The Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet) is a scholarly community which aims: (i) to promote the development of Internet Governance as a recognized interdisciplinary field of study and (ii) to facilitate the informed dialogue on policy and issues in a multistakeholder approach.

To fulfill its goals, GigaNet has organized an annual research symposium since 2006. Held in conjunction with the Internet Governance Forum, it is an opportunity to showcase current research on Internet Governance from around the world and provides a venue for scholars to discuss and debate these crucial issues.

Prior successful symposia in Greece (2006), Brazil (2007), India (2008) and Egypt (2009) lead us to the Fifth GigaNet Symposium to be held in Vilnius, Lithuania, on September 13th, 2010 – one day before the IGF official opening, at LITEXPO. This year’s Symposium is graciously sponsored in part by the MIT Press, with facilities provided by the IGF Secretariat.

Registration is free of charge. If you are planning to either attend in person or remotely participate, please register at http://tinyurl.com/2010giganetsymposium. Remote participants can find further instructions for participating here. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact: giganetsymposium2010@easychair.org

Fifth GigaNet Annual Symposium

LITEXPO (Hall 5, Room 3), Vilnius, Lithuania [VIEW SITE MAP]

September 13, 2010

Program [pdf]

(Last update: 6 September 2010)

9:00-9:15 Opening & Welcome

9:15-10:30 PANEL 1: Internet governance theory and issue

Moderator: William Drake, Centre for International Governance of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva

• Peng Hwa Ang and Natalie Pang, Going Beyond Talk: Can International Internet Governance Work? – ANG and PANG.pdf

• Everton Lucero, Global Governance of Critical Internet Resources: A Perspective from the South – LUCERO.pdf

• Jean-Marie Chenou, Multistakeholderism or elitism? The creation of a transnational field of Internet governance – CHENOU.pdf

10:30-11:00 Poster Session and Coffee Break (sponsored by MIT Press)

11:00-12:15 PANEL 2: State power and Internet governance

Moderator: Rolf Weber, European Law Institute and the Center for Information and Communication Law at the University of Zurich

• Joanna Kulesza, State responsibility for acts of cyber-terrorism – KULESKA.pdf

• Jeremy Shtern, Models of Global Internet Governance and the Projection of State Power: The Case of Facebook and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada –  SHTERN.pdf

• Lorena Jaume-Palasi and Ben Wagner, Nosy preferences of Google and China: Modeling an internet governance conflict using Amartya Sen’s liberal paradox – PALASI and WAGNER.pdf

12:15-12:45 Book Release Event

Introduction given by William Drake, editor of the MIT Press series on “The Information Revolution and Global Politics”, followed by remarks from Milton Mueller, author of the newly released book, “Networks and States: the Global Politics of Internet Governance”.

12:45-13:30 Lunch Break

13:30-14:45 PANEL 3: Interaction of technology, operations and governance

Moderator: Meryem Marzouki, LIP6/PolyTIC – CNRS

• Brenden Kuerbis, Securing Internet routing: Influence and control of critical Internet resources through social networks and delegation – KUERBIS.pdf

• Dmitry Epstein, Qiu-Hong Wang, Viktor Mayer-Schönberger and Milton Mueller, What’s in the name? A behavioral study of the use of the URLs in China and the US – EPSTEIN AT AL.pdf

• Laura DeNardis, The Privatization Of Internet Governance – DENARDIS – The Privitization of Internet Governance.pdf

14:45-15:45 PANEL 4: IGF practice, multistakeholderism and emerging issues

• Nanette Levinson, Evaluating and Analyzing Collaboration In Cross-cultural and Cross-sectoral Perspective: Indicators from The Internet Governance Forum – LEVINSON.pdf

• Ivar Alberto Hartmann, Universal Access policies and Internet Access as a Fundamental Right: The Constitutional Law Perspective informed by the Brazilian Case – HARTMANN.pdf

15:45-16:00 Closing

16:00-16:30 Poster Session and Coffee Break (sponsored by MIT Press)

16:30-17:30 GigaNet Business Meeting (open to members and potential applicants)

Convener: GigaNet Chair, Milton Mueller

Poster session:

