Internet Governance and Institutional Strategies for Information Policy
For many years, the Internet was envisioned by many of its pioneers as a space beyond the reach of communications policy and regulation. Nonetheless, the Internet was governed by collective decisions and numerous informal processes of self-organization. During the past decade, more formal means of governing technical, economic, and social aspects of the Internet, such as ICANN, have emerged in addition to business associations, international organizations, and a plethora of civic groups with an interest in Internet governance. The global nature of the Internet and the increasingly complicated formal and informal governance mechanisms raise interesting research questions, ranging from which aspects of the Internet should be governed collectively to the design of most appropriate instruments and institutions and the experience with different approaches. Moreover, we are interested in paper addressing institutional strategies for information policy.
Topics of interest for this theme include (but are not limited to):
- Comparative governance, across institutions
- Analyses of international Internet governance
- Analyses of non-traditional governance mechanisms (e.g. RTBH, ICANN)
- Governance by norm as opposed to institution
- Virtual crime and punishment
- Cases of jurisdictional disputes (e.g., speech, property, propriety)
- Data havens and data flows
- In-depth national studies
- Economic models of governance proposals and modes
- Tarriffs, peering, and traffic models applied to governance
