Tuesday, September 15, 2015, at 12:00 pm
Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University
Harvard Law School campus, Wasserstein Hall, Milstein East A
The LibraryBox Project (along with other emerging projects like PirateBox, occupy.here, IdeasBox, and others) is an attempt at bridging the divide in delivery of digital information in areas where there is a lack of communications infrastructure or where that infrastructure has been damaged or is overly monitored or controlled. As self-contained, non-connected portable servers, these devices can be used to circumvent governmental firewalls, distribute information in areas of political upheaval, reach the most remote areas to deliver healthcare information, and help recovery efforts after natural disasters. This presentation will be an overview of the LibraryBox project and its current state, goals and development roadmap, and a discussion of possible next directions and needs.
About Jason
Jason Griffey is the founder and principal at Evenly Distributed (http://evenlydistributed.net), a technology consulting and creation firm for libraries, museums, education, and other non-profits. Jason is a Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, where he studies hyperlocal micronetworks such as his LibraryBox project.
He has written extensively on libraries and technology, most recently a chapter in The Top Technologies Every Librarian Needs to Know: A LITA Guide. His previous book, Mobile Technology and Libraries, is a part of the award-winning Tech Set series. Named a Library Journal Mover & Shaker in 2009, Griffey has written and spoken internationally on topics such as the future of technology and libraries, personal electronics in the library, privacy, copyright, and intellectual property. A full list of his publications and presentations can be found on his CV.
He is one of eight winners of the Knight Foundation News Challenge for Libraries for the Measure the Future project (measurethefuture.net), an open hardware project designed to provide actionable use metrics for library spaces.
Griffey is the creator and director of The LibraryBox Project (librarybox.us), an open source portable digital file distribution system. He can be stalked obsessively online, and spends his free time with his daughter Eliza, reading, obsessing over gadgets, and preparing for the inevitable zombie uprising.