• Charlotte Bogusz, Openness and Privacy v/ Security : The example of filtering measures – BOGUZS – Neutrality.pdf

• Charlotte Bogusz, The promotion of the general interest through ICTs : The French and Senegalese examples – BOGUSZ – Deployment of TIC to the benefit of knowledge societies and of general interest.pdf

• Daniel Oppermann, Analysing cybercrime from a multistakeholder perspective

• Luiz Costa, The Internet and the Constitutional restrictions on foreign participation in Brazilian Media – COSTA – The Internet and the Constitutional restrictions on foreign participation in Brazilian.pdf

• Luiz Costa, A case study on the Brazilian E-Commerce Forum

• Mona Badran, Is internet changing the social life of Egyptian college students and affecting their privacy?

• Rolf H. Weber, Policies for Governing Critical Internet Resources

• Shawn Gunnarson, Securing ICANN’s Accountability – GUNNARSON – Accountability After the AoC.pdf

• Sofiane Bouhdiba, Internet governance and Education: the Tunisian Virtual University in the context of the Tunis agenda

Many thanks to the 2010 Program Committee members:

• Slavka Antonova, University of North Dakota, USA

• Lamees El Baghdady, Modern Sciences and Art University, Egypt

• Roy Balleste, St. Thomas University, USA

• Olga Cavalli, South SSIG, Argentina

• Dmitry Epstein, Cornell University, USA

• Marianne Franklin, University of London, UK

• Raquel Gatto – PC Chair, PUC-SP, Brazil

• Konstantinos Komaitis – Membership Chair, University of Strathclyde, UK

• Brenden Kuerbis – Communications Chair, Syracuse University, USA

• Nanette Levinson, American University, USA

• Milton Mueller – GigaNet Chair, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands

Fourth GigaNet Annual Symposium

Sharm-El-Sheikh, Egypt

14 November 2009

The Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet) is a scholarly community which aims: (i) to promote the development of Internet Governance as a recognized interdisciplinary field of study and (ii) to facilitate the informed dialogue on policy and issues in a multistakeholder approach.

In order to fulfills its goals, since 2006, it has been organizing a collective premier research event, the GigaNet Annual Symposium at the Internet Governance Forum meetings, which is an opportunity to showcase some of the best current research on Internet Governance from around the world and provides a venue for scholars to discuss and debate these crucial issues.

Prior successful symposia in Greece (2006), Brazil (2007) and India (2008) lead us to the Fourth GigaNet Symposium to be held in Sharm-El-Sheikh, Egypt, on November 14th, 2009- one day before the IGF official opening, at Maritim Sharm El Sheikh International Congress Centre (SHICC) – Room Nile Valley.  Also, we will again offer Remote Participation options for the Symposium.  Links to the recordings of the remote participation are below.

  

Symposium Program

KEYNOTE SPEECH:

Ronald J. Deibert and Rafal Rohozinski, “Beyond Denial: Introducing the Next Generation of Internet Controls”

 

8:00- 9:00 CREDENTIALS (All times are local to Sharm-el-Sheik. To identify the time in your location, see TimeandDatecom).

 Recording of Remote Participation for Morning Sessions

9:00 – 9:15 – Opening Session

9:15 – 10:00 PANEL 1 – What is Internet Governance?

Conceptualizing Internet Governance
William J. Drake, Centre for International Governance, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies 

Why the Field of Internet Governance is not About Internet Governance

Michel van Eeten, Delft University of Technology

MODERATOR: Hans Klein, Georgia Institute of Technology

 

10:00 – 11:00 – KEYNOTE SPEECH

Beyond Denial: Introducing the Next Generation of Internet Controls

Ronald J. Deibert, Professor and Director, The Citizen Lab, Munk Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto, Canada.

Rafal Rohozinski, CEO at Psiphon Inc., Principal and CEO at The SecDev Group, Ottawa, Canada.

 

11:00 – 11:30 MORNING COFFEE BREAK AND POSTER SESSIONS

 

11:30 – 12:30 PANEL 2 – CYBERSECURITY

More than a feeling – conceptualizing Internet security governance

Andreas Schmidt, Delft University of Technology  

Who Provides National Cyber Security?v 

Y.J. Park, Delft University of Technology

Do the Internet Security Alerts Have an Impact on Lowering ccTLD Security Level?

