Yochai Benkler is the Berkman Professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies at Harvard, and faculty co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. His research focuses on the effects of net-based information production on our lives, minds, and laws.

His books include The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom (Yale University Press 2006), which won academic awards from the American Political Science Association, the American Sociological Association, and the McGannon award for social and ethical relevance in communications. It has been called “perhaps the best work yet about the fast moving, enthusiast-driven Internet” by the Financial Times and named best business book about the future in 2006 by Strategy and Business.

A particular focus has been the neglected role of commons-based approaches towards management of resources in the digitally networked environment. As such, his work can be freely accessed at benkler.org, and when The Wealth of Networks was released digitally with a Creative Commons license, it was mixed and remixed online by fans. He’s won the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Pioneer Award for 2007, Public Knowledge’s IP3 Award in 2006, and the Ford Foundation Visionaries Award in 2011.