John Palfrey

Mapping the Arabic blogosphere: politics and dissent online:

This study explores the structure and content of the Arabic blogosphere using link analysis, term frequency analysis, and human coding of individual blogs. We identified a base network of approximately 35,000 Arabic-language blogs, mapped the 6000 most-connected blogs, and hand coded over 3000. The study is a baseline assessment of the networked public sphere in the Arabic-speaking world, which mainly clusters nationally. We found the most politically active areas of the network to be clusters of bloggers in Egypt, Kuwait, Syria, and the Levant, as well as an ‘English Bridge’ group. Differences among these indicate variability in how online practices are embedded in local political contexts. Bloggers are focused mainly on domestic political issues; concern for Palestine is the one issue that unites the entire network. Bloggers link preferentially to the top Web 2.0 sites (e.g. YouTube and Wikipedia), followed by pan-Arab mainstream media sources, such as Al Jazeera.

Mapping the Arabic Blogosphere: Politics, Culture, and Dissent

On January 17, 2009, a popular Saudi television sports program covered the day’s disappointing loss by the national soccer team to Oman in the Gulf Cup. The show’s host and his guests, including a professional soccer player and a former coach, are critiquing the team and its management when a call comes in from Saudi Prince Sultan bin Fahd, a key patron of the team. He is not happy with their analysis. On air, the prince dresses them down in turn, and goes so far as to tell one of them he is poorly raised, a serious insult in Saudi culture. The prince’s tone is disrespectful, and his words are not those of a leader to citizens, but of a ruler to his subjects. A clip of the tirade quickly appears on YouTube, and blogs and online forums post the link, spawning long chains of comments. These are overwhelmingly critical of the prince, who was seen as speaking to the commentators as though they were his slaves.

Censorship 2.0

mined to limit Internet content. With current technology, the standard methods of Internet filtering—blacklist and block—are not as effective at identifying and limiting content hosted via Web 2.0 applications, diminishing the impact of regulatory action of this sort within the jurisdiction of states. In recognition of this, public-private transnational cooperation and coercion has been expanding to close gaps in the enforcement of state-mandated online content restrictions. These hybrid forms of filtering occupy gray zones of technological, political, legal, economic, and social policymaking and are fraught with contradictions and tensions. A consequence of the internationalization of filtering is the growing demand for international solutions, many of which call for greater transparency where filtering occurs. However, the growth of social media amplifies the difficult balancing of interests implicit in the technical filtering of online content, between the effectiveness of regulation, the legal specificity of regulation, and the transparency by which regulation is enacted. In this paper, we describe the regulatory approaches being developed in response to the emergence of social media, place evolving questions and policy issues in the context of prior efforts to regulate online content, and summarize the proposed international solutions. Without cooperation of the governments that are driving Internet filtering, legally compelling intermediaries to resist international filtering may prove to be counterproductive. Even demanding greater transparency—always worthy of protection—may have unintended negative consequences. Collective flexible approaches appear to be the more promising approaches at this pivotal time in the information wars between governments and their citizens.

Better Data for a Better Internet

Debates about Internet policy lack, or ignore, good data upon which to make policy decisions. When people took to the streets across the UK in the summer of 2011, the Prime Minister suggested restricting access to digital and social media in order to limit their use in organizing. The resulting debate complemented speculation on the effects of social media in the Arab Spring and the widespread critique of President Mubaraks decision to shut off the Internet and mobile phone systems completely in Egypt (see the photo).

Case Study: Mashups Interoperability and eInnovation

Web services have been wildly hyped for a long while now. Web services, and more specifically mashups, on which we focus here, are an area of enormous innovation. That innovation is manifested through new business models, new technologies, and clever new ways to use and share data. Its also an area where interoperability is the name of the game; the notion that people, data, and code can interact with other people, data, and code is the starting point for these services. The word interoperable is often in the definition of what a Web service is. The focus of this case study is the relationship between innovation in Web services applications and the interoperability (or interoperability potential) that we see. We conclude that the connection between interoperability and innovation is plain in this context. A wide variety of mashups that are useful to individuals, enterprises, and society as a whole have been enabled by interoperability in Web services, and could not exist without it. The drivers of interoperability have been market demand, private ordering, and work done in standards bodies. But the system by which it has come to pass is currently unstable, in the sense that a lawsuit or withdrawal of interoperable interfaces by a key stakeholder could set back innovation considerably. We consider several options for creating greater sustainability over time, such as license interoperability, open standards, and back-up in the form of traditional law enforcement.

Interoperability in Information Systems in the Furtherance of Trade

This is one of three in-depth exploratory studies, which aim to gain a deeper understanding of the role that interoperability plays as an enabler of innovation and creativity in international trade. Each study explores the various institutions, policies and approaches that shape the interoperability landscape and investigates the effects of these factors and drivers on trade in the globalized economy. In this series, we examine: (i) to what extent and how interoperability has contributed to the promotion of international trade; (ii) what respective roles international organizations have played in concert with other stakeholders with regard to interoperability and international trade; (iii) what policies and approaches to supporting interoperability have been used, and with what results; and (iv) what can be learned from these experiences with regard to emerging interoperability issues in the context of international trade. The three studies address this set of questions from different angles, acknowledging the multi-faceted character of the concept of interoperability (Gasser & Palfrey, Basic Books 2012). Two of them – “Fostering innovation and trade in the global information society: The different facets and roles of interoperability”, and “Mapping Cloud Interoperability in the Globalized Economy: Theory and Observations from Practice” – focus specifically on cloud computing, an emerging technical paradigm through which to analyze the policy relevance of interoperability in a globalized economy. This example also facilitates exploration of some of the key issues and practical challenges that arise as various stakeholders engage with cloud services, infrastructure, and data across the world, as well as the implications for trade, policy, and different actors, especially, governments. The third study, “Interoperability in Information and Information Systems in the Furtherance of Trade” is focused on the role, current debates, and associated benefits and challenges in establishing a system of interoperability for information and information systems in the service of trade in a global economy over time.

Access Denied: The Practice and Policy of Global Internet Filtering - Book Review

Internet filtering seems like an infringement of the civil liberties of all of us who use this free, public, unitary, global network of networks. But states have a strong argument that they have the right to control domestic matters, whether or not they occur in cyberspace, and there is often little that other states can do to influence them. The future of the Internet, if not all geopolitics, hangs in the balance.

Case Study: DRM-Protected Music Interoperability and e-Innovation

This report - representing one of three case studies that are part of a transatlantic research project aimed at exploring the potential relation between ICT Interoperability and eInnovation - examines issues surrounding DRM interoperability within the context of music content. Recognizing that interoperability will likely be defined differently by different stakeholders, we begin by establishing a rough, holistic working definition of interoperability and then assess the implementation of DRM in the music content market and associated problems with regard to interoperability. We then go on to explore the technological, market, and legal environments in their relation to and impact upon the achievement of interoperable DRM systems. In part 2, we analyze potential benefits and drawbacks of an interoperable DRM environment for the music content market. We then evaluate both private and public-initiated approaches towards the accomplishment of interoperability using a series of qualitative benchmarks. Lastly, we conclude by summing up the merits and demerits of the various approaches. Our findings lead us to surmise that normative considerations weigh in favor of greater interoperability in general. The challenge of determining the optimal level of interoperability and the best approach for attaining it, however, points toward consideration of a number of complex factors. We conclude that the best way to determine the optimal level of interoperability and means of accomplishing it is to rely upon economic-based assessments on a case-by-case basis.