Zane Bundy ⬥ 30 May
While you may get odd looks if you bring the following readings to the beach this summer, if you want to learn about the inner workings of the Internet, you can’t go wrong with these recommendations from members of a recent panel on “The Geopolitics of Internet Governance,” sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C.
- ICANN V.P. Veni Markovski described the President of Estonia’s speech to attendees of the International Conference of Cyber Conflict on June 8, 2012, as the “essence of what the Internet could be.” This inspiring but pragmatic speech about geopolitics and the Internet concludes with the following warning: “If…we bottle up information, erect barriers, and treat cooperation as a formality, we lobotomize ourselves. Put another way, we fail to learn from the open and decentralized architectural principles of the internet. And we will lose.”
- Control Point Analysis by David Clarke was recommended by Jane Coffin, Director of Development Strategy at the Internet Society. After acknowledging that discussing the Internet can be daunting for non-technical listeners, he explains that he will employ an “informal method called control point analysis” to describe and map-out the highly technical topics. His paper is both accessible and interesting, and includes diagrams of everyday activities such as “Retrieving a Web Page.”
- In the description of her forthcoming book, The Global War for Internet Governance, Professor Laura DeNardis “reveals the inner power structure already in place within the architectures and institutions of Internet governance” and “explores what is at stake in open global controversies and stresses the responsibility of the public to actively engage in these debates, because Internet governance will ultimately determine Internet freedom.” It is now available for pre-order on Amazon.com. DeNardis did an excellent job of outlining the ways in which politics, culture and economics impact how the Internet is structured and governed in her book Protocol Politics, and we look forward to her next work.
Tags: Center for Strategic and International Studies, Control Point Analysis, CSIS, David Clarke, geopolitics, ICANN, Internet, Internet governance, Internet Society, Jane Coffin, Laura DeNardis, President of Estonia, Veni Markovski, Washington D.C.