Jay Rajasekera, from International University of Japan and Suvashis Das, from Nagaoka University of Technology.

MODERATOR: John Laprise, Northwestern University in Qatar

 

12:30 – 14:00 LUNCH

 Recording of Remote Participation for Afternoon Sessions

 

14:00 – 15:30 PANEL 3 – FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND INTERNET BILL OF RIGHTS

The Internet Bill of Rights Project: A Way to Reconcile Natural Freedoms and Needs for Regulation?

Francesca Musiani, Centre de Sociologie de l’Innovation, MINES ParisTech

The ethical dimensions of internet governance: the utility of the human rights framework.

Lisa Horner, GLOBAL PARTNERS AND ASSOCIATES, LONDON

Max Senges, Stanford University, Palo Alto

Governmental Filtering of Websites: the Dutch Case

W.Ph. Stol, NHL-University of Applied Sciences Leeuwarden and Open University of the Netherlands,Chair Police Studies;

H.K.W. Kaspersen, Free University Amsterdam, Computer Law Institute;

1. Kerstens,NHL-University of Applied Sciences Leeuwarden

E.R. Leukfeldt, NHL-University of Applied Sciences Leeuwarden  

A.R. Lodder, Free University Amsterdam, Computer Law Institute; 

Assessing Internet Controls in a Comparative Perspective: The development of Freedom House’s pilot index of global internet and digital media freedom

Karin Deutsch Karkelar andSarah G. Cook, both from Freedom House

Social Media and Global Internet Governance: innovations and limitations

Robert Bodle, College of Mount St. Joseph, USA. (awarded 2009 IGP fellowship)

MODERATOR: Meryem Marzouki, LIP6/PolyTIC – CNRS

 

15:30 – 16:30 PANEL 4 – MULTISTAKEHOLDERISM AND NEW APPROACHES

Evaluating Internet Governance innovation: the Internet Governance Forum and the construction of collaboration

Nanette S. Levinson, International Communication Program, School of International Service, American University,

Derrick L. Cogburn, Syracuse University and American University

Down on the mapping road. – Progresses and challenges of mapping Internet governance within theGlobal Media and Communication Governance landscape.

Elena Pavan, DSRS Unversity of Trento, Italy

Claudia Padovani, DSSP University of Padova, Italy

Defining the elephant: Discourse analysis of the Internet Governance – Debate at the World Telecommunication Policy Forum 2009

Dmitry Epstein, Communication, Cornell University, USA 

MODERATOR: Prof. Olga Cavalli, University of Buenos Aires

 

16:30 – 17:00 AFTERNOON COFFEE BREAK AND POSTER SESSIONS

 

17:00 – 18:30 PANEL 5 – EMERGING ISSUES AND CLOSING SESSION

Before the sky falls down: a ‘constitutional dialogue’ over the depletion of Internet addresses

Jeanette Hofmann, London School of Economics and Political Science,

Extension of Traditional “Internet Governance” to the Internet of Things

Prof. Rolf H. Weber, University of Zurich

Internet Governance and Social Development: Is this the Forgotten Key? The Impact on Cultural Diversity in the Caribbean

Marsha Guthrie, DiploFoundation
MODERATOR: Prof. Wolfgang Kleinwächter, University of Aarhus

 

 

 

POSTERS

Thoughts on the future of ICTs, human social behaviour and global governance.

Andrew Gordon, GlobalVote

The Law & Economics of cyber-security and privacy

Sergio Alves Júnior, University of Brasília – Department of Economics – Brazil

Internet Governance Typology: A Conceptual Framework for Practical Policy Analysis

Hans Klein, Georgia Institute of Technology

Internet Governance: a complex approach

Antonella Giulia Pizzaleo, Institute of Informatics and Telematics of CNR (National Center for Research) and Nexa Center for Internet and Society, Politecnico of Turin

From cyberpiracy to cyberattacks: Political science and the challenge of cyberwarfare

Jean-Loup Samaan, French Ministry of Defense

Regulating Internet Cafes in Mainland China: The Issues of Special Administrative Measures

Jing Xu, School of Journalism and Communication, Peking University

Stunting Economic Development south of the Mediterranean: The impact of internet censorship on e-business and e-commerce

Ben Wagner, Public Administration: International and Development Administration, Universiteit Leiden.

