Cotelco > Research > Global Governance

Collaboratories and Cyberinfrastructure Global Governance and Transnational Networks

This theme investigates the socio-technical infrastructure required to enhance the participation of developing countries and civil society organizations in global governance processes in information and communication policy.

Projects

1. “Pawns to Partners” – Quantitative
Project Leader: Derrick L. Cogburn.
Researchers: Jesus Lopez.

2.“Pawns to Partners” -- Qualitative
Project Leader: Norhayati Zakaria.
Researchers: Derrick Cogburn; Drew Bennett
These two projects explore the factors that limit and facilitate meaningful, effective, multi-stakeholder participation in global governance processes, especially for information and communications technologies. We are currently studying the U.N. World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) as illustrative of these processes. Particularly, we are interested in the role of transnational policy networks and epistemic communities in influencing global policy processes. This project is supported by Syracuse University.

3. TANGO
Project Leader: Michael Scialdone
Researchers: Derrick L. Cogburn.
In 2005, Cotelco and the Moynihan Institute at the Maxwell School were awarded a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study transnational non-governmental organizations (TANGOs) as agents of human and social change. This study has three components: (1) interviews of TANGO leaders; (2) a large-N web-based survey of TANGO leaders; and (3) content analysis. This research practicum focuses on a sub-set of this larger study by exploring the transnational networks that exist amongst TANGOs and their use of communication and collaboration technologies to expand linkages with knowledge producing communities. This project is supported by the National Science Foundation.

4.Internet Governance Forum
Project Leader: Brenden Kuerbis.
The Internet Governance Project is an initiative of the Convergence Center, and brings together international experts in the technical and policy issues surrounding Internet names and numbers. This project is supported by the Ford Foundation.

5.Global Deliberative Democracy
Project Leader: Derrick L. Cogburn.
The Internet Governance Project (IGP) working on a strategy to better understand the formation of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), which emerged out of the final phase of the WSIS. This research focuses on developing a collaborative action research design to study the design, implementation, iterative redesign, and impact of a suite of collaborative tools on the deliberative democratic practices of the emerging IGF. The research builds on the substantial research and pilot studies already conducted in this area, including several IGP Web conferences (in Geneva, Switzerland, Syracuse, Tunis, and Washington, D.C.). This project is supported by Syracuse University and the Ford Foundation.