:34 -0400

''Though various African countries monitor and restrict Internet access in some way, Ethiopia is the only country with a technical filtering regime in the sub-Saharan region, according to a report by OpenNet Initiative, a collaborative partnership between Harvard, Toronto, Cambridge and Oxford universities.''

October 07, 2009. Technology Review. Behind the Big Apple's Data Dump

admin — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:05:19 -0400

''The remarkable thing overall is that we are going from the default of keeping information private to the default of making it public.'' says David Weinberger, a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, who and was an Internet advisor to Howard Dean during his 2004 presidential campaign. ''Rather than having to put in a Freedom of Information Act request for everything you want, the approach has become, 'We are going to put out more than you can ever use.'''

October 07, 2009. New York Times. Angry Outbursts on Twitter Prompt Lengthy Legal Discussions

admin — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:54:32 -0400

According to legal experts, much of what is said on Twitter is opinion — even nasty name-calling — which means it is protected speech. ''When you look at a lot of the things people are complaining about it is not actual defamation, it is a statement of opinion,'' said David Ardia, director of the Citizen Media Law Project at Harvard University. ''In many cases, it’s about two people who had a breakdown in a relationship and took that online.''