14 December 2022 at 8pm CEST, online, website here
Global internet infrastructure is increasingly becoming part of geopolitical conflicts. However, politics have always been an inherent part of communication infrastructures. One could even argue that that the internet infrastructure has been a field of reconfiguration of global power for decades, we just failed to see it. Elinor Carmi, Fenwick McKelvey and Seda Guerses have been will shine a light on the actors and particularly the material reconfiguration of our life-worlds and politics through technology. This event is co-organized by Giganet.
GigaNet – the Global Internet Governance Academic Network – is now accepting extended abstracts for papers to be presented at its annual symposium. As of now, GigaNet 2022 is planned to be held alongside the United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF), which is held in a hybrid format in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 28 November to 2 December 2022. For the time being, the GigaNet symposium is planned as a virtual event on Day 0 of the IGF.
Papers on any Internet/digital governance-related topic are welcome. Multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches are encouraged. There will be the possibility of a focused subset of accepted papers to be fast-tracked for publication in a relevant journal. In the last two years, selected papers presented at the conference were invited for a dedicated special issue of Telecommunications Policy.
Welcome topics for this year’s symposium include, but are not limited to:
Internet Governance as a field of study
Narratives, myths and frictions in the construction of the Internet governance field
Internet governance cultures and power dynamics
Theoretical innovations and new methods applicable to Internet governance research
The evolution of Internet governance, institutions, and norms in the areas of:
Internet standards and protocols
Internet infrastructure
Platform governance
Cybersecurity
Governance of data streams
Digital rights online
Future-oriented Internet research agenda
Emerging topics in Internet governance (e.g. environment)
Digital sovereignty
Interdisciplinary perspectives on the governance of new technologies (Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, virtual currencies), etc.
Fragmentation of the Internet
Internet Governance during the pandemic:
New challenges and opportunities of digitalization
Health governance & COVID-tracing apps
Freedoms, rights and limitations
Internet governance and emergency preparedness
Internet governance at a time of war:
Online harms, cyberattacks and accountability
Connectivity and access to information
Cyber operations and sanctions
Neutrality in the cyber domain
Applicability of international law
Role of international bodies and/or public-private partnerships
GigaNet is oriented around the presentation of research papers. The proposed extended abstract should be 800-1000 words long (excluding bibliography) and must describe:
1. Research question(s), 2. Data used, 3. Methodology, and 4. Main (expected) findings of the paper, 5. Contributions to literature and/or ongoing policy debates.
Theoretical papers need not specify the data used but must have a clear research question and statement of the specific theories used and literature in which the analysis is situated.
The extended abstract must be uploaded to the Easychair website by 10 July 2022, 23.59h (in the submitter’s timezone).
Reviews of individual abstracts will be double blinded. Please do not include names or any other personally identifiable information on the uploaded file or in the text of the submission itself on the EasyChair platform. (The platform records the author name(s) and contact information: the program committee chair will be able to see that information.)
Full papers should only be submitted upon invitation, following the selection of abstracts. While multiple submissions by the same author(s) are allowed, there can only be one presentation per author.
GigaNet encourages emerging scholars and researchers working with diverse methodologies to submit their work to the symposium. Proposals should be submitted in English. Participation in the GigaNet symposium is free of charge.
Important dates: Extended abstracts submission: 10 July Notification to authors of acceptances/rejections: 31 August Accepted authors confirm attendance: 10 September Full papers due: 15 October
GigaNet Symposium: end of November (date tbc)
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GigaNet is an international association of academic researchers founded in 2006 to support multidisciplinary research on Internet governance. Its membership includes researchers from all over the world who are contributing to local, national, regional, and international debates on Internet governance. More information on GigaNet’s organizational structures and activities can be found on its website at https://giga-net.org.
Friday, April 1st at 4 PM CEST, online, register here
Until now, sanctions on the Internet infrastructure have not been explicitly used, perceived by some as an unacceptable barrier to communication. However, recently, when Russia invaded Ukraine, the Ukrainian government explicitly asked for such sanctions. In response to that, Internet governance organizations rejected this notion, but others proposed that sanctions and boycotts should also be imposed on various properties of the Internet.
Sanctions are not new. The Internet and many Internet services have long been affected by economic sanctions that governments impose on other nation states. Such sanctions have blocked people’s access to online services and, to some extent, to Internet infrastructure. Considering the importance of the Internet in connecting people, nation states have come up with waivers for certain transactions that take place on the Internet. Today, in the face of atrocities being committed by Russia against Ukraine, is it time to reconsider whether sanctions are “absolutely” bad for the Internet? What can be learned from other examples of internet-related sanctions, such as Iran? Join us to debate the desirability and potential intended and unintended consequences of explicitly Internet-oriented sanctions. Is it possible to design sanctions and boycotts targeting Internet infrastructure and services that can be proportionate, precise, effective and that can provide relief for Ukraine and those affected by war?
