Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society

Let’s roll back time to 1996: dial-up Internet screeches in living rooms, AOL chat rooms are the hot new thing, and the law is still trying to figure out what exactly a “web page” even is. Right here at Harvard Law School, Jonathan Zittrain and Professor Charles Nesson founded the Center on Law and Technology after running one of the very first seminars on legal issues involving—gasp—the “World Wide Web.” Others, like Professor Arthur Miller and students David Marglin and Tom Smuts, joined in, and you could say the intellectual energy in the hallways was enough to power a modem or two. A year later, in 1997, the Berkman family stepped in to underwrite this dreaming den, and the charismatic, whip-smart Lawrence Lessig joined as the first Berkman professor. By 1998, the place had gotten a shiny new name: The Berkman Center for Internet & Society. Here’s a fun fact—the Berkman Klein Center claims a little bit of fame in the very bones of the web. Heard of RSS 2.0 feeds? Those handy online subscriptions that deliver podcasts or news directly to your digital doorstep? This center holds the specification for RSS 2.0. In fact, one of the first-ever podcast series happened right here. It’s like the original Hotspot for Internet trailblazing—and you’re practically standing on top of their Wi-Fi signal right now! Now, May 15, 2008, was a big day. Like moving out of your parents’ basement, the Center was elevated from a law school project to an official interfaculty initiative for all of Harvard. If this was a video game, that’s when it seriously leveled up. Then, in 2016—after a jaw-dropping $15 million donation from Michael R. Klein—the Center added “Klein” to its name and became what you see etched on the stone today: the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. I suppose if you ever want your name on a Harvard building, just remember—15 million dollars and an interest in cyberspace! Inside, the minds at work study everything you can imagine about the internet’s impact on society, from the mysteries of online privacy, to how teens zoom around the web, to how artificial intelligence might one day boss us around (let’s hope not). They sponsor international events, host visiting speakers, and their newsletter—aptly called “The Buzz”—keeps the digital hive humming. There’s a massive blog community, and if you hear the flutter of typing fingers, odds are there’s a faculty member or visiting fellow in the middle of a heated online debate. The Berkman Klein Center has tackled some of the thorniest issues online. In 2008, John Palfrey led a major review on child safety on the Internet, while in 2009, Yochai Benkler put the U.S. broadband policy under the microscope. The Center even examined how shadowy organizations like ICANN govern the world’s web addresses, digging into questions of transparency and public trust. Some of their coolest projects sound like something out of a spy novel. One, “Lumen”—formerly known as “Chilling Effects”—helps people who receive scary legal notices online to know their rights. Another project, “StopBadware,” once turned the Center into the Internet’s neighborhood watch, sniffing out viruses, spyware, and online threats. And as democracy increasingly goes digital, the “Internet and Democracy Project” has spotlighted how the web influences freedom and civic engagement, with a special eye on the Middle East. They don’t stop there—deep dives into the Digital Media Law Project help protect online journalists, the Digital Public Library of America is all about free knowledge access, and more recently, they’ve been asking big questions about artificial intelligence and ethics. In 2017, a $27 million grant—yes, you heard that right, more than a few Harvard tuition bills—teamed the Center with the MIT Media Lab to make sure AI serves the public good and promotes fairness and justice.