This year the IGF restored GigaNet’s annual symposium to its former glory, providing a full day (6 and a half hours) in a choice conference room. The GigaNet Steering Committee and its Program Chair have finalized the program for 2025. You can see the full program here.
The Symposium will be held at the Nova Spektrum conference center, Lillestrøm, Norway, June 23, 2025. GigaNet will be in Workshop Room 6.
The program features a panel of European scholars on Low Earth Orbiting Satellites (LEOs), another panel of Europeans on multilateralism and global technology governance, three individually selected “frontier” research papers from GigaNet members, a panel discussion/debate on “Should WSIS End?” and an open mic session with the elected GigaNet steering committee members.
Attendance at the GigaNet Symposium, as always, will require registration for the UN Internet Governance Forum. Register here: https://indico.un.org/event/1016806/
The online version of Giganet’s 2024 Annual Symposium will be held in 2025! The event, which includes 12 papers on four panels, is on February 18 and 20. The full program is shown below. All times CET (UTC-1)
Yuchao Zhao: Technopreneurial coalition vs. state-sponsored dependency: A comparison of two scenarios of digital governance in local China
Liudmila Sivetc: The Evolution of Governance by Internet Infrastructure in Russia Before and After February 2022: New Generations of Controls and Their Effects on New-School Regulation Theory
Ana Lucia Taboada, Fabiana Alvarado: Towards a genuine governance of Internet? The case of the Quechua-speaking population in Peru
Discussant: Trisha Meyer
Panel 4: 10:00 – 11:30
Chair: Jamal Shahin
Moderator: Roxana Radu
Matthias Kettemann: Uploading Tuvalu: “The Internet Governance Dimension of Virtualizing Cultural Heritage in Times of Climate Change”
Riccardo Nanni: “The shrinking online space of civil society: withstanding social control by infrastructure in war zones. The Palestine case”
Mark W. Datysgeld, Jaqueline Trevisan Pigatto, Laura Gabrieli Pereira da Silva: “Reframing Internet Governance: The Struggle of Multistakeholderism in the Face of Multilateralism”
GigaNet will soon be launching a new round of elections for the four positions in the Steering Committee which will become available starting from next year:
* Chair (position currently held by Roxana Radu) * Chair of the Program Committee (position currently held by Jamal Shahin) * Chair of the Membership Committee (position currently held by Berna Akcali Gur) * Secretary (position currently held by Clément Perarnaud).
The Trusted Internet Summer School on Internet Governance and International Law (SSIGIL) has recently concluded in Lodz, Poland. This fully funded, week-long event (8-12 July) was filled with insightful discussions and productive collaborations on satellite connectivity and internet governance. Hosted by the Lodz Cyber Hub (LCH) at the University of Lodz and GigaNet, this inaugural event offered the GigaNet community an exciting opportunity to explore the role of international law in Internet governance, as well as the challenges of the multistakeholder governance model.
Throughout the week, the participants approached international law, cybersecurity, Internet governance, and digital rights from the perspective of LEOs – Low Earth Orbit satellites. These satellites, used by companies like SpaceX and OneWeb, are becoming a crucial part of global Internet infrastructure, expanding connectivity in underserved and remote areas. Yet their use raises important questions about how the Internet is governed, how data is managed, and how international law applies to this new technology. The discussions at SSIGIL highlighted new developments around the world and explored the key pillars for developing legal and governance frameworks to manage the rapid growth and impact of LEO satellite networks.
The SSIGIL program was structured around five themes, with each day kickstarting with a presentation from a leading expert in the field. These thematic sessions ensured that participants could dive deep into specific areas of Internet governance and international law, guided by the knowledge and experience of seasoned professionals.
We are especially grateful to our distinguished expert leads, whose contributions were invaluable. Their insights and guidance played a crucial role in enriching the discussions and enhancing the overall learning experience for everyone involved.
Roxana Radu – GigaNet Chair and Associate Professor at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford
Dmitry Epstein – Former GigaNet Chair and Assistant Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Berna Akcali Gur – GigaNet Membership Committee Chair and Lecturer at Queen Mary University of London
Joanna Kulesza – CEO of LCH and Assistant. Professor of International Law, University of Lodz
Dan York – Director for Technology, Internet Society
The inaugural SSIGIL successfully brought together emerging scholars, policy and media practitioners, and established academics, emphasizing GigaNet’s pivotal role in advancing a new research agenda through collaborative efforts within its academic community and beyond.