Nothing new under the sun: Jose Ortega y Gasset and the governance of the internet.

Deirdre Williams, Sir Arthur Lewis Community College, Castries St Lucia

 

 

 

 

2009 Program Committee members

Milton Mueller, Syracuse University, USA – (GigaNet Chair)

Raquel Gatto, PUC/SP, Brazil – (Program Committee Chair)

Lamees El Baghdady, Modern Sciences and Arts University, Egypt – (Symposium Coordinator)

Konstantinos Komaitis, University of Strathclyde, UK – (Membership Chair)

Nanette Levinson, American University, USA

Olga Cavalli, ITBA, Argentina

Becky Lentz, McGill University, Canada

Carolina Aguerre, Universidad San Andres, Argentina

Ana Abreu, University of São Carlos – UFSCAR, Brazil

The research agenda of GigaNet is driven by its diverse members. As a collective premier research event, GigaNet Program Committee organizes an Annual Symposium at the Internet Governance Forum meetings. The GigaNet Annual Symposium is an opportunity to showcase some of the best current research on Internet Governance from around the world and provides a venue for scholars to discuss and debate these crucial issues.

The  1st GigaNet Symposium was held in Athens, Greece, on 29 October 2006. The 2nd GigaNet Symposium was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 11 November 2007.
 

Third GigaNet Annual Symposium

Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh), India

2 December 2008

The Symposium brochure(with introduction, detailed program, acknowledgments and biographies), posterand list of pre-registered participants are available online, as well as the photo gallery of presenters

Program agenda with links to full papers and presenters’ photos>

9:00-9:30 Opening Session

Welcoming Remarks by GigaNet Chair

NANETTE S. LEVINSON, American University, USA

Program Overview by Program Chair

MERYEM MARZOUKI, CNRS & Université Pierre et Marie Curie, France

9:30-11:15 SESSION 1 – Chair: ROLF H. WEBER, University of Zürich, Switzerland
Networked Global Governance And The Institutionalization of Internet Governance

New Web Standards in the Making: Transnational Private Governance and Beyond

FRANÇOIS-XAVIER DUDOUET, CNRS & Université Paris-Dauphine, France
BENJAMIN NGUYEN (presenter), Université Versailles Saint-Quentin, France
ANTOINE VION (presenter), Université de la Méditerranée, France

Co-Creating Processes in Global Governance: The Case of Internet Governance
NANETTE S. LEVINSON, American University, USA

More Substance than Process: Information Government’s Lessons for Internet Governance
VIKTOR MAYER-SCHÖNBERGER (presenter), LKY School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore

Structuring Online and Offline Discursive Spaces of Internet Governance: Insights from a Network Approach to Map an Emerging Field
ELENA PAVAN (presenter), University of Trento, Italy
MARIO DIANI, University of Trento, Italy

ICANN’s GAC and Global Governance of the Internet: The Role of the EU in Bringing Back ‘Government’ to Internet Governance
JAMAL SHAHIN (presenter), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium & Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland
MATTHIAS FINGER, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland

11:15-11:45 COFFEE BREAK AND POSTER SESSION*

11:45-13:30 SESSION 2 – Chair: NIKHIL AGARWAL, Europe Asia Business School, India
Global Internet Governance: The Diverse Instruments of a complex mechanism

The Humanization of Internet Governance: A Roadmap Towards a Comprehensive Global (Human) Rights Architecture for the Internet
WOLFGANG BENEDEK (presenter), University of Graz, Austria
MATTHIAS C. KETTEMANN, University of Graz, Austria
MAX SENGES, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain & Stanford University, USA

Architecting Civil Liberties
LAURA DENARDIS (presenter), Yale Law School, USA

Internet Governance and the Jurisdiction of States
JOANNA KULESZA, University of Lodz, Poland

Disrupting Global Governance: The Internet Whois Service, ICANN, and Privacy
MILTON MUELLER, Syracuse University, USA & Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
MAWAKI CHANGO (presenter), Syracuse University, USA

