
He also served as a Special Assistant at the U.S. John came to work at Harvard Law School from the law firm Ropes & Gray, where he worked on intellectual property, Internet law, and private equity transactions. At the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, he served as executive director from 2002-2008 and continued on as a faculty director through 2019. Ess III Professor of Law and Vice Dean for Library and Information Resources at Harvard Law School. Prior to Andover, John served as the Henry N.

He served as Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Knight Foundation and as a Board member of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, the Boston Athenaeum, and MIT Press. John previously served as the 15th Head of School at Phillips Academy, Andover. He was a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholar to the University of Cambridge. John is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, member of the American Antiquarian Society, and fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society. He is the author, co-author, or editor of ten books, including The Connected Parent: An Expert Guide to Parenting in a Digital World (Basic Books, 2020) (with Urs Gasser) Safe Spaces, Brave Spaces: Diversity and Free Expression in Education (MIT Press, 2017) Born Digital: How Children Grow Up in a Digital Age (Basic Books, revised edition, 2016) (with Urs Gasser) BiblioTech: Why Libraries Matter More Than Ever in the Age of Google (Basic Books, 2015) Interop: The Promise and Perils of Highly Interconnected Systems (Basic Books, 2012) (with Urs Gasser) Intellectual Property Strategy (MIT Press, 2012) and Access Denied: The Practice and Politics of Global Internet Filtering (MIT Press, 2008), Access Controlled: The Shaping of Power, Rights, and Rule in Cyberspace (MIT Press, 2010) and Access Contested: Security, Identity, and Resistance in Asian Cyberspace (MIT Press, 2012) (all co-edited).

He has written extensively on Internet law, intellectual property, diversity, and the potential of new technologies to strengthen democracies locally and around the world. John’s writing, research, and teaching focuses on new media and learning.
