Digital Democracy: 2003Harvard Law School Tuesdays, 5:00 - 7:00 p.m., Hauser 104 Prof.
Charles Nesson, Andrew
McLaughlin, Course Home | Syllabus | Administration | H2O Discussion | Weblogs | Berkman Center Home 9/9 | 9/16 | 9/23 | 9/30 | 10/7 | 10/14 | 10/21 | 11/4 | 11/11 | 11/18 | 11/25 | 12/2 Under
the Hood: Leads: Andrew McLaughlin and Ethan Zuckerman In order to make sense of the legal, political, social, and policy issues that are created by new technologies, it is essential to understand how those technologies work in practice. At the heart of this course is an examination of how the spread of open, distributed, decentralized digital networks is changing (or not) the dynamics of power in business, economics, politics, society, and culture in the developing world. As a foundation for the rest of the course, the first class will be a user-friendly introduction to the nuts and bolts of Internet and telephone networks. We will look under the hood of the Internet and compare it with pre-Internet communications networks. In doing so, we will explore and assess the basis for the claim that the Internet's architecture embodies a profound and consequential shift from centralized and controlled to decentralized and open communications networks. Required Readings:
Optional Background Materials:
Telecom
vs. Internet: Lead: Andrew McLaughlin This week's class will be conducted via videoconference with Johannesburg, South Africa, where intrepid instructor Andrew McLaughlin will be joined by a set of African technology experts from the governmental, entrepreneurial, technical, activist, and academic sectors -- individuals on the front lines of Internet deployment in Africa. The class will provide a practical look at the regulatory landscape for communications networks in developing countries, focusing on the fierce clashes between national monopoly telecom companies and Internet service providers, and on the ways in which African governments have attepted to regulate Internet services and access. Specific topics will include ISP licensing, wireless Internet, voice-over-Internet-protocol (VOIP), access to satellite and fiber optics links, and network interconnection. More broadly, we will be introduced to the complex political and economic environment in which the battles over Internet in Africa are being fought. Required Readings:
Optional Background Reading: (a) Communications Regulation and Reform - General
(b) Communications Regulation and Reform - Country Case Studies
(c) WiFi
(d) VOIP
(e) ISP Licensing
Part
I: Leads: Ethan Zuckerman and Andrew McLaughlin This week, the class will dive head-first into perhaps the hottest fight -- with the highest stakes -- in the struggles over communications networks in developing countries. We will take part in a simulated negotiation on Voice-Over-the-Internet-Protocol (VOIP), the technology that allows individuals to make voice telephone calls using Internet connections. VOIP promises to bring low-cost, high-reliability voice services to developing countries; however, VOIP deprives developing countries of revenues from the international telephony settlement system (totalling US $7 billion last year), contributes nothing into existing universal service funds, and threatens to undercut the often-fragile stability of the often-struggling incumbent telephone infrastructure providers. Set in the fabled developing country of Berkmania, the VOIP negotiation will put students into the shoes of three key players in the debate: the regulatory authority, the monopoly telecom company, and the Internet service providers. All parties will have access to a common background Scenario paper; each party will also have a Secret Briefing to inform its negotiating strategies and positions. The negotiation will take place during class on September 23; in the week leading up to the negotiation, students should prepare by carefully reviewing the Scenario and Secret Briefing papers. Required Readings:
Optional Background Materials:
Part
II: Lead: Geoffrey Kirkman While the job of the policy analyst is to understand the narrow implications of nuanced legislation and policy, no policy decision takes place in a narrow vacuum, and the any policy decision has the potential to reverberate through a country's economy and society. Policy-makers at the highest level are confronted by countless sources of information that are interpreted, intermediated and affected by advisors, tough economic choices and political pressure and realities. How do ICT policy analysts search for greater relevance of their particular expertise, and how do heads-of-state or other highest level decision-makers balance competing data, political needs and advice regarding ICTs? Required Readings:
Optional Background Materials:
The Wireless Revolution and Universal Access Lead: Michael Best A revolution is developing in rural and universal access fueled by a suite of new terrestrial wireless technologies and matched by supportive public policies and business approaches. One emerging approach, that can provide decentralized services cheaply to rural and under-served communities, has small entrepreneurs purchasing inexpensive basic radio equipment and transmitting on unlicensed frequencies. Collections of these local operators begin to weave together a patchwork of universal access where little or no telecommunications services existed before. Required Readings:
