[Air-l] GigaNet 07: Call for Papers

Ralf Bendrath bendrath at zedat.fu-berlin.de
Tue May 22 03:18:12 PDT 2007


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Call for Proposals
Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet)
Second Annual Symposium

Hotel Windsor Barra, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
11 November 2007

The Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet) is a 
recently-formed scholarly community that promotes the development of 
Internet governance as a recognized, interdisciplinary field of study and 
facilitates informed dialogue on policy issues and related matters between 
scholars and governments, international organizations, the private sector, 
and civil society. (See www.igloo.org/giganet for more information.)

Each year, GigaNet organizes a research symposium. The first was held 
October 2006 in Athens, Greece, a day prior to the inaugural meeting of 
the United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF). The second GigaNet 
symposium also will be held on site prior to the 2nd IGF meeting, on 
November 11, 2007 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Attendance at the symposium 
will be open to all and free of charge. Registration with the UN as an IGF 
participant may be necessary to gain entry to the building.

This is a call for proposals from scholars interested in presenting an 
original research paper on one of the panels to be held at the conference. 
The panel themes are described below. The Program Committee will select 
several speakers for each panel, drawing on the following materials to be 
provided by applicants: 1) a one page maximum description of the proposed 
paper that includes the main research questions, its methods, and its 
relevance and value-added to the thematic area; and 2) a one page summary 
curriculum vitae listing in particular the applicant's current 
institutional affiliation(s), advanced degrees, scholarly publications 
relevant to Internet governance, and web sites, if available. If the 
proposed paper has already been drafted, applicants are welcome to include 
the paper in their submission in addition to the one-page summary.

These materials should be emailed directly to the chairperson of the 2007 
Program Committee, Dr. Milton Mueller, at info [at] internetgovernance.org 
by no later than August 1, 2007, midnight GMT. The Program Committee will 
notify applicants of its decisions via email by August 24. A full paper 
upon which the presentation will be based must be delivered to the same 
address by October 1, midnight GMT in order for the author(s) to be 
included in the relevant panel. The selected speakers will give ten-minute 
presentations, after which there will be open discussion with audience 
members. While GigaNet asserts no copyright to authors' work, it is 
expected that the version of the paper presented will be made available 
for posting on the GigaNet website.

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Preliminary Theme Descriptions

1. The Changing Institutionalization of Internet Governance

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) raised the profile and 
changed the global policy discourse of Internet governance. The creation 
of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) was the most visible result, but 
other major signs should be noted, such as the willingness of more 
governments to participate in ICANN, the increased diversity of players 
entering Internet governance processes as stakeholders, and wider 
discussion of as yet inchoate changes to Internet governance mechanisms 
and decision making.

We invite paper submissions that explore the dynamics of the changing 
institutionalization process. Papers can examine institutionalization 
theoretically, by placing it in the context of theories of international 
relations, international regimes, and global governance; or empirically, 
through critical assessment of its outcomes so far. Submissions addressing 
the mechanisms of a given collaborative, deliberative process, and 
particularly how the different players behave, are especially welcome. We 
seek papers analyzing collaborative policy-making in Internet governance 
institutions; the mobilization of new actors, their roles and the power 
relationships between them; the role of the private sector in governance; 
the transformation (if any) of the role of governments and their means of 
intervention in relation to existing intergovernmental processes; and the 
interactions between Internet governance-related institutions such as IGF, 
IETF, the Regional Address Registries, ICANN, ITU, WIPO, or WTO. Case 
studies based on critical examination of the IGF, the multistakeholder 
partnership process and changes, if any, in ICANN dynamics after WSIS 
would bring particular highlights to the panel discussion.

