The annual Internet Governance Forum (IGF) begins its fifteenth edition next month and the Internet Governance Lab will be well-represented with students and faculty presenting a range of interdisciplinary research at the intersection of Internet governance and technology policy.
Hosted by the United Nations, this year’s IGF will be entirely virtual and will focus on the overarching theme of the “Internet for human resilience and solidarity”. IGF Open Forums, pre-events, workshops, main sessions, roundtables, and more start on November 2nd and run through November 17th.
Kicking-off the Lab’s engagement, Faculty Co-Director Dr. Laura DeNardis, Professor and Interim Dean of the School of Communication, will moderate a workshop in preparation for the IGF entitled “IGF strategy and strengthening in 2020: Frameworks for addressing emerging Internet issues in the context of cooperation in policy design”. The event, convened by the Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) Chair and the Internet Society starts at 9am EST on October 20th. More information here.
On Wednesday, October 21st, Distinguished Fellow-In-Residence Fiona Alexander will join a panel discussion titled “Perspectives on IGF outcomes and outputs: Representation, legitimacy and follow-up in multistakeholder policy processes”. Convened by the MAG Chair, the event will take place from 13:00-15:00 UTC. More information and registration information here.
On November 6th Faculty Co-Director Dr. Derrick Cogburn, Professor at the AU School of International Service and Kogod School of Business, will attend the Dynamic Coalition on Accessibility and Disability (DCAD) session. This year’s session is dedicated to reports on the DCAD activities and discussions about the Coalition’s future. On November 16th the DCAD will promote a workshop entitled ‘Digital Discrimination during the COVID 19 Pandemic’.
On November 2nd, the Lab’s Faculty Co-Director Dr. Nanette S. Levinson, Associate Professor at AU’s School of International Service, will participate in the Annual Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet) Symposium, presenting her paper ‘Idea entrepreneurs: the case of the 2020 United Nations OEWG and cybersecurity,’ in the panel ‘B2: Stakeholders and their role in Internet Governance’. The panel will start at 11h20 am EST.
Finally, Lab Faculty fellow Chelsea Horne, Professorial Lecturer in the Department of Literature at American University, will present a paper in the same GigaNet panel titled, “Internet Governance in the “Post-Truth Era”: analyzing key topics in “Fake News” discussions at IGF”. Professor Horne’s paper uses text mining of IGF transcripts to interrogate the following questions: (1) what key terms frequent discussions around misinformation and disinformation in a “post-truth era”; (2) how have these terms evolved over time?; and (3) to what extent is the concept of “truth” framework represented at IGF?
You can register for all GigaNet sessions here.