Optional Background Materials:
Smart Mobs, Weblogs, Hacktivism: Social and Political Implications of Decentralized Networks Leads: Ethan Zuckerman, Andrew McLaughlin, James Moore Guest: Joichi Ito This week, we step back from the intensive focus on technology (Internet vs. telecom, VOIP, WiFi) to consider the broader social and political implications of decentralized networks. In particular, we'll take a look at smart mobs, weblogs, and hacktivism. Our guest will be Joichi Ito. Joi is an entrepreneur, venture capitalist, techie, activist, widely-read blogger, and much, much more. Check out his website -- it's an amazing hub of realtime online activity, exploration, and activism. Joi's notes for the class are posted here. Required Readings:
Optional Background Materials:
Spectrum Policy Also, here are the readings about the very hot, very current debate over spectrum policy. The Gilmore piece is a solid, readable introduction to the issue; the Werbach piece is a bit more dense, but comprehensive and action-packed. Required Spectrum Readings (short & sweet!):
Optional Spectrum Readings:
IP Imperialism Lead: Prof. Charles Nesson Copyright-related issues have become increasingly relevant and important for developing countries as they enter the information age and struggle to participate in the knowledge-based global economy. The extension of copyright control to software, and the extension of the copyright regime around the world to developing nations puts huge pressure on the ability of those in developing nations to minimize software piracy and yet still gain the benefits offered by information technology. Required Reading:
Optional Background Materials:
Political organizing and new forms of communication: The social and technical aspects of collective cognition and action Leads: James Moore and Andrew McLaughlin Guest: Yossi Vardi This is undoubtedly the year that the web gets credit for influencing American politics. The Dean campaign, MoveOn.org, MeetUp, and the combined effect of hundreds of political blogs assure that. But what is happening may involve more than the simple adoption of new technology to do old things -- in these cases to organize supporters, fundraise, to schedule meetings and rallies, and to debate. New communications technologies are enabling new forms of both individual and community behavior across wide swatches of society. Politics is not the only area that is changing. How Americans meet each other and couple up are being fundamentally transformed by Match.com, Friendster, and other social software. In this class we explore in some detail the social psychology of these new phenomena, and then ask ourselves about the implications for political participation and democracy. Our guest speaker is Yossi Vardi. Yossi Vardi is a social thinker and one of the pioneers of worldwide instant messaging and social software. He was the founding investor and former chairman of Mirablis Ltd., the creator of the extremely popular Internet communication program ICQ, which defined global software success and became AOL instant messaging. One of Israel's leading venture capitalists currently with International Technologies Ventures, Vardi continues to focus on how people communicate, how communities develop, and how communication technology can enable social evolution. Yossi is particularly interested in how specific attributes of communications applications can foster particular sorts of social inventions and community action. For example, the low latency, spontaneous connections afforded by instant messaging provide an "e-presence" that allows groups of physically distant individuals to collaborate closely as if collocated with each other. Yossi will explore the implications of the spread of new communications applications for society, and discuss issues in what might be called the "e-neurology" of social action. Many who study the field of social software suggest that neurology provides a good analogy for considering the community cognition and action enabled by new applications of technology. In this analogy, individuals play the role of discrete neurons and form neuronal clusters in broader networks. Communication services and applications make up the neuronal wiring-the synapses-that connect individuals into the network. For example, "The Second Superpower Rears its Beautiful Head" suggests that political outsiders with shared values can find each other, share ideas, and take action more effectively than before because they are the beneficiaries of a web-enabled community neurology. We have yet to have a systematic understanding of the socio-technical systems that are evolving. This session will make first moves in that direction. The class will take place at 5:00 PM in Hauser 104. The lecture is open to the public and is being advertised as "The Edge Against the Hub: The Struggle for Dominance of the Internet." Class members will be assured seating.
