Jonathan Zittrain: The Future of the Internet – And How to Stop It November 1, 2007

Co-sponsored by Santa Clara’s High Tech Law Institute, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics and Center for Science, Technology and Society

About the Talk: The Internet we know and love is at risk even as its freedoms are at a high water mark and rising. It's the changing slope of the curve that counts, and the most important factor is the uncontrolled environment represented by Net and PC: too much spyware, too many viruses, too little reliability for the applications people want and need.

Waiting in the wings is a new generation of "information appliances" that in the past have been laughable (think WebTV) but now are killer: iPod, XBox, TiVo, most mobile phones, Zune, PSP. These appliances, and a general appliancization of the PC itself, represent a very different environment: the immutability of an appliance to the consumer and third parties (think television set), coupled with use of the latest Net innovations to make the thing eminently alterable by (and only by) its maker and licensees. This talk maps out the bad implications of an appliancized -- and Web 2.0 -- world, and offers suggestions to temper it.

MCLE: Santa Clara Law is a State Bar of California approved MCLE provider and certifies that this activity has been approved for one hour of MCLE credit.

RSVP: Admission to this event is free, but an RSVP is required. Email [email protected] with Subject: RSVP to Zittrain Lecture and your complete contact information in the body of the message.

For complete details, see http://lawadmin.scu.edu/law/hightech/podcast/File/Zittrain_flyer.pdf
Contact: Jasmine Pilgeram
Phone: (408) 551-1868
Location: Other

Jonathan Zittrain holds the Chair in Internet Governance and Regulation at Oxford University and is a principal of the Oxford Internet Institute. He is also the Jack N. and Lillian R. Berkman Visiting Professor for Entrepreneurial Legal Studies at Harvard Law School, where he co-founded its Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

His research interests include battles for control of digital property and content, cryptography, electronic privacy, the roles ofintermediaries within Internet architecture, and the useful and unobtrusive deployment of technology in education. He has recently co-authored a study of Internet filtering by national governments, and his book, The Future of the Internet -- And How to Stop It, will be released by Yale University Press and Penguin UK this winter. Papers may be found at http://www.jz.org.

Official Website: http://www.scu.edu/law/news/events.cfm