Internet Jurisdiction and Applicable Law in Latin-America
CRISTOS VELASCO SAN MARTIN, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain

13:30-14:30 LUNCH BRE AK

14:30-16:15 SESSION 3 – Chair: STEPHEN D. MCDOWELL, Florida State University, USA
Stakeholders or Social Actors? Power Dynamics In Internet Governance

Capacity Building’ through Learning in the Global Internet Governance For
SLAVKA ANTONOVA, Massey University, New Zealand

Engendering Internet Governance Research: The Example of Censorship
HEIKE JENSEN (presenter), Humboldt University, Germany

Two Kinds of Violence: Internet Governance and Internet Mob in Mainland China
ZHUO ZHANG, Wuhan University, China
HANDONG WANG, Wuhan University, China

From Athens to Hyderabad: Ontological Politics in the Internet Governance Forum
TAREK CHENITI (presenter), Oxford University, United Kingdom

Social Actors on a Hot Tin Roof? Between the Traditionaland the Avant-garde in ‘Internet Governance’ Mobilization
MARIANNE I. FRANKLIN (presenter), Goldsmiths, University of London, United Kingdom

16:15-16:45 COFFEE BREAK AND POSTER SESSION*

16:45-18:30 GIGANET BUSINESS MEETING

*POSTER SESSION

An Assessment of the UN Internet Governance Forum
OLGA CAVALLI, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina

Separated Together: The International Telecommunication Union and Civil Society
KRISTINA IRION, Central European University, Hungary

Realizing the Global Promise of the Internet: The Future of Internet Governance
CONSTANCE LEDOUX BOOK, Elon University, USA
JANNA QUITNEY ANDERSON, Elon University, USA

Building Regional and Ethno-Linguistic Communities in the Infosphere: dot Asia and dot Cat
STEPHEN D. MCDOWELL (presenter), Florida State University, USA
PHILIP E. STEINBERG, Florida State University, USA
YI-HSING HAN, Florida State University, USA

The Space Law Analogy to Internet Governance
JEREMY MALCOLM (presenter), Consumers International, Malaysia

Who Dominates the Market First? Competition Between IDN ccTLDs and IDN gTLDs
Y.J. PARK, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands

Toward a Humanistic Conception of Cyberspace. A Twofold Challenge for Netizens Mobilizing for a Democratic Internet Governance
ELENA PAVAN, University of Trento, Italy
MAX SENGES (presenter), Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain & Stanford University, USA
KONSTANTINOS KOMAITIS, University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom

Modifying the Data Stream: Deep Packet Inspection and Internet Censorship
BEN WAGNER (presenter), University of Granada, Spain & University of Munich, Germany

Social Contract As Model For The Internet Community
ROLF H. WEBER (presenter), University of Zürich, Switzerland

The research agenda of GigaNet is driven by its diverse members. As a collective premier research event, GigaNet organizes an Annual Symposium at the Internet Governance Forum meetings. A flyer or the 2007 GigaNet Annual Symposium, suitable for distribution, is available. Also, an online version of the program, with papers available for download, is below:

Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet)
Second Annual Symposium
Hotel Windsor Barra, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
November 11, 2007

Preliminary Program

9 a.m. Opening Session

9:15 a.m. Session 1: A Development Agenda for Internet Governance

In recent years, developing countries, civil society organizations, and concerned academics have promoted broad “development agendas” for reform of the
international regimes and organizations governing trade, debt, and intellectual property. But in the fi eld of Internet governance, no parallel initiative has taken shape. These papers analyze the linkages between existing global Internet governance mechanisms and development, the possible need for new mechanisms, and the potential foundations of a holistic development agenda.

