Forwarded:

Please join us on the evening of Wednesday, May 30th, for a special event hosted by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard Law School Library, and the Harvard Book Store. Professors John Palfrey (Director of the Berkman Center) and Urs Gasser (Executive Director of the Berkman Center) will launch their new book, Interop: The Promise and Perils of Highly Interconnected Systems, at 6PM at the Harvard Law School. The book argues that interoperability is a critical aspect of any successful system—and now it is more important than ever.

More information about the event and the book is below. The talk will be followed by a reception, which we would welcome you to join. Please feel free to share the announcement below with friends, colleagues, students, and others who may be interested (and if you have recommendations for people or groups to whom this may appeal, please feel free to share their contact information with me).

Please don't hesitate to be in touch if you have any questions. We hope to see you there!

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Interop: The Promise and Perils of Highly Interconnected Systems
John Palfrey and Urs Gasser

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/2012/05/interop

Wednesday, May 30, 6:00PM
Harvard Law School, Wasserstein Hall, Milstein West AB (2nd Floor, Map)
Free and Open to the Public
RSVP required for those attending in person via http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/2012/05/interop
Co-sponsored by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard Law School Library, and the Harvard Book Store
Reception to follow

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 world away. These advancements did not eradicate the different systems they affected; instead, each system has been transformed so that it can interoperate with systems all over the world, while still preserving local diversity.

As Palfrey and Gasser show, interoperability is a critical aspect of any successful system—and now it is more important than ever. Today we are confronted with challenges that affect us on a global scale: the financial crisis, the quest for sustainable energy, and the need to reform health care systems and improve global disaster response systems. The successful flow of information across systems is crucial if we are to solve these problems, but we must also learn to manage the vast degree of interconnection inherent in each system involved. Interoperability offers a number of solutions to these global challenges, but Palfrey and Gasser also consider its potential negative effects, especially with respect to privacy, security, and co-dependence of states; indeed, interoperability has already sparked debates about document data formats, digital music, and how to create successful yet safe cloud computing. Interop demonstrates that, in order to get the most out of interoperability while minimizing its risks, we will need to fundamentally revisit our understanding of how it works, and how it can allow for improvements in each of its constituent parts.

About John

John Palfrey is Henry N. Ess Professor of Law and Vice Dean for Library and Information Resources at Harvard Law School. He is the co-author of "Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives" (Basic Books, 2008) and "Access Denied: The Practice and Politics of Internet Filtering" (MIT Press, 2008). His research and teaching is focused on Internet law, intellectual property, and international law.

About Urs

Urs Gasser is the Executive Director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.  Urs Gasser has written several books, is the co author of “Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives” (Basic Books, 2008, with John Palfrey) that has been translated into 10 languages (including Chinese), and has published over 70 articles in professional journals.

About the book: http://www.amazon.com/Interop-Promise-Perils-Interconnected-Systems/dp/0465021972