The fourth day of the Conference, Brazilian neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis presented his projects and research concerned with computer-brain interfaces that allow actions to be transmitted through the brain directly to computers, without passing through organs or muscles. The experiment started in 2003. On of his inspirations was to create the possibility for people who had suffered from serious neurological injuries to be able to send commands from the brain to mechanical prosthetics, as exemplified in the project, Walking Again. Nicolelis emphasized that the human brain is not something that is able to be reproduced on a computer. “We are protected by copyright,” he joked.

The Keynote session was followed by a discussion panel about Net Neutrality and Internet Freedom, conducting by Tim Berners-Lee and deputy Alessandro Molon, representative from the Marco Civil da Internet project. Currently, the project is expected to be voted on in Congress, but is struggling due to resistance from internet providers. For Berners-Lee, the Marco Civil da Internet puts Brazil in the leading position in terms of web legislation. It highlights that neutrality of the internet needs to be respected as human rights and it should be the fight of Brazilian citizens to ensure that this legislation succeeds.

Other highlights from the day:

Quora

The panel Wisdom in the Social Crowd: an Analysis of Quora presented results of a detailed analysis of Quora using measurements.

FreeNet

“On line, collaborative, open Platforms for video on the web” was a panel about a global collaborative film project  focused on discuss internet freedom and net neutrality.

Google+

The panel Google+ or Google-: Dissecting the Evolution of the New OSN in its First Year presented a detailed characterization of G+ based on large scale measurements.

Highlights from the day on Storify: https://storify.com/gabiagustini/www2013-conference-day-4

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