Moderator: Derrick Cogburn, Syracuse University School of Information Studies, USA

Toward a Development Agenda for Internet Governance
William Drake, Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva, Switzerland

The WIPO Development Agenda: Lessons for the IGF
Viviana Munoz Tellez, South Centre, Geneva, Switzerland

Global Internet Standards and Developing Countries
Laura DeNardis, Yale Law School, New Haven (CT), USA

Internet Governance Mechanisms in Latin America and the Caribbean:
Implications for a Development Agenda
Olga Cavalli, Universidad de Buenos Aires and Instituto Tecnológico
de Buenos Aires, Argentina

10:30 a.m. Coffee break and poster session*

11 a.m. Session 2: The Changing Institutionalization of Internet Governance

The World Summit on the Information Society raised the profi le and changed the global policy discourse of Internet governance. The creation of the Internet Governance Forum was the most visible result. But there was also a willingness by more governments to participate in ICANN, an increase in the diversity of players entering Internet governance processes as stakeholders, and a wider discussion of Internet governance mechanisms and decision-making. These papers explore the dynamics of the changing institutionalization process.

Moderator: Eric Brousseau, EconomiX, Université de Paris X, France

Power and Multistakeholderism: The ICANN Experiment
Slavka Antonova, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand

National ccTLD Regimes: Market Orientation and State Control
Y.J. Park, Syracuse University School of Information Studies, USA

Transnational Self-Regulation in the Shadow of Hierarchy
Jeanette Hofmann, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin fur Sozialforschung, Germany

The Structural Power of Internet Governance
Charlotte Dany, University of Bremen Graduate School of Social Sciences, Germany

Institutionalization or Contestation? Battles over Expression and Privacy
Clifford Bob, Duquesne University Political Science Department, USA

12:30 p.m. Lunch and poster session*

1:45 p.m. Session 3: Critical Policy Issues in Internet Governance
Governance of the Internet is also defined by the way public policy makers respond to specific issues and problems, such as identity and security or net neutrality. Each of these issue-domains involves a distinctive set of policy conflicts, stakeholders, technologies, and institutional arrangements. These papers examine how global governance arrangements are being defined around specific Internet policy issues.

Moderator: Seiiti Arata Jr., Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil

Co-regulating Internet Security: The London Action Plan
Ian Brown, Oxford Internet Institute, UK
Chris Marsden, Essex University Law School, UK

Identity Theft in Developing Countries’ Banking Industry: Real Threat or Technological Bluff?
Alfonso Avila, UNIDO International Centre for Science and High Technology, Italy

Net Neutrality as Global Norm for Internet Governance
Milton Mueller, Syracuse University School of Information Studies, USA

The Cultural Industries and Upcoming Forms of Regulation and Self-regulation
Leo Van Audenhove, Vrije Universiteit Brussel Department of Communication Studies, Belgium
Luciano Morganti, Vrije Universiteit Brussel Centre for Studies on Media, Information and Telecommunication, Belgium
John Vanhoucke, Telindus, Belgium

Broadening Voices: Grassroots Tech Groups and Policy Objectives for Internet Governance
Arne Hintz, Central European University Center for Media and Communication Studies, Hungary
Stefania Milan, European University Institute, Florence, Italy
Adilson Cabral, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Niteroi (RJ), Brazil

3:45 p.m. GigaNet Business Meeting

Coffee breaks sponsored by Singapore Internet Research Centre, Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore; and Mudra Institute of Communications Research, Ahmedabad, India

Poster Sessions:

Andrea Glorioso and De Martin, “Some proposals for a research agenda on Net Neutrality.”

Lehrstul Weber, “The Enhancement of Transparency in Internet Governance.”

Max Senges, “Privacy and the Need for an Internet Bill of Rights”

Raquel Gatto, “Analysis of the Internet Governance Mechanisms Under the Principle of Sovereignty”

Ana Silvia Abreu, “Access Senses Effects”
*During poster sessions, authors of displayed research will be available for discussion.

Many thanks to the GigaNet Program Committee:

Seiiti Arata Jr., University of Sao Paulo, Brazil
Ralf Bendrath, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
William Drake, Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva, Switzerland
Michael Gurstein, Executive Director of the Centre for Community InformaticsResearch, Development and Training, Vancouver BC, Canada
Nanette Levinson, American University School of International Service, Washington DC, USA
Meryem Marzouki, LIP6/PolyTIC-CNRS Laboratory, Paris, France
Milton Mueller, Syracuse University, School of Information Studies, Syracuse NY, USA(Chair)
Sergio Ramos, ETSI Telecomunicación-UPM, Madrid, Spain

Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet)
First Annual Symposium

Divani Apollon Palace & Spa Hotel
Athens, Greece
Room: TBA

29 October 2006

The Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet) is an emerging scholarly community initiated in Spring 2006. Its four principal objectives are to: support the establishment of a global cohort of scholars specializing on Internet governance issues; promote the development of Internet governance as a recognized, interdisciplinary field of study; advance theoretical and applied research on Internet governance, broadly defined; and facilitate informed dialogue on policy issues and related matters between scholars and Internet governance stakeholders (governments, international organizations, the private sector, and civil society). In this context, the GigaNet plans to organize symposia to be held on site prior to the annual meetings of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF). This event is the first in that series. Attendance is free and open to all IGF participants, without additional registration.

9:30-9:45 Welcome and Overview

Wolfgang Kleinwächter, Professor of International Communication Policy and Regulation, University of Aarhus; Denmark

9:45-11:15 Theorizing Internet Governance: The State of the Art

Chair:

Peng Hwa Ang, Dean, School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, and Director, Singapore Internet Research Center; Singapore

Panelists:

The need for interdisciplinary understanding
Mary Rundle, Director, Net Dialogue, and Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University and the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford University; USA

Cross-national Collaboration on Internet Governance: Critical Success Factors for Cross-Disciplinary and Cross-Cultural Studies
Nanette S. Levinson, Associate Professor of International Relations, American University; Washington DC, USA

The Role of the State in Heterogeneous Governance Arrangements
Jeanette Hoffman, Research Fellow, Social Science Research Center, and Partner, the Internet Governance Project; Berlin, Germany

An Economic Rationale for Internet Regulation”
Filomena Chirico, Post-doc Researcher, Tilburg Center for Law and Economics, Tilburg University; The Netherlands

Hybrid Regimes, Power, and Legitimacy in Global Governance: Insights from Internet Privacy Regulation
Ralf Bendrath, Research Fellow, University of Bremen; Germany

Focus:

In recent years, scholars have begun to analyze Internet governance issues using the theoretical tools of their respective academic disciplines. While issues surrounding ICANN have attracted particular attention, there also has been significant work done on the international governance of digital international trade and intellectual property, privacy, security, speech, and other topics. Such research often has been rather specialized and geared toward the distinct audiences interested in each issue-area, which limited intellectual cross-fertilization. These topics are related, and Internet governance should be seen as a broad but coherent field of study that merits elaboration and support. Mapping the landscape of relevant theoretical perspectives is an important first step toward this end.

The purpose of this panel is to consider questions such as: What aspects of Internet governance are uniquely interesting and worthy of scholarly analysis? How has Internet governance been addressed by scholars in the social sciences, humanities, law, and other disciplines, and which theoretical approaches seem to be the most promising for which issues and dynamics? Do these efforts point to the emergence of a coherent research agenda and the cumulative development of new knowledge? Are there barriers—intellectual, institutional, and other—that might have to be overcome to advance that agenda? How can Internet governance develop into an interdisciplinary scholarly field that is taken seriously by academics and also capable of providing useful inputs to the Internet Governance Forum and other policy development institutions? What lessons can be learned, if any, from other fields defined by the object of inquiry/dependent variables rather than by shared theories and independent variables, e.g., “communication studies,” “information studies,” and “women’s studies”? Are there national or cultural differences in the ways scholars approach these matters, and if so how might these be reconciled?

11:15-11:30 Coffee break

11:30-13:00 “Enhanced Cooperation” and Interaction among Stakeholders in Internet
Governance

Chair:

Milton Mueller, Professor of Information Studies, Syracuse University, and Partner, the Internet Governance Project

Panelists:

A European Perspective on Enhanced Cooperation
Bernard Benhamou, Senior Lecturer for the Information Society, National Foundation of Political Science; Paris, France

The Sovereign Right of States:’ Why Multi-Stakeholder Policy Development is Possible
and Necessary
Jeremy Malcolm, Doctoral candidate, Murdoch University; Perth, Australia

Distributed Internet Governance: A Chance or a Threat to Democracy?
Meryem Marzouki, Researcher, National Center for Scientific Research, and Computer Science
Laboratory of the University Paris 6; France

The Future of Enhanced Cooperation
Wolfgang Kleinwächter, Professor of International Communication Policy and Regulation, University of Aarhus; Denmark

Focus:

In addition to creating the Internet Governance Forum, the Tunis Agenda calls for “enhanced cooperation” among governments. This language originated with the European Union’s June 2005 criticism of US unilateral control of ICANN. The EU claimed that the WSIS statement constituted, “a worldwide political agreement providing for further internationalization of Internet governance, and enhanced intergovernmental cooperation to this end” and that, “Such cooperation should include the development of globally applicable principles on public policy issues associated with the coordination and management of critical Internet resources.”

