What we know, how we know it, and what we do with it are all tightly coupled, and the relationships between them change as do our systems for producing, representing, and communicating knowledge. Moveable type and universal literacy ushered a dramatic reformulation of society: many historians believe it made contemporary democracy possible. Today, information and communication technologies are having similarly sweeping effects, and the need for technical understanding and data literacy -- and laws to ensure free data -- may be just as great. The possibilities opened (and closed) by information technologies are profound enough that entire industries and institutions have had to radically alter their structures and practices to adapt, but in many cases they cannot and do not. How can one understand the major structural changes these technologies can afford? And how can we advocate for technologies that will help to co-create the society we want?

Christopher Csikszentmihályi directs the MIT Center for Future Civic Media. Drawing on work from the Center, he will offer 33 Variables of Community and Information in 33 Minutes, looking at how the history of media and technology help us to understand these transformations.

Ben Fry directs the Seed Media Group's visualization strategy and research labs, and co-directs the Processing project, a programming language for visualization. He will talk about data literacy and his work to increase it.

Discussants:

Matt Carroll is a reporter at the Boston Globe who specializes in computer-assisted reporting and handles the paper's growing library of databases. In 1994 he started the Globe's first internal website; he will speak about data journalism and the city paper.

Martin Wattenberg is a computer scientist and artist. He is the founding manager of IBM's Visual Communication Lab, and will update us with the view from his project Many Eyes.