The Googlization of Everything

IntelligenceSquared presents:

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Google violates its 'don't be evil' motto

Moderator: John Donvan
Speaking for the motion: Harry Lewis, Randal C. Picker and Siva Vaidhyanathan
Speaking against the motion: John Battelle, Esther Dyson and Jeff Jarvis

$40.00 Tickets Available

Moderator

John Donvan is a correspondent for ABC News Nightline. He has served over a career of more than two decades in the following capacities for ABC News: chief White House correspondent, chief Moscow correspondent, Amman bureau chief, Jerusalem correspondent and correspondent for the ABC News magazine Turning Point. Donvan's most recent major assignment was covering the war in Iraq as a unilateral reporter, for which the Chicago Sun Times named him one of the ten war stars.

Panelists for the motion

Harry Lewis, former Dean of Harvard College, is Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science at Harvard. In 2003 he was honored with the title of Harvard College Professor in honor of his teaching excellence. Over more than thirty years of teaching, Lewis has helped launch thousands of Harvard undergraduates into careers in computer science. He is the author of five books on computer science and co-author of Blown to Bits: Your Life, Liberty, and Happiness after the Digital Explosion (2008).

Randal C. Picker is the Paul H. and Theo Leffmann Professor of Commercial Law at the University of Chicago Law School. He is also a senior fellow at The Computation Institute of the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory and has for a number of years taught a class at the Graduate School of Business of the University of Chicago. Picker’s recent research has focused on questions relating to copyright, antitrust and network industries. He is co-author of the book, Game Theory and the Law, as well as a textbook on secured transactions.

Siva Vaidhyanathan is a cultural historian and media scholar, and is currently an associate professor of media studies and law at the University of Virginia. The Chronicle of Higher Education has called Vaidhyanathan “one of academe’s best-known scholars of intellectual property and its role in contemporary culture.” His blog, googlizationofeverything.com is a book in progress, dedicated to exploring the process of writing a critical interpretation of the actions and intentions behind the cultural behemoth that is Google, Inc.

Panelists against the motion

John Battelle is founder, chairman, and CEO of Federated Media Publishing Inc. He also co-founded and continues to serve as executive producer of the Web 2.0 Summit conference. Battelle was founder, chairman, and CEO of Standard Media International, publisher of the Industry Standard and TheStandard.com. Prior to that, he was a co-founding editor of Wired magazine. He is author of the international bestseller, The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture.

Esther Dyson is well qualified to opine on Google. In 1997, she wrote Release 2.0: A Design for Living in the Digital Age, about the impact of the Internet on individuals and society. She has followed Google almost from its inception, and had (and sold) pre-IPO shares (through Kleiner Perkins). She is an investor in and director of two relevant companies: 23andMe, co-founded by Sergey Brin's wife, and Yandex, Russia's leading search engine, with approximately 60-percent market share to Google's 20.

Jeff Jarvis is writing a book, WWGD? - What Would Google Do?, that reverse-engineers the company's success and applies those lessons and laws to other industries. He writes about media and technology on his blog, Buzzmachine.com and for the Guardian. Jarvis is director of the interactive journalism program at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. He was creator and founding editor of Entertainment Weekly and Sunday editor and associate publisher of the New York Daily News.

Google is a registered trademark of Google Inc.

All debates take place at our venue, Caspary Auditorium at The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue at 66th Street, New York City. Reception 6:00 p.m. Debate 6:45 p.m. Finish 8:30 p.m.