Before I applied for a Berkman fellowship, I had to ask John Palfrey and Ethan Zuckerman, neither of whom I knew, a whole bunch of damn fool questions. I had no living sense of what it meant to be a Berkman fellow. Do you drink sherry at 4? Just how witty is the banter? Would I get a discount on ascots?

I’ve been a fellow since July. Here’s what it’s like.

[Note: I’m uncomfortable posting this because it’s so positive. The truth is that I’m very happy at the Center. And in terms of sucking up, my fellowship has already been renewed for a year and sucking up still won’t get me a parking space, so what’d be the point?]

Context

The Berkman Center for the Internet and Society is a Center within Harvard Law. The professors affiliated with it are all (?) with the Law School, and so are many of the students who take part in the various activities, but I find the overall interests have more to do with policy than law; I spend little of my time listening to lawyers discussing cases in an argot I don’t understand.

When you apply for a fellowship, you have to state what project you want supported, and that determines what your activities will be. The site lists five project areas, each prepended with the word “open”: Law, governance, education, commerce and content. Some of the actual projects underway are:

Documenting Internet “filtering” (=censorship) by various governments

Trying to increase international awareness in the blogosphere by facilitating “bridge bloggers”

Encouraging and facilitating the growth of blogs in rights-challenged countries

Aggregating information about all the groups aiming at establishing international governance of the Internet

Building software to encourage classroom cross-discipline and cross-border conversation

The Digital Media Project, looking at the legal, social and economic effects of five possible “scenarios” describing the development of digital media tech and law

The Center combines research and advocacy, which is always a tough balance. While the Center doesn’t enunciate official stands on issues, it comes down consistently in favor of keeping the Internet an open space for ideas and innovation.

What it’s like

The Berkman Center has its own house, a three-story Victorian on Mass Ave a few blocks (but on a cold day, a very long few blocks) from Harvard Square. It’s a funky place, furnished with a dog pound of furniture, just the way your college apartment was. There’s not a lot of space, so only a few people have offices there. The rest of us come in as appropriate and hang around the small-ish downstairs meeting room or perhaps grab a spare computer in a hallway or cranny. (You’ve gotta like a house with crannies.) I have a home office, so I don’t come into the Center to write. I come to hang out with people.

Last year, the Center started a new semi-policy: Tuesdays are fellows days. That’s the day to show up. In the morning, fellows hang out in the downstairs meeting room around a table. There are bagels, fruit and coffee, and no topic. It’s usually only a handful of us. I think I most see Rebecca MacKinnon, Ethan Zuckerman, Zephyr Teachout, Mary Rundle, Derek Bambauer and Wendy Koslow there. There’s never a problem getting a conversation going. Jezoos Carruthers, I learn a lot.

Most Tuesdays there’s a lunchtime speaker. It’s in the same small room, often with an overflow crowd of twenty or so. The speakers range pretty much all over the lot, from a Microsoft lawyer talking about copyright to a report on connectivity in Uzbekistan. Typically the speaker doesn’t get through her presentation entirely. The Center provides sandwiches.

Tuesdays are the most structured, but any day of the week you will find interesting people from whom you will learn gobs. Plus, there are speakers, meetings and get-togethers at random times.

What you have to do

Each fellow is expected to present her research at a Tuesday lunch or equivalent and to write something for the Center’s journal. The rest of your duties are determined by the project the Center is supporting.

My case is a bit unusual because my project — working on a book about the effect the digital organization of stuff is having on the nature of knowledge (I really have to find a more interesting way of describing it) — is a bit off-topic for the Center. So, I’m supposed to work on the book and also lead a series of Wednesday night discussions.

Fellowships are usually for one year.

What you get

A stipend that ranges from $0 to $42,000. (I’m way at the low end of the scale, and certainly need to keep my day job.)

A Harvard ID that lets you use just about any of its resources

A Harvard business card that impresses the hell out of people

The opportunity to participate in the life of the Center

No parking privileges

The Culture

I’ve been in a variety of academic environments, and the Berkman is the most collegial of them. Much of that is due to the personalities of the law professors in charge. The Center’s first instinct, in my limited experience, is to support you in your project or line of thought. There is an air of sweetness about the Center, which I did not expect. I mean, these are Harvard law professors. Didn’t they see The Paper Chase, fer pete’s sake?

The Center is multi-partisan in theory. In practice, the Center’s heart is clearly pro-grassroots. It’s unlikely to file a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the RIAA. (If you’re from the RIAA and give a lunchtime talk, you’ll be treated with respect, but you’ll also be asked tough questions by Harvard lawyers.)

I personally love the mix of scholarship and activism. These are folks passionate about the Internet both intellectually and practically. And it’s a “learning community”: I have yet to be laughed at (to my face, anyway) for asking dumb questions. The ethos is one of generosity: People will spend forever helping me to understand things.

I see more women there than men.

Negatives

The gender balance feels about right in practice among the fellows (yes, I’m aware of the irony of using the word “fellows” in this sentence), although it’s way off at the professorial level. And the atmosphere is definitely not one of macho competition and oneupmanship. There’s a fair bit of international presence, and most discussions occur within a global perspective. The racial balance sucks.

It is an academic environment, which often informs the discourse. If that’s not your cup of tea, then the Berkman Center is probably not for you. It is, however, also an activist center. I like the balance. You may not.

The range of political and policy opinions among the fellows is fairly narrow. More diversity would help.

I’m having trouble coming up with other negatives. (Oy, that sentence sits there like bait!)

In Conclusion

If you can’t tell, I’m enjoying my time as a Berkperson. I’m meeting people I care about and, unsurprisingly, you can’t hardly walk through the doors without falling into a conversation that changes the way you think. What more could I ask for? Besides a parking space.

[Technorati tag: berkman]

Categories: Uncategorized dw