By Royze Adolfo 

Every Wednesday, Berkterns gather to meet with at least one influential member of the Berkman community. During that hour, interns learn about various projects, ask questions, share thoughts and ideas, and find ways to interact and get involved with other arenas.

Two Wednesdays ago, Prof. Yochai Benkler welcomed the Berkterns to their first intern hour and shared with all of us his most recent Internet and Democracy project plans. Prof. Benkler is particularly concerned about the networked public sphere and works with his team to utilize tools such us media clouds to trace how alternative news publications and blogs cover SOPA/PIPA-related issues. His research shows that traditional media do not play as integral a role in covering technology issues as do online technology publications, personal blogs, and alternative media, bringing about a new concentration of power.

Prof. Benkler sharing his Networked Public Sphere project to the Berkterns

Just last Wednesday, Prof. Charles Nesson spent some time with the Berkterns after hosting a full day conference with Mindsport grandmasters in the games of chess, checkers, Go!, bridge, and poker. Charlie, as the founder of the Berkman Center, gave a history of the Center, its goals and plans and continued the evening with fun games, poker lessons, and multiple mini-tournaments with the five grandmasters.

Prof. Nesson teaches the art of poker to a few interns

World Series Poker Player James McManus coaches Berkterns on how to play poker.

Two Berkterns battle it out on a chessboard

With quite a few more Berktern hours to go, the interns are sure to meet a ton more amazing and influential people within the Berkman circle!