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Harvardu2019s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society and Non-Profit Project Liberty Announce Launch of New BKC Lab
rnOctober 11, 2023rnrn rnrnBoston, MA and New York, NY (October 11, 2023) u2013 Project Liberty and The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University announced today that Frank McCourt and the 501(c)(3) non-profit Project Liberty will support the launch of BKCu2019s Applied Social Media Lab (ASML) u2013 a first-of-its-kind program to assess and build social media technology in the public interest.rnrn rnrnIn a time of turmoil in the tech industry, the lab will help integrate and amplify worthy and underappreciated approaches to improving or revolutionizing social media among those in public interest engineering, public policy, and standards setting.rnrn rnrnu201cThe Applied Social Media Lab will help bridge research and practice,u201d said BKC Co-Founder and Faculty Director Jonathan Zittrain. u201cAt Berkman Klein, lab participants will immerse themselves in cross-disciplinary work by collaborating with our community and an extraordinary, diverse class of global fellows.u201drnrn rnrnProject Liberty is committed to analyzing and developing technical, ethical, and governance infrastructure for emerging technologies, including distributed ones (like the Decentralized Social Networking Protocol). The Berkman Klein Centeru2019s lab starts its work as Project Libertyu2019s recent founding partners Stanford, MIT, Sciences Po, and Georgetown support the initiative of building a healthier, safer technology environment for society u2013 starting with a better web for a better world. The lab will grow out of the Centeru2019s current Institute for Rebooting Social Media, in collaboration with faculty from across the university, including James Mickens, Lawrence Lessig, Latanya Sweeney (Founder and Director of the Public Interest Tech Lab at the Shorenstein Center), and Jonathan Zittrain.rnrn rnrnu201cCurrent social media is designed to addict and exploit people, rather than connect and empower them,u201d said Frank McCourt, Executive Chairman and Founder of Project Liberty. u201cProject Liberty is leading the efforts to build a better internet, and the solutions produced by those working at the Applied Social Media Lab at Berkman Klein will be concrete steps toward realizing a healthier digital world for society.u201drnrn rnrnu201cWeu2019re really excited about the modular design of the Lab as it will enable the teams to work nimbly, pulling in facility members and affiliates as needed in order to develop new technologies and therefore getting us a step closer to a healthier, safer digital ecosystem,u201d said Martina Larkin, CEO Project Liberty. u201cAdditionally, the openness model BKC is known for plays a key role in this project and we look forward to the participation of many technologists, policy experts, researchers and generally those interested in contributing to our work.u201drnrn rnrnThe announcement comes as the Center enters its twenty-fifth year exploring and building in the digital space.rnrn rnrn###rnrn rnrnMedia contacts:rnSam Hindsrnpress@cyber.harvard.edurnrn rnrnKatie Uhlmanrnnews@projectliberty.io“,”color”:””,”background_image”:””,”parallax_background”:”0″,”overlay_color”:””,”overlay_opacity”:””,”additional_classes”:””,”anchor_link”:””,”type”:”custom-content-area”}]