The SSIGIL summer school was part of the “Decolonizing the Internet” research project, funded by the Internet Society Foundation’s Research Grant Program. This initiative is co-led by Joanna Kulesza, CEO of LCH and Assistant Professor of International Law at the University of Lodz, and Berna Akcali Gur, Lecturer at Queen Mary University of London. Since 2023, the project has focused on “Trust and Data Governance” within the broader theme of “Global Governance of Low Earth Orbit Satellite Broadband.”
Special thanks go to the Internet Society Foundation for their generous support, as well as to the University of Lodz for hosting. The SSIGIL summer school has deepened the discussions on satellite connectivity potential and challenges in internet governance and international law. The experiences and networks formed during the event will continuing to inspire and inform future initiatives in this space.
We are proud to present the programme for the GigaNet Annual Symposium, taking place on Day 0 at the Internet Governance forum. In this symposium, 17 papers that have been selected from a competitive process will be presented.
The symposium will take place in hybrid format: you can use your IGF registration to sign up to the session both online and onsite. It takes place on 8 October, and will be help physically in Workshop Room #4 at the Internet Governance Forum.
Kyoto local times (UTC +9) indicated below
10:00Introduction and welcome remarks – Jamal Shahin and Roxana Radu
10:10 Panel I
Chair / Discussant: Jamal Shahin
Right to Data Access in the Digital Era: the Case of China (paper) – Yik Chan Chin Web PKI and the Private Governance of Trust on the Internet (paper) – Karl Grindal, Vagisha Srivastava Internet Fragmentation and its environmental impact: A case study of Satellite Broadband (paper) – Berna Akcali Gur, Joanna Kulesza ICT Standards and the Environment: a call of action for environmental care inside Internet Governance (paper) – Kimberly Anastácio
11:25 Panel II
Chair / Discussant: Danielle Flonk
Institutional Change in Cyber Governance? Catalytic Factors & The United Nations Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) (paper) – Nanette S. Levinson Women, Peace, and Cybersecurity in Southeast Asia – Jaimee Stuart, Cara Antonaccio Principles for Enabling Responsible AI Innovations in India: An Ecosystem Approach (paper) – Kamesh Shekar, Jameela Sahiba, Bhavya Birla, Garima Saxena
12:30 Lunch
13:35 Panel III
Chair / Discussant: Andrea Calderaro
AI Policies as a research domain: Preliminary Findings of Publication Pattern Analysis (paper removed) – Radomir Bolgov, Olga Filatova European Rules, European Tools? Mapping the Institutional Contours of EU Platform Regulation – Robert Gorwa, Elettra Bietti A new Social Contract for Data? (paper) – Sophie Hoogenboom
14:50 Panel IV
Chair / Discussant: Raquel Gatto
Regional Internet Governance and Postcolonial Consciousness: A Nkrumahian Analysis of the African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms (extended abstract) – Adio Dinika, Dennis Redeker Governing the Internet through South-Based Regional Private Regimes. Legitimacy at AFRINIC, APNIC, and LACNIC (abstract) – Debora Irene Christine, Hortense Jongen, Nahema Nascimento Falleiros, Gloria Nzeka & Jan Aart Scholte “Glocalizing” digital policymaking: the impact of the EU Digital for Development (D4D) policy on ICT policy adoption in the Global South (paper) – Stephanie Arnold
16:05 Panel V
Chair / Discussant: Luis Barbosa
The ambiguity of Digital Sovereignty between territorialization of the cyberspace, extraterritorial claims and digital rights: analysing data transfer policies in EU, US and China (paper) – Nicola Palladino “Here Are Some Thoughts I Have”. On Threats of Regulation and Other Forms of Bullying as a Governance Mechanism (paper) – Ramiro Álvarez-Ugarte The Wallet of Digital Citizens: Online Payment Adoption in the Developing Countries’ Public Adminstration – Ahmed Elmasry YOUthDIG participation on regional and global level: The dynamics of meaningful youth participation (paper) – Nadia Tjahja
17:00 Wrap up and closing session, before moving to Giganet Business Meeting (ICC Kyoto Bilateral Room #4, and zoom).
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