Abstract of Lawrence Lessig’s Speech
"The Architecture of Innovation."
The internet has been a source of extraordinary innovation, both in the arts and in
commerce. This innovation hangs upon the network's architecture, or alternatively,
upon its "code." This architecture sets the net's policy, and continued innovation and
creativity depends upon maintaining the same policy. In this talk, I will connect values
that the internet has evinced to this architecture, or code, and then demonstrate how
these values are being threatened, as the architecture is changed. There is a politics in
code, and our blindness to this politics will mean the loss of values protected by this
code.