The GovLab and its founders Network Chair Beth Simone Noveck and Chief of Research Stefaan Verhulst published a new paper for the Centre for International Governance Innovation ( CIGI) just released our paper on “Innovations in Global Governance: Towards a Distributed Internet Governance Ecosystem.” It is part of a series of research papers supporting the Global Commission on Internet Governance ( GCIG), on which Professor Noveck is a commissioner. The GCIG was established in January 2014 “to articulate and advance a strategic vision for the future of Internet governance”.
The paper starts from the observation that…
“developments in how the Internet is governed have not kept pace with this rapid technological innovation. Figuring out how to evolve the Internet’s governance in ways that are effective and legitimate is essential to ensure its continued potential. Flexible and innovative decision-making mechanisms are needed in order to enable disparate governance actors to address and respond effectively as changes in the network occur”
It goes on to explore in detail the key features of the emerging Distributed Internet Governance Ecosystem:
- Enhanced coordination and cooperation across institutions and actors using innovative collaboration methods, including crowdsourcing;
- Increased interoperability (e.g., through the creation of a common Internet governance ecology) with regard to identifying and describing issues and approaches;
- Open information-sharing and evidence-based decision-making; and
- An emphasis on expertise- or issue-based organizations that allow for both localization and scale in problem-solving.
