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Free online lectures: Explore a world of ideas

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All Speakers

  • Siva Vaidhyanathan, Professor of Media Studies and Law at the University of Virginia, is the author of Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How It Threatens Creativity and The Anarchist in the Library: How the Clash between Freedom and Control is Hacking the Real World and Crashing the System.
  • David Rodowick is a professor of Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard University. He is most recently the author of *The Virtual Life of Film* (Harvard University Press, 2007) and *Reading the Figural**, or, Philosophy after the New Media *(Duke University Press, 2001), and his edited collection,* The Afterimage of Gilles Deleuze's Film Philosophy*, will be published by the University of Minnesota Press.
  • Jim Gettys is currently working on the One Laptop Per Child project, which uses open source systems for education on very inexpensive computers. He was previously at HP's Cambridge Research Lab working on the X Window System with Keith Packard, both on desktops and on embedded systems such as the HP iPAQ, where he helped start the handhelds.org project from which all Linux handheld and cellphone development stems. Jim worked at W3C on loan from Compaq Computer Corporation's Industry Standards and Consortia group from 1995-1999. He is the editor of the HTTP/1.1 specification (now an IETF Draft Standard). Jim Gettys joined W3C in 1995 on secondment from Digital (now part of HP). Jim is one of the principle authors of the X Window System, edited the HTTP/1.1 specification for the IETF, and and one of the authors of AF, a network transparent audio server system, Jim's interests and experience span large scale systems design, implementation and management, collaborative systems, teleconferencing and most areas of Web technology. He is interested in mobile desktop and handheld distributed computing.
  • Curtis Sittenfeld is the author of the bestselling novels American Wife, Prep, and The Man of My Dreams, which are being translated into twenty-five languages. Prep also was chosen as one of the Ten Best Books of 2005 by The New York Times, nominated for the UK's Orange Prize, and optioned by Paramount Pictures. Curtis won the Seventeen magazine fiction writing contest in 1992, at age sixteen, and since then her writing has appeared in many publications, including The Atlantic Monthly, Salon, Glamour, and on public radio's This American Life. A graduate of Stanford University and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, she was the 2002 - 2003 writer in residence at St. Albans School in Washington, D.C.
  • Professor Northrup teaches courses on the history of sub-Saharan Africa, Atlantic history, globalization, and world history. His research has dealt with pre-colonial Nigeria, early colonial Congo, the Atlantic slave trade, Asian and African indentured labor migration, and African encounters with Europe in the pre-colonial era. His work has included British, Belgian, and French colonialism in Africa. He served as President of the World History Association during 2004 and 2005.
  • Ali A. Allawi is the former Minister of Finance, Defense, and Trade of Iraq. Currently, he is a senior visiting fellow at Princeton University. Born in Baghdad in 1947, Allawi graduated from MIT in 1968 with a BSc in Civil Engineering. He went on to do postgraduate studies in regional planning at the London School of Economics, and then obtained an MBA from Harvard University. Allawi was active in the opposition to the Baathist regime from 1968 onwards. He spent a number of years in finance in various positions outside Iraq, including a position at the World Bank. In 1978, he co-founded Arab International Finance, a merchant bank based in London, and in 1992, he founded Fisa Group, which manages two hedge funds. From 1999-2002, he was a Senior Associate Member at St. Anthony's College, Oxford University.
  • Howard Manly is the executive editor of the *Bay State Banner*. His journalism career started in January 1982 at *The New Bedford* *Standard Times* and includes stints at *The Washington Times*, *The Philadelphia Inquirer*, *New York Newsday*, *Newsweek* and *The Boston Globe*. Prior to joining the Banner in August 2005, Manly wrote a thrice-weekly column on the opinion pages of *The Boston Herald*. Manly is also the co-author of *Lift Every Voice*, a non-fiction account of the Boys Choir of Harlem. Manly's career in television started as an on-air correspondent on *Greater Boston*, a nightly news show airing on WGBH-TV, a PBS affiliate. He also hosted *Basic Black,* a 30-minute, public affairs show on WGBH that focused on African American news. A graduate of the St. Albans School in Washington, D.C., Manly received a B.A. in International Relations from Bucknell University.
  • Laurie Donnelly serves as Executive Producer for "Go Put Your Strengths to Work". As the Emmy Award-winning Executive Producer in charge of the WGBH Lifestyle Unit, Donnelly also helps guide content and provides invaluable direction for some of public televisions most high-profile series, including *This Old House*, *Ask This Old House*, and *Real Simple*. Additionally, she is currently the Executive Producer of the Emmy Award-winning PBS series *The Victory Garden* and the public television series *Simply Ming* starring celebrity chef Ming Tsai. Donnelly's past production credits include the recent prime-time PBS reality series *Cooking Under Fire*, the popular and long-running special *Evening at Pops*, and several highly acclaimed how-to programs including fitness specials with wellness guru *Loretta LaRoche*, *The Motley Fools Money-Making*, life-changing special *Hot off the Grill*, and the on-air radio cooking special *From Julias Kitchen with Julia Child*.
  • Michael Wilson assumed his responsibilities as Ambassador on March 13, 2006, becoming the 22nd representative of Canada to the United States. Prior to taking up his current position in Washington, Ambassador Wilson was Chairman of UBS Canada, an operating division of UBS AG, one of the world's leading financial institutions where he oversaw all UBS operations in Canada. In 1979, Ambassador Wilson was elected to the House of Commons. In September,1984 he was appointed Minister of Finance and remained in that position until May 1991. He then became Minister of Industry, Science and Technology and Minister for International Trade. During his tenure as a member of the Cabinet, Ambassador Wilson represented Canada at the IMF, IBRD, OECD, GATT and the G-7 Ministers meetings. Ambassador Wilson is active in a number of professional and community organizations including the NeuroScience Canada Partnership, The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, the Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships and the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance. Mr. Wilson is an Officer of the Order of Canada, and has honorary degrees from the University of Toronto and York University.