Network of Centers

= a "Global Network of Internet and Society Research Centers".

URL = http://networkofcenters.net/

Description

"A growing number of academic research institutions are focused on exploring a wide range of important issues concerning the future of the Internet and related technologies. Representing diverse disciplines, methodologies, and viewpoints, these institutions have sought to analyze and understand the growing impact of digital technologies on society and share those findings in such ways that serve the public interest. In the process, they grapple with a complex set of topics and issues of national, regional, and global importance, including policy, regulation and governance, human behavior and social impact, new markets and business models, intellectual property, privacy, and security, and many other issues.

Acknowledging a lack of internationally coordinated research and engagement activities in the areas mentioned above, a group of academic centers launched the Network of Internet and Society Research Centers (in the following referred to as “NoC” or “the Network”) in 2012, within an international Symposium on Internet-Driven Developments: Structural Changes and Tipping Points (SCTP), hosted by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. The Network of Centers a collaborative initiative among academic institutions with a focus on interdisciplinary research on the development, social impact, policy implications, and legal issues concerning the Internet. This collective aims to increase interoperability between participating centers in order to stimulate the creation of new cross-national, cross-disciplinary conversation, debate, teaching, learning, and engagement regarding the most pressing questions around new technologies, social change, and related policy and regulatory developments.

In its first two years, the Network of Centers has been coordinated by Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society, which in October 2014 passed the baton of the coordination to the Nexa Center for Internet & Society at Politecnico di Torino. In January 2017, the Institute for Technology and Society of Rio (ITS Rio) undertook the administrative coordination of the Network." (http://networkofcenters.net/about)