The purpose of this panel is to consider questions such as: What are the causes of US-EU tensions over Internet governance? What institutional form might such a “new cooperation model” for deliberations among governments take? How viable is the distinction between “day-to-day management of the Internet and “public policy?” What, more generally, is the role of national governments in Internet governance in relation to other stakeholder groups? What implications might “enhanced cooperation” have for civil society and multistakeholder participation? How might such a philosophy lead to changes in the structure or processes of ICANN?

13:00-14:30 Lunch break (on your own)

14:30-16:00 The Distributed Architecture of Internet Governance

Chair:

William J. Drake, Director, Project on the Information Revolution and Global Governance, Graduate Institute of International Studies; Geneva, Switzerland

Panelists:

 

The Role of International Telecommunications Arrangements in Distributed Internet Governance
Don MacLean, Independent consultant (formerly Chief of Strategic Planning and External Affairs, the International Telecommunication Union); Ottawa, Canada

Institutional Factors Impacting Participation in Distributed Internet Governance
David Souter, Visiting Professor in Communications Management (formerly Chief Executive, Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization); University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom

Striking a Balance in Guiding Principles for Distributed Internet Governance
Qiheng Hu, President of the Internet Society of China and Chairperson of the Steering Committee for the China Network and Information Center (formerly Vice President, Chinese Academy of Sciences); Beijing, China

Best Practices for Internet Standards Governance?
Laura DeNardis, Visiting Fellow, Yale Law School Information Society Project; New Haven, USA

Focus:

As the WSIS agreements recognized, Internet governance involves much more than ICANN or the collective management of naming and numbering. Internet governance also includes the development and application of internationally shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures, and programs in a variety of other issue-areas, e.g. technical standardization, cybercrime and network security, international interconnection, e-commerce, e-contracting, networked trade in digital goods and services, digital intellectual property, jurisdiction and choice of law, human rights, speech and social conduct, cultural and linguistic diversity, privacy and consumer protection, dispute resolution, and so on. These activities take a variety of forms and are pursued in a heterogeneous array of settings, including governmental, intergovernmental, private sector, and multistakeholder organizations and collaborations. In parallel, the international regimes and related frameworks they establish vary widely in their institutional attributes, e.g. the collective action problems addressed, functions performed, participants involved, organizational setting and decision making procedures, agreement type, strength and scope of prescriptions, compliance mechanisms, power dynamics and distributional biases, etc. But while there is now broad recognition that the architecture of Internet governance is highly distributed, there has been little systematic scholarly analysis or policy dialogue about its precise nature and implications.

The purpose of this panel is to explore and clarify some of the lingering ambiguities, including questions such as: Which governance mechanisms are relatively more or less important in shaping the Internet¹s evolution and use? How well do these mechanisms cohere, and are there tensions and gaps between them? Are there crosscutting issues that merit consideration from analytical and programmatic standpoints? Are there generalizable lessons to be learned by the distinct communities of expertise involved in different issue-areas with regard to best practices and institutional design? Does the distributed architecture pose any challenges with respect to the effective participation of less powerful stakeholders and the global community¹s ability to govern in an effective and equitable manner? Looking beyond formalized collective frameworks, under what circumstances, if any, may private market power or spontaneously harmonized practices constitute forms of Internet governance? What is the current role of governance mechanisms for international telecommunications, and what might that role become in a future marked by convergence and potentially non-neutral next generation networks?

16:00-16:15 Closing of the Symposium

16:15-16:30 Coffee break

16:30-18:00 GigaNet Business Meeting (Open to current and prospective GigaNet members)