The Berkman Center for Internet and Society combines scholarship with practical action through an “entrepreneurial nonprofit” interest in the challenges and opportunities of cyberspace—and the “need or lack thereof for laws and sanctions.” It integrates research of faculty, fellows, students, and affiliates in law, governance, architecture, and health. Current Berkman projects that have components directly relevant to global health and global health education include The Kinder and Braver World Project on youth empowerment, the Network of Interdisciplinary Internet & Society Research Centers, the Jamaica Project, H2O (a web-based platform for creating, editing, organizing, consuming, and sharing course materials with support from the Harvard Law School Library), and the Cooperation Group.
Berkman Center Fellows are engaged in a wide range of projects, including online debates related to sexual and reproductive health and rights; technology access for the global poor as it impacts agriculture and rural markets; the use of ethnographic tools to design products, policies and services that promote equity; global activists’ use of open access resources; trust networks in marginalized communities; and the development of digital “badges” as an incentive for health care professionals in low resource settings. Courses taught by Center-affiliated Harvard faculty and fellows have included, for example, “Law and the Global Health Crisis” and “Humanities Studio 4: The Mixed-Reality City.”