May 2013

General Information

Social Studies is an interdisciplinary concentration in the social sciences at Harvard College. For more than five decades it has brought together outstanding teachers and intellectually engaged students who share not only a fascination with social science research and theory but also concerns about pressing social, political, and economic problems facing contemporary societies. Members of the Committee are united in their belief that rigorous social science inquiry must cross disciplinary boundaries and that it should be based on an understanding of classic and...

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Ho-ho-hold the phone: Santa’s on the line

Last year, Santa got his very own Google Voice number, and people around the U.S. received a special personalized holiday phone call from Santa Claus.

This year, Santa wants you to reach out to him (after all, reindeer are only so-so conversationalists). If you or your family members have a special request for Santa, you can call him right from Gmail* and leave him a message at his Google Voice number: 855-34-SANTA....

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Ending the year with another clean energy investment

We’ve made a new $94 million investment in a portfolio of four solar photovoltaic (PV) projects being built by Recurrent Energy near Sacramento, California. This brings our portfolio of clean energy investments to more than $915 million. We’ve already committed to providing funding this year to help more than 10,000 homeowners install solar PV panels on their rooftops. But this investment represents our first investment in the U.S. in larger scale solar PV power plants that generate energy for the ...

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Micah Altman speaks at NAS workshop "Public Access to Federally-Supported Research and Development Data and Publications"

Micah Altman, collaborator on the Privacy Tools for Sharing Research Data project, gave a presentation on "Connecting Research, Publications, and Evidence: The Lifecycle and Institutional Ecology of Data" at the NAS workshop "Public Access to Federally-Supported Research and Development Data and Publications" on May 16-17, 2013....

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PhD defense by Jon Ullman (Privacy Tools researcher)

Title: Privacy and the Complexity of Simple Queries
Speaker: Jonathan Ullman (student of Privacy Tools PI Salil Vadhan)
Time: Monday, May 6, 3:30 - 5:00 PM
Place: Cruft 309

Abstract:
As both the scope and scale of data collection increases, an increasingly large amount of sensitive personal information is being analyzed.  We study the feasibility of carrying out that socially beneficial analysis while respecting individual...

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"The Business of Personal Data" (TIP-TIG Discussion)

Technology in Government (TIG) and Topics in Privacy (TIP)
When: 5/6/2013, refreshments served at 2:30pm, discussion 3 to 4pm in room K354, at 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.
Title: The Business of Personal Data
Discussants: Adam Tanner

Abstract:
Gathering personal information on individual consumers has become the financial lifeblood of the Internet and, increasingly, of many business operations. Who...

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