Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society: Audio Fishbowl

Much of the conversation around the new wave of online education startups has focused on what they mean for the incumbent institutions, from for-profit online universities to the traditional Ivy League. But what about what they mean for learners? Who is currently succeeding in open learning contexts? What are the missing pieces of the ecosystem [...]

Listen: or download | …also in Ogg If you’ve ever experienced the problem of a dead cell phone battery and only incompatible chargers within reach, you’ve experienced one of the minor frustrations of a non-interoperable system. This frustration — not to mention the environmental waste of having dozens of different charger types for the same [...]

Among the goals of the VRM — Vendor Relationship Management — movement are preserving Internet freedom and opportunity, changing the economic power structure, and turning the tables on privacy-violating business models and practices. But there are several challenges to achieving this vision for the future of business and the internet. Doc Searls’ — co-author of [...]

Computer gaming has long been a social activity, complete with forms of spectatorship. With the growth of live-streaming the boundaries of audience are shifting. Professional e-sports players and amateurs alike are broadcasting their play online and in turn growing communities. But interesting issues lurk around notions of audience (and revenue), IP and licensing, and the [...]

Listen: or download | …also in Ogg Lots of digital ink has been spilled about how and whether digital technology played a critical role in bringing about the Arab Spring. But it’s been 18 months since the spark of revolution was first lit in Tunisia, way back in December of 2010. How has digital technology [...]

The practice of standardization has been facilitating innovation and economic growth for centuries. The standardization of the railroad gauge revolutionized the flow of commodities, the standardization of money revolutionized debt markets and simplified trade, and the standardization of credit networks has allowed for the purchase of goods using money deposited in a bank half a [...]

The Drupal community is one of the largest and most active Open Source projects on the web, powering 1 out of 50 websites in the world. The concept of major projects growing out of a volunteer, community-based model is not new to the world. When new ground needs to be broken, it’s often volunteer communities [...]

Mike Ananny — Postdoctoral Researcher at Microsoft Research New England, Fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, and Assistant Professor at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism — describes how a public right to hear has historically and implicitly underpinned the U.S. press’s claims to freedom and, more [...]

Listen: or download | …also in Ogg Two weeks ago, the Berkman Center co-sponsored the third –  and, we learned, final! –  ROFLCon. For the n00bz, ROFLCon is a conference named after the acronym for “rolling on the floor, laughing” and devoted to celebrating internet culture. Friend of the Show Tim Hwang co-founded the event [...]

How do we balance the empowering possibilities of the networked public sphere with the dark, unsettling, and even dangerous energies of cyberspace? Matthew Battles — author, cofounder of the blog HiLobrow.com, and program fellow with metaLAB (at) Harvard — blends a deep-historical perspective on the internet with storytelling that reaches into its weird, uncanny depths. The [...]

James Gleick — author of a half-dozen books on science, technology, and culture — discusses his latest book The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood, with Jonathan Zittrain. Download the MP3 …or download the OGG audio format! More info on this event here

Listen: or download | …also in Ogg In today’s episode we wrap up our coverage of last week’s Rethink Music conference with a conversation between guest host Chris Bavitz and Kristin Thomson. In addition to her work as community organizer, social policy researcher, entrepreneur and musician, Kristin is a consultant at the Future of Music Coalition, [...]

Listen: or download | …also in Ogg The technological advancements of the past twenty years have rendered the future of the library as a physical space, at least, as uncertain as it has ever been. The information that libraries were once built to house in the form of books and manuscripts can now be accessed [...]