Computers and Society

Computers and Society is an undergraduate course at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at NYU. Led by Evan Korth, it addresses the impact of networked computers on individuals, organizations and modern society as a whole, as well as the social, political and ethical issues involved in technological industries. This course was revived by Professor Korth for the Spring 2006 semester after being dormant since the 80's. The course is structured to promote student interaction with the broader web community, primarily through a speaker series including many influential guest speakers.

Upcoming Speakers and Events

All events are open to the public in room 109, Warren Weaver Hall (251 Mercer Street) [Map]

Eben Moglen - Feb 5th, 2010 - 7:00pm
"Freedom in the Cloud"

Eben Moglen, Professor of Law and Legal History at Columbia University, and founder, Director-Counsel and Chairman of the Software Freedom Law Center, will speak about “Freedom in the Cloud: Software Freedom, Privacy and Security for Web 2.0 and Cloud Computing” on Friday, February 5, 2010, 7-9 pm. This event will be webcast live.

Sponsors: ISOC-NY, NYU ACM, Brooklyn Law Incubator & Policy Clinic

Fall 2008 Speakers and Events


Photo by Joi Ito - Some Rights Reserved

David Bollier - May 18th, 2009 - 7:00pm
"Viral Spiral: How the Commoners Built a Digital Republic of Their Own"

Bollier will discuss his new book, Viral Spiral, the first comprehensive history of the "free culture" movement and "sharing economy" that is empowering ordinary people, disrupting markets and changing politics and culture. Bollier is a leading American activist, author, blogger and proponent of "free culture" on the Internet and the commons. He is an editor of Onthecommons.org and Senior Fellow at the USC Annenberg School for Communication.

Photo by Isidor Fernandez - Some Rights Reserved

Michel Bauwens - November 23rd, 2008 - 7:00pm
"Network Civilization: Peer-to-Peer and the Rise of Green Capitalism"

Michel Bauwens is the founder of the Foundation for Peer-to-Peer Alternatives, a global research collaborative exploring peer production, governance, and property. He is currently Primavera Research Fellow at the University of Amsterdam and external expert at the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences (2008). In his lecture, he argues that organizations that are structured like networks will out-compete traditional centralized organizations in the new green capitalism.

Photo by Steve Garfield - Some Rights Reserved

Andrew Rasiej - November 19th, 2008 - 3:30pm
"Democracy, Civic Action, and Politics in a Networked World"

Andrew Rasiej is a social entrepreneur, Founder of Personal Democracy Forum, and co-founder of techPresident. He has served as an adviser to Senator Barack Obama, Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator Tom Daschle, Congressman Dick Gephardt, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee on the use of Information Technology for campaign and policy purposes. Mr. Rasiej also maintains the position of senior technology adviser for the Sunlight Foundation.

Photo by Kennisland - Some Rights Reserved

Public Film Screening - November 16th, 2008 - 7:00pm
"Steal This Film II"

Released in December 2007 by the League of Noble Peers (Alan Toner, J.J. King, Jan Gerber, Sebastian Luetgert, Luca Lucarini, and others), Steal This Film 2 tries to go beyond the current discussions around file-sharing to look at what kinds of social change are precipitated by massive changes in our capacity to communicate. The film argues that the changes wrought by networked, peer distribution are historical on the scale of the printing press and tries to explain why.

Photo by David Weinberger - Some Rights Reserved

Amanda Michel - November 12th, 2008 - 3:30pm
"Technology, Networks, and Journalism"

Amanda Michel is Director of OffTheBus, citizen-powered political journalism. Since 2003 she has worked as National Director of Generation Dean, created and managed the MediaCorps program for the Kerry-Edwards campaign, co-founded the New Organizing Institute in the wake of the 2004 election, worked at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, and worked on Assignment Zero, a Wired and NewAssignment.net collaboration.<\p>


Photo by Joi Ito - Some Rights Reserved

Lawrence Lessig - November 9th, 2008 - 6:00pm
"Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy"

The content industry has convinced industry in general that extremism in copyright regulation is good for business and economic growth. That's false. In this talk, Professor Lessig describes the creative and profitable future that culture and industry could realize, if only we gave up IP extremism.

Douglas Rushkoff - November 5th, 2008 - 3:30pm
"Open Source Democracy"

Winner of the first Neil Postman award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity, Douglas Rushkoff is an author of ten best-selling books, a professor at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program and an award-winning documentarian who focuses on the ways people, cultures, and institutions create, share, and influence each other's values. His talk examined the cultural, historical, and economic developments that created our current system of governance, and outlined a path to open source democracy.

John Perry Barlow - October 27th, 2008 - 3:30pm
"The First Internet Election?"

John Perry Barlow, American poet, essayist, and cyberactivist, explored the notion that the 2008 presidential election was the first true "Internet Election".

Fred Benenson - October 6th and 8th, 2008 - 3:30pm
Copyright, Free Culture and Creatove Commons

Fred Benenson, co-founder of Free Culture @ NYU, organizer of the first-of-their-kind DRM protests in 2005, and Cultural Programs Associate for Creative Commons in New York City, gave two lectures. The first discussed the effect of Copyright on creativity. The second discussed the Creative Commons and Free Culture movements.

Tim Westergren - September 24th, 2008 - 3:30pm
"The Future of Music and the State of Licensing Today"

Tim Westergren founded Pandora in January 2000 and now serves as its Chief Strategy Officer. Tim is an award winning composer, an accomplished musician and a record producer with 20 years of experience in the music industry. In his talk, he discuessed the history of Pandora, and what happens when old content laws come up against the realities of the Internet.


Past Speakers and Events

Panel with Arianna Huffington, Jay Rosen, Micah Sifry
Jay Rosen
Richard Stallman
Fred Benenson
Cory Doctorow
Jimmy Wales
Jamie Boyle
Lawrence Norden