Movement in the Making?

International Institutions, Transnational Civil Society and

Communication-Information Policy

Research Convening, October 28, 2005

Syracuse University Lubin House, 11 East 61st St., New York, NY 10021

 

This project investigated the politics and institutions of international communication-information policy (CIP). It looked primarily, but not exclusively, at the politics of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), a United Nations process that from 2001 – 2005 became the focal point of many of the transnational civil society actors attempting to shape CIP. The October 28, 2005 convening in New York City will put the research before a group of accomplished scholars and WSIS participants as a work in progress, so that they can provide insight and commentary capable of improving the final product. The research and convening were made possible by the Ford Foundation’s Electronic Media Policy Program, whose support we gratefully acknowledge.

 

Schedule


9:00 – 9:20 Welcome and Introductions

9:20 – 11:00 Session 1:

Overview of Goals, Methods and Results of the Research

 

Presenter: Milton Mueller Syracuse University <link to presentation>

Discussants:

  •  Monroe Price, Project for  Global Communication Studies, University of Pennsylvania <link to CV>

  • Thorsten Benner, Global Public Policy Institute, Berlin <link to bio>

  • Teivo Teivainen, Director del Programa de Estudios sobre Democracia y Transformación Global, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima <link to bio>

 

<Break>


11:15 – 11:35 Session 2

Social Network Analysis: People, Organizations and Events of WSIS Civil Society

 

Presenter: Brenden Kuerbis, Doctoral student Syracuse University School of Information Studies <link to presentation>

Discussants:

  • Mario Diani, University of Trento, Italy <link to bio>

  • Noshir Contractor, Director of the Science of Networks in Communities (SONIC) Group at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois. <link to CV>

  • (tentative) Richard Rogers, New Media Studies, University of Amsterdam <link to bio>

 

<12:30 – 1:30 Lunch break>


1:30 – 3:00 Session 3

Organizational Case Studies

 

Overview presentation: Milton Mueller and Christiane Page <link to presentation>

Discussants:

  • Free Software Foundation:

  • Electronic Privacy Information Center

    • Rikke Frank Jøergenson, Danish Human Rights Institute <link to CV>

  • CRIS campaign

    •  Jonathan Aronson, University of Southern California <link to CV>

  • AMARC

    • Derrick Cogburn, Syracuse University School of Information Studies <link to CV>

 

 

<3:00 – 3:20 break>

 

3:20 – 5:00 Session 4

Global Governance, Civil Society and Institutional Change in CIP

 

Each panelist will attempt to absorb and synthesize the prior presentations and discussions, and offer their own comments on how they think global institutions in CIP are evolving, and whether the project’s research confirmed, changed or was orthogonal to their initial understandings. Those presentations will pave the way for open discussion among all participants.

 

Discussion panel:

  • Clifford Bob, Duquesne University <link to CV>

  • Jonathan Aronson, USC

  • Jeanette Hofmann, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB); Co-ordinator, WSIS-Civil Society Internet Governance Caucus <link to CV>