On April 15, 2012, a team of advocates, legal minds, technologists, and content creators will come to Brooklyn Law School for the first ever “Legal Hackathon.” An all-day event, the Hackathon will explore how technology can improve the law and society, and, conversely, how law can foster technology, creation, culture, and entrepreneurship. We believe that this is an important discussion in civic engagement and policymaking. We hope that you can attend at least one of many workshops and discussions that will be held over the course of the day.
Panels
Hacking the Act: Why Do SOPA and PIPA Matter? Speakers: Lon Jacobs (former General Counsel to News Corp), Derek Bambauer (BLS Professor), Robert Levine (author of Free Ride”), and Amyt Eckstein (Moses & Singer)
Government 2.0: A Primer on Crowdsourced Policymaking and Fostering Civic Engagement Through Technology. Speakers: Art Chang (Tipping Point), Sherwin Siy (Public Knowledge), Andrew Rasiej (Personal Democracy Media and NYTM)
And other speakers likely to include: Andrew McLaughlin (tumblr), Tim Wu (Columbia Law School), Christopher Libertelli (Netflix), Tim Hwang (Innovate/Activate), Nina Paley (cartoonist, animator, and free culture advocate), and Jonathan Askin (Brooklyn Law School)
Hack the Act
A week-long competition beginning the day of the Hackathon, interested teams will tackle a discreet issue of IP policy and collaboratively propose a new policy reform through online collaboration tool Docracy.
Workshops
Docracy is challenging participants to use their service to translate a legalese agreement into plain English using their service. http://www.docracy.com
WhyNot is brainstorming how to create a platform that will crowdsource the next Mayor of NYC. whynot.ly
The Calyx Institute is challenging participants to hack a model privacy policy for Internet service providers. http://www.calyxinstitute.org/
Creative Rights for Creative Children (CREATE) is hacking a new IP curriculum for students that properly accounts for creative privileges like fair use.
And more to come!
Find out more and register at legalhackathon.blipclinic.org.
