23 Jun 2017

GPD publishes new paper on distributed internet governance

Across the world, increased internet adoption has radically altered people’s lives – creating the need for new methods of internet governance that are more effective, flexible, inclusive, and legitimate. Conversations about reforming the internet governance ecosystem are already taking place at the CSTD Working Group on Enhanced Cooperation, and within the wider IGF community.

A new paper by GovLab co-founder and GPD Advisory Board member Stefaan Verhulst – A distributed model for internet governance – seeks to contribute to this evolving debate by proposing a distributed yet coordinated framework for internet governance – one which accommodates existing and emerging decision-making approaches, while also enabling broader participation by a wider range of institutions and actors.

Stefaan has previously published a paper for GPD, The practice and craft of multistakeholder governance, which examines a range of current and actual instances of governance in the digital environment which embody (or at least approximate) the ideal of multistakeholderism. He also appeared as a guest on the first episode of GPD’s podcast series, In beta, where he discussed the question – Is policymaking stuck in the 19th century?