30 April 2007
I’m just back from a beautiful weekend at Yale University where the Law School held its 2nd Access to Knowledge (A2K2) Conference. The meeting facilitated an important discussion among global civil society, representatives from business, and governmental officials from several countries. I spoke on the panel about the role of Search Engines in providing access to knowledge and my talk focused on the legal and policy issues for search engines - here are my slides.
Yale Law School’s Information Society Project has done an amazing job in recent years of organizing conferences related to Internet and intellectual property law and policy, including the 2006 A2K Conference.
This year’s A2K2 Conference at Yale included dynamic speakers like Nenna Nwakanma who spoke about the African experience with ICT and development. Founder and leader of the Internet Archive Brewster Kahle, Argentine Economist / Law Professor Carlos Correa, and Richard Owens from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) also participated in the discussion. Other terrific speakers included Director of the Center for Technology & Society in Rio de Janeiro Ronaldo Lemos, Sisule Musungu from the World Trade Institute, BBC’s Creative Archive Director Paul Gerhardt, and Yale Law School’s own Yochai Benkler. See also Yale Law School Professor Jack Balkin’s opening remarks.
Yale ISP’s A2K2 Conference also provided an opportunity for the UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Dynamic Coalition on Access to Knowledge and Free Expression (A2K@IGF) to hold an informal dinner on Saturday night. Thanks to Intel’s Brad Biddle for generously picking up the tab on the A2k@IGF dinner, and to Yale ISP’s Laura deNardis for organizing the fun event!
The A2K2 wiki contains articles, slides, and presentations, and Robert Guerra snapped some nice photos over the weekend.
Here are some photos from the A2K@IGF Dynamic Coalition dinner at Yale:
