Viktor Mayer-Schönberger (born 1966) is Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation at the

Oxford Internet Institute The Oxford Internet Institute (OII) is a multi-disciplinary department of social and computer science dedicated to the study of information, communication, and technology, and is part of the Social Sciences Division of the University of Oxford ...

, University of Oxford. He conducts research into the

network economy The network economy is the emerging economic order within the information society. The name stems from a key attribute - products and services are created and value is added through social networks operating on large or global scales. This is in ...

. Earlier he spent ten years on the faculty of Harvard's

John F. Kennedy School of Government The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...

. He is the co-author of ''Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think'' (HMH, 2013) and author of ''Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age'' (Princeton, 2009), which won the 2010 Marshall McLuhan Award for Outstanding Book and the 2010 Don K. Price Award for Best Book in Science and Technology Politics, and has written over a hundred articles and book chapters. He is a member of Germany's Digital Council, advising Angela Merkel and her cabinet.

Biography

Mayer-Schönberger was born in 1966 in

Zell am See, Austria Zell may refer to: Places Austria * Zell am See, in Salzburg state * Zell am Ziller, in Tyrol * Zell, Carinthia, in Carinthia * in Upper Austria: ** Bad Zell ** Zell am Moos ** Zell an der Pram ** Zell am Pettenfirst Germany * Zell im Fichtelgebi ...

, where his mother owned a local cinema. After leaving secondary school in his hometown, he studied law for seven terms at the University of Salzburg. During this time, he competed successfully in the International Physics Olympiad and the Austrian Young Programmers Contest. In 1986, he founded Ikarus Software and developed ''Virus Utilities'', one of the best-selling software products in Austria. He subsequently earned law degrees at the University of Salzburg ( Mag.iur., '88,

Dr. iur. Legum Doctor (Latin: “teacher of the laws”) (LL.D.) or, in English, Doctor of Laws, is a doctorate-level academic degree in law or an honorary degree, depending on the jurisdiction. The double “L” in the abbreviation refers to the earl ...

'91) and at

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

(LL.M. '89). In 1992 he received a M.Sc. (Econ) from the London School of Economics, and in 2001 the venia docendi on (among others) information law at the University of Graz. He also worked in his father's accounting business. In 1998 he joined the faculty of Harvard Kennedy School, where he worked and taught for ten years. After three years at

Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy The Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKY School) is an autonomous postgraduate school of the National University of Singapore (NUS), named after the late former Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew. History The Lee Kuan Yew School of ...

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School, NUS is the oldest autonomous university in the c ...

, Mayer-Schönberger currently holds the Chair of Internet Governance and Regulation at the

. He has been advising businesses, governments and international organisations.

Work

Mayer-Schönberger's research focuses on the role of information in the networked economy. Among other things, he has been studying data privacy, governance in virtual worlds, law and entrepreneurship, e-government, and (more recently) big data. He has been advocating a right to be forgotten in the form of expiration dates on personal information.

Awards

*1991 - Top-5 Software Entrepreneur in Austria *2000 - Person of the Year for the State of Salzburg * 2010 - Marshall McLuhan Award for Outstanding Book in the field of media ecology * 2010 - Don K. Price Award *2013 - Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award, shortlisted for ''Big Data'' *2018 - getAbstract Business Book of the Year Award, shortlisted for ''Reinventing Capitalism in the Age of Big Data'' *2018 - Best Business Books 2018: Innovation for ''Reinventing Capitalism in the Age of Big Data''https://www.strategy-business.com/article/Best-Business-Books-2018-Innovation?gko=661db Strategy+Business

Recent publications

*''Das Recht am Info-Highway'', LexisNexis, 1997, *''Information und Recht'', Vom Datenschutz bis zum Urheberrecht, Springer, 2000, *''Datenschutzgesetz, Linde'', 2006 *''Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age'', Princeton University Press, 2009, *''Big Data: A Revolution That Transforms How we Work, Live, and Think" (with

Kenneth Cukier Kenneth Neil Cukier (born 1968) is an American journalist and author of books on technology and society. He is best known for his work at ''The Economist'' and the book ''Big Data: A Revolution that Will Transform How We Work, Live and Think'', coa ...

)'', Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012, *''Reinventing Capitalism in the Age of Big Data'' (with Thomas Ramge), Hodder & Stoughton General Division, 2018,

References

* * * *

External links

*
Why we must remember to delete – and forget – in the digital age
'' article by Stuart Jeffries in '' The Guardian,'' 30 June 2011 {{DEFAULTSORT:Mayer-Schonberger, Viktor Austrian academics 1966 births Living people Harvard Law School alumni University of Salzburg alumni Alumni of the London School of Economics Fellows of Keble College, Oxford Harvard Kennedy School faculty