Announcements
Upcoming Spring 2012 Lectures:
How Law Made Silicon Valley
Anupam Chander
Professor of Law, UC Davis
Tuesday February 7, 2012
12:00-1:30PM
119 Moses Hall (Harris Room)
Explanations for the success of Silicon Valley focus on access to capital and education. If law is invoked, it is to focus on state-by-state differences in the enforcement of covenants not to compete. In this talk, I put forward a new explanation, one that explains the rise of Silicon Valley as a global trader. Just as nineteenth century American judges altered the common law in order to subsidize industrial development, judges and legislators altered the law at the turn of the Millennium to promote the development of Internet enterprises. These legal changes made possible the rise of Web 2.0, in which companies offered online platforms for user generated content. Europe and Asia, by contrast, maintained stricter intermediary liability, less flexible intellectual property rules, and stronger privacy constraints, hampering local Internet entrepreneurs. I show how American companies leveraged this liberal home base to become global leaders in cyberspace.
A Guided Tour to Possible IT-facilitated Future Scenarios with Global Reach; From Personalized Healthcare to 3D Virtual Worlds Where Social Networks Thrive
Jean Paul Jacob
Researcher Emeritus, IBM Research, and Scholar in Residence at CITRIS@Berkeley
Thursday March 15, 2012
12:00-1:30PM
119 Moses Hall (Harris Room)
In this R-rated talk (where "R" stands for "Research" ...) we will visualize future IT-facilitated scenarios in the new worlds created after the "Bit Bang." Examples of these new worlds which continue to invade and modify our lives--hopefully for the better--will be given; personalized genetically adapted medicine, sensors everywhere helping transportation, food supply, early warning of natural disasters, biosensors, etc. Digital wireframes are increasingly replacing actors in movies (when Indiana Jones falls in a cavern full of snakes, the only risk to Harrison Ford is .... a computer crash). What else can we do with digital personas? Will an ITeacher be imbedded in a tablet computer ready to appear with a light rubbing?
To which extent will the "robotlution" help the very poor nations? Building habitat? How can social networks and crowdsourcing help our quality of life? Will the wealth of countries shift from West to East and from North to South? Is knowledge the new currency? These and many other questions will NOT be answered in this presentation, although some IT-based ideas will be shown.
Weather permitting, this presentation will be made from an island in the 3D digital virtual world, Second Life, by my not-so-obedient avatar Jampa Babeli.
All are Welcome. Free Admission.
Archive of Past Lectures and Conferences
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