What we do
Based at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, the Decentralized Information Group was founded and is led by Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web and Daniel Weitzner, the former White House Deputy CTO for Internet Policy. DIG's work is closely coordinated with the activities of the World Wide Web Consortium, the international standards-setting organization for the Web.
At DIG, we explore the consequences of information on the Web: Where it comes from, what happens to it, and what are the rules for using it. Some of the issues we think about are: What do social networks reveal about you and your friends? How can linking across scientific databases promote research? What are the policies that determine how government agencies can share data? How can we promote good impacts of information sharing, while minimizing risks and harmful effects? In our work, we take the perspective that information on the Web should travel together with additional data that says where the information comes from (provenance and context) and how it should be used (policy). We build tools to help people control the policies governing information, and we build automated reasoning systems to help determine whether information use complies with policy. Learn more.
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Tim Berners-Lee gives Introduction to Linked Open Data which is a way to unlock our data and reframe the way we use it together presented at TED 2009 |
Danny Weitzner presents testimony on accountable systems architecture to the US Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board hearing on NSA surveillance issues. |
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Hal Abelson's "Myths about Privacy" talk which clarifies the various misconceptions regarding Privacy and Security on the web presented at the W3C Privacy and Data Usage Workshop 2010 |
Some of our Projects
 Tabulator Extension: A Firefox Extension that provides a human-readable interface for linked data. It is based on the Tabulator browser for Semantic Web information (RDF). [Paper, Presentation] |
 Semantic Clipboard: An enhancement to the Tabulator Extension that allows cutting and pasting of pictures that preserves policy information such as the copyright license. [Paper, Presentation, Screencast] |
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Semantic Web Widget Library: A Javascript library for creating user interfaces for viewing and editing Semantic Web data, in a way that can be integrated into any Website. [Thesis] |
Accountable Information Usage in Fusion Center Information Sharing Environments: A demonstration system for Department of Homeland Security to support sharing of information by Fusion Centers in a way that complies with applicable law and policy. Fusion Centers are the contact points for cooderinating information between Federal, State and Local law enforcement and intelligence agencies.[Paper, Screencast] |
Selected Publications
- Daniel J. Weitzner, Harold Abelson, Tim Berners-Lee, Joan Feigenbaum, James Hendler, and Gerald Jay Sussman; Information Accountability, in Communications of the ACM, 51 , 6, June 2008. A high-level introduction to the information accountability perspective as an alternative and a complement to access control.
- T. Berners-Lee, W. Hall, J. Hendler, N. Shadbolt, D. Weitzner; Creating a Science of the Web. Science Vol 313, 11 August 2006.
- Daniel J. Weitzner , Harold Abelson, Tim Berners-lee , Chris Hanson , James Hendler , Lalana Kagal , Deborah L. Mcguinness , Gerald Jay Sussman , K. Krasnow Waterman; Transparent Accountable Data Mining: New Strategies for Privacy Protection,AAAI Spring Symposium on The Semantic Web meets eGovernment, 2006.
- Weitzner, Hendler, Berners-Lee, Connolly, Creating the Policy-Aware Web: Discretionary, Rules-based Access for the World Wide Web
- Design Issues: Technical and philosophical notes on web architecture. A series of notes about how the web actually works and how to design new technology.
Courses
- MIT 6.932J/15.377J - Linked Data Aventures (Fall 2013) (Tim Berners-Lee, Lalana Kagal)
- MIT Joint Subject: 6.945J, 8.35J, 12.620J, 12.008 - Classical Mechanics: A Computational Approach (Fall 2013) ( Gerald Sussman, Jack Wisdom)
- MIT 6.S198 - Building Mobile Applications (Fall 2013) (Hal Abelson, Jose Dominguez)
- MIT 6.945- Adventures in Advanced Symbolic Programming (Spring 2013) taught by Gerald Sussman
- MIT 6.805 - Ethics and Law on the Electronic Frontier (Hal Abelson and Daniel Weitzner)
Current News
- November 7, 2013:Tim Berners-Lee calls for international protections for whistleblowers
- November 6, 2013: Tim Berners-Lee: encryption cracking by spy agencies 'appalling and foolish'
- October 29, 2013:Hal Abelson: MIT and the Aaron Swartz Affair
- October 4, 2013:The Lessons of Aaron Swartz
- September 30, 3013: Building disaster-relief phone apps on the fly
- September 12, 2013:Kagal Promoted to Principal Research Scientist
- August 23, 2013: Tim Berners-Lee is the Robert Oppenheimer of the internet, we should salute him for it
- July 30, 2013: Report to the President: MIT and the Prosecution of Aaron Swartz
- July 12, 2013: Tim Berners-Lee: Net neutrality 'regulation needed'
- June 26, 2013: Tim Berners-Lee: internet freedom must be safeguarded
- June 26, 2013: Tim Berners-Lee warns against governments controlling the Web
- June 26, 2013: Sir Tim Berners-Lee slams governments for 'seriously spying' on the internet
- June 10, 2013: Tim Berners-Lee calls NSA surveillance an 'intrusion on basic human rights'
- May 31, 2013: Civic Media at Sun Yat Sen University – Hal Abelson
- March 29, 2013: Ex-White House Official Joins Group Fighting "Excessive" Online Privacy Laws
- March 18, 2013: Berners-Lee wins engineering prize for world wide web
- March 7, 2013: Weitzner honored with International Association of Privacy Professionals Leadership Award
- February 2, 2013: Common Knowledge in the Info Age
- January 23, 2013: The Tech publishes letters from Professor Hal Abelson, President L. Rafael Reif
- January 13, 2013: MIT’s President Orders Internal Investigation Into Its Handling Of Aaron Swartz’s Case
- October 5, 2012: Fuming Shih and Frances Zhang, CSAIL, are investigating how much smartphone apps know about users
- June 25, 2012: Weitzner departing White House for MIT
- April 30, 2012:Abelson Honored as Outstanding Educator
- April 20, 2012: Tim Berners-Lee Says UK's Net Spying Plans Would Be 'Destruction Of Human Rights'
- April 11, 2012:Tim Berners-Lee: Tell Facebook, Google you want your data back
- February 12, 2012: Web Firms to Adopt 'No Track' Button
- February 8, 2012: Tim Berners-Lee Takes the Stand to Keep the Web Free
