The a href="http://giganet.igloogroups.org/">Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet) invites you to participate in a scholarly workshop to be held in Brussels, Belgium, on 11 May 2009. This full day workshop is organized in cooperation with three thematic sections of the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA): International and Intercultural Communication (IIC), Communication and Democracy (CD), Communication, Law and Policy (CLP) sections. Building on the success of its first edition in Paris, France, in June 2008, the purpose of this workshop is the presentation and discussion of work-in-progress in Internet Governance-related research with the aim to identify emerging research themes and design a research agenda.   more »

The March 2009 "Focus on Internet" seminar will examine the role of national governments in Internet governance. It will be held at the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, Bezuidenhoutseweg 30, The Hague, Room 0.32 on March 12, from 16:00-18:00 CET.

The Internet is known to be transnational in its content, usage and logical infrastructure, yet national governments remain the dominant institution for developing and making public policies. Tensions and contradictions between the national and transnational have played a major role in the politics of Internet governance, and in ICANN specifically. Mueller will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee and assess various alternatives for changing the role of national states in ICANN and the Internet Governance Forum (IGF). This discussion will be situated in the context of the outcome of the World Summit on the Information Society and its attempt to delineate specific "roles" for governmental, business and civil society stakeholders.

The session will be led by Dr. Milton Mueller, XS4All Professor at Technology University Delft and a long time observer of and participant in ICANN. Mueller will be drawing on material from his forthcoming book "Networks and States: The Global Politics of Internet Governance." Contact Ralf Bendrath (r.bendrath {at] tudelft.nl) for further information.