Panelists:
Courtney Radsch, Fellow, Institute for Technology, Law & Policy, UCLA and ARTICLE19 US adviser (moderator)
Andrew Sullivan, CEO, Internet Society
Farzaneh Badii, Founder, Digital Medusa
Bill Woodcock, Executive Director, Packet Clearing House
Yik-Chan Chin, Associate Professor, Beijing Normal University
Svitlana Matvitenko, Assistant Professor, Simon Fraser University, School of Communication (video contribution)
Sponsoring organizations:
UCLA Institute for Technology, Law & Policy
GigaNet
Digital Medusa
ARTICLE19
University of Amsterdam, IN-SIGHT.it project
Details:
When: Friday, April 1st at 4 PM CEST/10 AM ET/7 AM Pacific Time
You are invited to GigaNet’s 2022 workshop about Internet Standard-Setting Research Methods on 12 January 2022, from 12:00 to 17:30 UTC. Website here.
This workshop will showcase the broad range of research methods used by Internet governance scholars from multiple disciplines to study Internet standard-setting bodies, such as the IETF, IEEE, W3C, WHATWG, 3GPP, ITU-T, ITU-R. The workshop is also open to the study of “de-facto standardisation” that takes place outside of formal organisations and processes (Musiani and Ermoshina, 2019).
The workshop aims to provide an opportunity for scholars and researchers to:
Explore and perhaps discover qualitative and quantitative methods applicable to standard setting for information networks;
Share open research questions and work-in-progress on methods;
Discuss the feasibility of applying specific methods;
Improve the understanding of specific methods;
Receive feedback to improve the methodological approaches;
Identify new and existing data sources; and
Outline novel topics of interest arising from these various methods for the general study of standardisation and Internet governance broadly construed.
The workshop will focus on the following methods for studying standardisation:
Network analysis;
Computational methods;
Discourse analysis;
Ethnography;
Mixed Methods.
Additionally, we will also consider what lessons can be drawn from studying non-Internet standard-setting bodies and how researchers can acquire the relevant data for their research (including but not limited to standards, patents, conversations, and other standardisation documents and resources).
The workshop will include brief presentations of the authors and group discussion delving into their methods (and findings) and we are excited to have Professor Jorge L. Contreras as a keynote speaker.
We will share the full program in due course. In the meantime, you can email us with questions at: intgovworkshop@protonmail.com and encourage you to share the workshop with your networks.
Reference
Ermoshina, Ksenia, and Francesca Musiani. “‘Standardising by Running Code’: The Signal Protocol and de Facto Standardisation in End-to-End Encrypted Messaging.” Internet Histories 3, no. 3–4 (October 2, 2019): 343–63. https://doi.org/10.1080/24701475.2019.1654697
Full program
7:00 EST / 12:00 UTC / 13:00 CET Opening Corinne Cath and Niels ten Oever
7:15 – 8:15 EST / 12:15 – 13:15 UTC Qualitative SDO analysis Panelists: Jorge Contreras, Riccardo Nanni, Julien Rossi, Ashwin Mathew, Zuno Verghese Chair: Corinne Cath Discussant: Niels ten Oever
8:15 – 8:30 EST / 13:15 – 13:30 UTC Break
8:30 – 9:30 EST / 13:30 – 14:30 UTC Quantitative SDO analysis Panlelists: Justus Baron, Christoph Becker, Olia Kanevskaia, Nick Doty, Brad Biddle, Margaret Ng Chair: Riccardo Nanni Discussant: Julien Rossi
9:30 – 10:00 EST / 14:30 – 15:00 UTC / 15:30 – 16:00 CET Keynote by Jorge Contreras Chair: Farzaneh Badii
10:00 – 10:30 EST / 15:00 – 15:30 UTC Break
10:30 – 11:30 EST / 15:30 – 16:30 UTC Internet Governance analysis Panelists: Albert Garrich Alabarce, Alison Gillwald, Freya Vandenboom, Kapil Goyal Chair: Julien Rossi Discussant: Farzaneh Badii
11:30 – 12:00 EST / 16:30 – 17:00 UTC / 17:30 – 18:00 CET Closing remarksby Farzaneh Badii
