Related papers: This internet, on the ground
Artificial intelligence (AI) has widespread societal implications, yet social scientists are only beginning to study public attitudes toward the technology. Existing studies find that the public's trust in institutions can play a major role…
This paper serves as a brief technical examination of Net Neutrality and the Internet fundamentals relevant to the discussion. This document seeks to provide sufficient technical perspective that it may inform the political and economic…
Robustness is one of the key properties of nowadays networks. However, robustness cannot be simply enforced by design or regulation since many important networks, most prominently the Internet, are not created and controlled by a central…
The decentralized architecture of Internet sparkled techno-utopian visions of a virtual freedom space for humanity. Peer-to-peer systems, collaborative creation (wikipedia), open source software (Linux), universal shared knowledge, and the…
Over the past decade, we have witnessed the Internet becoming increasingly centralized in the hands of a small number of giant technology firms, that control many of the most popular applications and the content they host on their…
The original design of the Internet was a resilient, distributed system, that maybe able to route around (and therefore recover from) massive disruption --- up to and including nuclear war. However, network routing effects and business…
This paper attempts to assess the international approach to Internet policy in the context of distinctive socio-political frameworks evolving in the US, the European Union (EU), and East Asia. The comparative review will develop a set of…
The Internet infrastructure is severely stressed. Rapidly growing overheads associated with the primary function of the Internet---routing information packets between any two computers in the world---cause concerns among Internet experts…
Online discourse takes place in corporate-controlled spaces thought by users to be public realms. These platforms in name enable free speech but in practice implement varying degrees of censorship either by government edict or by uneven and…
The structure of the control network of transnational corporations affects global market competition and financial stability. So far, only small national samples were studied and there was no appropriate methodology to assess control…
The development of quantum technologies has been accelerating in the last decade, turning them into emerging technologies that need explicit attention by decision-makers at national funding agencies, companies and governments. In this paper…
Cybersecurity threats affect all aspects of society; critical infrastructures (such as networks, corporate systems, water supply systems, and intelligent transportation systems) are especially prone to attacks and can have tangible negative…
Governments across the globe are facing challenging times to generate more revenue because of the economic slowdown and to balance their budgets. There is a growing need to find new ways of revenue generation as spending cuts and austerity…
The small-world phenomenon is found in many self-organising systems. Systems configured in small-world networks spread information more easily than in random or regular lattice-type networks. Whilst it is a known fact that small-world…
Many people expect the Internet to change American politics, most likely in the direction of increasing direct citizen participation and forcing government officials to respond more quickly to voter concerns. A recent California initiative…
The old mantra of decentralizing the Internet is coming again with fanfare, this time around the blockchain technology hype. We have already seen a technology supposed to change the nature of the Internet: peer-to-peer. The reality is that…
Many have criticized the centralized and unaccountable governance of prominent online social platforms, leading to renewed interest in platform governance that incorporates multiple centers of power. Decentralization of power can arise…
On the Internet large service providers tend to control the digital identities of users. These defacto identity authorities wield significant power over users, compelling them to comply with non-negotiable terms, before access to services…
Internet censorship is typically enforced by authorities to achieve information control for a certain group of Internet users. So far existing censorship studies have primarily focused on country-level characterization because (1) in many…
Online social networks are becoming a major growth point of the internet, as individuals, companies and governments constantly desire to interact with one another, the ability of the internet to deliver this networking capabilities grows…