2. Toward a Development Agenda for Internet Governance

In recent years, developing countries, civil society organizations, and 
concerned academics have sought to promote broad "development agendas" for 
reform of the international regimes and organizations dealing with such 
issues as trade, debt, and intellectual property. But in the field of 
Internet governance, no parallel initiative has taken shape. Developing 
countries and other stakeholders did call for what they  said were 
pro-development institutional reforms during the World Summit on the 
Information Society (WSIS) process, but their suggestions were not 
systematically explored as elements of a coherent development agenda. 
Moreover, there was no broad consensus among the proponent s as to what 
kinds of reforms would actually promote development, as opposed to 
satisfying more specifically political demands. In the post-WSIS 
environment, discussions of development have tended to focus on capacity 
building rather than on institutional reforms.

Accordingly, we invite research papers that analyze the positive and 
negative linkages between existing global Internet governance mechanisms 
and development; the possible need for new mechanisms; and the potential 
foundations of a holistic development agenda. The panel will not explore 
the Internet's role in development per se, or more general ICT4D themes; 
the focus will be on the mechanisms of Internet governance as defined by 
the WSIS. We welcome submission of theoretically informed, empirically 
rich papers addressing the following and related questions:

a) General Dynamics: The design and politics of development agendas. What 
are the potential risks and rewards of assessing individual Internet 
governance mechanisms  in the context of a ho listic development agenda? 
What applicable lessons, if any, can be learned from experiences with 
development agendas in other international arenas, e.g. trade, the 
environment, debt, and intellectual property? What political and 
institutional challenges wo uld have to be overcome in order to establish 
a development agenda for Internet governance?

b) Case Studies of Problems and Reforms. Do current Internet governance 
mechanisms pose any substantive and procedural impediments to development? 
What reforms or even new mechanisms might be needed to promote development?

3. Critical Policy Issues in Internet Governance

The prior two sections deal with broad, cross-cutting themes in Internet 
governance. The Program Committee also encourages submission of research 
papers on how public policy or governance arrangements are being defined 
for specific, narrower Internet policy issues. Examples of such policy 
issues would include network neutrality, digital identity, 
privacy/security, content regulation, intellectua l property rights/DRM, 
or others. Each of these issue-domains involves its own distinctive set of 
policy conflicts, stakeholders, technologies and institutional 
arrangements, and thus can profitably be examined independently. Papers 
about specific issues should, however, be written from a global 
perspective and/or utilize cross-national comparative research methods, 
and should be founded on a clear understanding of how the issue 
constitutes a form of Internet governance.

Although submissions in any of the enumerated issue-areas are welcome, the 
Committee would be particularly interested in forming a panel devoted to 
research on either network neutrality or digital identity. Papers on net 
neutrality might address, among other things, its relevance as a global 
norm for Internet  governance; how technological, legal and business 
trends support or undermine neutrality in the delivery of Internet 
services; or the relationship between competing broadband networks and 
nondiscriminatory access to Internet content. Similarly, papers on digital 
identity might address the current status of standardization in digital 
identifiers and authentication, how privacy concerns are or are not 
addressed by proposals; interaction of international regimes with digital 
identity issues, international initiatives on data retention and data 
interception, or other related aspects of Internet governance and privacy.

To summarize:
* Symposium date and place: November 11, 2007, Hotel Windsor Barra, Rio de 
Janeiro, Brazil
* Deadline for submissions: August 1, 2007
* Submit to: GigaNet Program Committee, using the email address info (at)
internetgovernance.org
* Notification of status: August 24, 2007
* Papers due: October 1, 2007

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 Informatics
Research, 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 Info rmation Studies, 
Syracuse NY, USA
- Sergio Ramos, ETSI Telecomunicación-UPM, Madrid, Spain

-- 
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Dipl. Pol. Ralf Bendrath
University of Bremen
Collaborative Research Center "Transformations of the State"
Linzer Str. 9a, D-28359 Bremen, Germany
Tel.   +49 (421) 218 8735
Fax    +49 (421) 218 8721
Web official http://www.sfb597.uni-bremen.de/homepages/bendrath
Web personal http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~bendrath
Blog         http://bendrath.blogspot.com



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