Symposium to focus on innovation and the Internet

ANN ARBOR — As much as the Internet is a freeway for communications, it’s also a fast-paced test lab for entrepreneurs racing to develop technologies and products.

One of the country’s leading authorities on the information industry, Prof. Lawrence Lessig of Stanford University, sees the Internet as a vast collection of people bouncing ideas from one to another, often with great success.

As the keynote speaker at the inaugural John Seely Brown Symposium on Technology and Society on Sept. 8-9 at the University of Michigan, Lessig will address “Architecting Innovation” at 3 p.m. Friday, Sept. 8 in the Michigan Union Ballroom. The symposium continues at 9 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 9 with a panel discussion on the implications of open-source software in the Michigan Union Anderson Room. Both sessions are free and open to the public.

“We have experienced the most extraordinary flourishing of innovation and creativity that we have known,” Lessig says. “In this lecture, I will link that innovation and creativity to aspects of the architecture of the Internet. These architectural features should teach us something about how innovation is made possible. And they should make us cautious about the changes to this architecture that we are now observing.”

In addition to his role as a professor of law, Lessig is a columnist, author and commentator, and he served as special master to Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson in the “U.S. v. Microsoft Corporation” trial.

Saturday morning panelists will include Lessig and U-M Prof. Michael Cohen, and Brown will take part in the discussions. Brown, a U-M alumnus, is vice-president and chief scientist of Xerox Corp. and the director of its Palo Alto Research Center.

The School of Information, with the support of the President’s Information Revolution Commission and Brown, is coordinating the symposium.

“The School of Information is hosting the symposium to stimulate public discussion of critical issues related to information technology,” says Dean John L. King. “Brown and Lessig are highly regarded among leaders of business and education.”

Brown, called Xerox PARC’s “big brain” in the
In 1997, Brown authored “Seeing Differently: Insights on Innovation” and his latest book, “The Social Life of Information,” written with Paul Duguid, is now available.

Most recently, Lessig was the Jack N. and Lillian R. Berkman Professor for Entrepreneurial Legal Studies at Harvard Law School. He teaches and writes in the areas of constitutional law, contracts, comparative constitutional law, and the law of cyberspace. His book, “Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace,” is published by Basic Books.

For additional symposium details, visit www.si.umich.edu/jsb or call (734) 763-2285.

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Lawrence LessigJohn Seely BrownMichael CohenSchool of Informationwww.si.umich.edu/jsb