Speaker Evgeny Morozov, a thinker and commentator on the political impact of the Internet and a well known opponent of internet utopianism, will discuss Haystack, an anti-censorship software program created in June 2009, during the aftermath of the Iranian tragedy, by Daniel Colascione co-founder of the Censorship Research Center. Haystack emerged in the wake of the repression after the Iranian election of June 2009. After achieving considerable public prominence, its use and distribution was recently halted. Questions have been raised about Haystack’s effectiveness and security, as well as the roots of its reputation. Morozov will discuss the Haystack experience and the lessons it carries for circumvention technologies and, more broadly, for the evaluation and political deployment of new information technologies.

Evgeny Morozov is a contributing editor to Foreign Policy and runs the magazine’s Net Effect blog about the Internet’s impact on global politics. Evgeny is currently a Yahoo! fellow at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University. Prior to his appointment to Georgetown, he was a fellow at the Open Society Institute, where he remains on the board of the Information Program. Before moving to the US, Evgeny was based in Berlin and Prague, where he was Director of New Media at Transitions Online, a media development NGO active in 29 countries of the former Soviet bloc. He is writing a book about the Internet and democracy, to be published this fall by Public Affairs.

Open to the public, no RSVP required.