Optional Background Materials:
Intellectual Property and the Economics of Culture: Indigenous Knowledge, Shamans, Folklore, and Traditional Music Leads: Andrew McLaughlin, Ethan Zuckerman, Colin Maclay Some argue that the Internet frees knowledge, builds communities, and enables global distribution of local cultural products; others that it commodifies knowledge, steamrollers local identity, and fosters a global American hegemony of Hollywood to Britney Spears. This week, we look at the effect of digital technologies on the (in)ability of developing countries to afford legal protection to locally-produced traditional and indigenous creative works. As you do the readings this week, consider the following: What interests are really being protected and what interests are being harmed by international intellectual property regimes? Is there any empirical or other evidence that suggests that intellectual property rights help or hinder development? How do intellectual property laws interact with the politics of power, local culture and economics? Can a single policy fit diverse nations with diverse industries, economies, cultures, etc.? What are the costs and benefits of conforming to international intellectual property norms and adopting international treaties? Required Reading:
Optional Background Materials:
e-Democracy, e-Politics, e-Repression Lead: Andrew McLaughlin This week, we turn our sights to the impact of digital networks on governments, democracy, and politics. We will seek to assess what the basis of and prospects for significant changes in the mechanics of democratic institutions and political campaigns. We will also examine how some authoritarian governments are seeking to turn the Internet into a reliable tool of repression and propaganda. Required Reading:
Optional Background Materials:
Global Attention: a Right to be Heard? Lead: Ethan Zuckerman Japan and Nigeria have approximately the same population. On any given day, however, there will likely be seven times as many stories in the mainstream US press about Japan than about Nigeria. There is strong evidence that pervasive biases ensure that stories about wealthy and powerful nations will be better reported than stories about poor nations. Is this evidence of racism or nationalism, or a demonstration of market forces at work? Should readers who are only interested in domestic affairs be compelled (or encouraged) to encounter news about the developing world? Do the citizens of developing nations have a right to have their stories heard by the developed world? Required Reading:
Optional Background Materials:
Ecosystems for ICT Entrepreneurship in the Public Interest Leads: John Palfrey and James Moore In developing economies, what kind of environment is most conducive to the growth of digital businesses? This class will focus on the types of legal, policy, and regulatory decisions that a developing country faces as it seeks to create an ecosystem in which information and communication technology (ICT) entrepreneurs can thrive. In the process, ICT entrepreneurs create new networks, build a middle class, and add political pressure to existing power structures. In this session, the first segment will consider a series of layers of conflicts that we have considered throughout the term -- conflicts related to the emergence of VoIP, wireless, ad-hoc networks, struggles at the edge and at the hub, and the ways that a state reacts to the threats or the opportunities of emergent democracy. The second half of class will involve a mock session of a legislature in Ghana, in which a group of class members will represent entrepreneurs pursuing a business model like that of Busy Internet (see the case study, below) and the balance of the class will be members of the legislature. We will analyze what sort of a legal regime would best foster development of ICT businesses like Busy Internet, and will face down some of the harsh questions that decision-makers in developing countries must regularly address. Required Readings:
Tying It All Together: A Very Special WSIS PrepCom Leads: Andrew McLaughlin and Ethan Zuckerman Special guest: Jonathan Zittrain In this, our final session of the semester, class will take the form of a Preparatory Committee for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), which will take place in Geneva later this month. The purpose of the HLS Preparatory Committee is to set the agenda for WSIS. (By "agenda," we mean the set of issues about which the participating governments will seek to set an action plan or articulate common principles). In class, each student will act as a WSIS delegate from his/her focus country, representing the government or a major national business or significant non-governmental organization (NGO) of your choice. Members of the faculty team will be playing a range of other roles during the PrepCom. To prepare for class, take a good look at the WSIS website and the related websites and materials below. Bring to class a list of your top three priorities for the agenda of the WSIS, from the perspective of your particular country and sector. In building your list, you should consider the full range of issues that have been explored in class over the semester: the regulation of telecoms and Internet; VOIP and WiFi; universal access; smart mobs, weblogs, and hacktivism; spectrum policy; IP imperialism; political organizing; edge-vs.-hub battles; indigenous and traditional knowledge; e-democracy and e-politics; the ability to enforce content and speech controls; global media attention imbalances; and ICT entrepreneurship. What is most important for your country and sector? What problems are most imperative to address at the global level? Be prepared to propose your ideas for treaties, trade agreements, new international institutions (or reforms of existing institutions), common declarations, or whatever outcomes you think should come out of WSIS. Required Readings: Review these websites: Optional Background Materials:
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