related
Guides:

Networks
& the GII

Security &
InfoCrime

Digital
Economy




related
Profiles:

ICANN

auDA

ITU

     government

This page looks at the shape of government in cyberspace, highlighting regulatory mechanisms and policy-making bodies of particular importance in Australia and overseas.

     maps

The US National Information Infrastructure (NII) Virtual Library offers information about the information superhighway, in particular as part of the Global Inventory Project (GIP). 

From an Australian perspective an excellent introduction to some questions of value in public policymaking about the Web is provided by Graham Greenleaf's 1998 Uni of NSW Law Journal article An Endnote on Regulating Cyberspace: Architecture vs Law

There is an outstanding overview of national and international regulatory mechanisms in Global Business Regulation (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni Press 2000) by John Braithwaite & Peter Drahos. The New Sovereignty: Compliance With International Regulatory Agreements (Cambridge: Harvard Uni Press 1995) by Abram & Antonia Chayes focuses on 'rogue states'.

The New World Trade Organization Agreements: Globalizing Law Through Services & Intellectual Property (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni Press 2000), by Australia's Christopher Arup explores the evolving WTO-WIPO relationship highlighted in our Intellectual Property guide.

Geoffrey Mulgan's Communication & Control: Networks & the New Economies of Communication (New York: Guilford Press 1991) and the essays in Borders in Cyberspace: Information Policy & the Global Information Infrastructure (Cambridge: MIT Press 1997) edited by Brian Kahin & Charles Nesson offer other insights.

     policy development

For personal perspectives on how US cyber policy is developed - often on the hop, at great expense, with much noise from the media - you could do worse than turn to Reed Hundt's You Say You Want A Revolution: A Story of Information Age Politics (New Haven: Yale Uni Press 2000) and Cyber Rights: Defending Free Speech in the Digital Age (New York: Times 1998), a memoir by the Electronic Frontier Foundation's (EFF) Mike Godwin. Hundt is a former chair of the Federal Communications Commission. 

The Gordian Knot - Political Gridlock on the Information Highway (Cambridge: MIT Press 1997) by W Russell Neuman, Lee McKnight & Richard Solomon is less personal but ultimately more convincing. There is a broader perspective in Democratic Governance & International Law (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni Press 2000) edited by Gregory Fox & Brad Roth.   

There is no Australian equivalent and much of the online examination of policy development is disfigured by ad hominem attacks. Two recent books on the 'old media' provide some perspective on local horse-trading, foot shuffling, hot air and incomprehension.  They are Trevor Barr's Newmedia.com.au: The Changing Face of Australia's Media and Communications (St Leonards: Allen & Unwin 2000) - a leading academic on the interaction between politicians, bureaucrats, business, consumers and technology - and a blow by blow account in The Gatekeepers: The Global Media Battle to control Australia's Pay TV (Annandale: Pluto Press 2000) by AFR journalist Mark Westfield.

   Australian government

Australia's National Office for the Information Economy (NOIE) - subsequently rebadged as AGIMO - produced a range of reports, some of value, on aspects of electronic commerce.

There is other information at the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) site.

The Australian Electronic Business Network (AEBN) is a government program meant to "foster awareness of electronic commerce among small to medium enterprises" 

   international

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) generates detailed statistical and other reports.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) site - currently being reconstructed - provides access to statistical data, research and international agreements such as TRIPS.

   overseas government

The website of the US government Electronic Commerce agency contains a wealth of information about policy-making and research initiatives in the US.

The US Internet Council (USIC), comprising state and national legislators, has released a series of reports on government, the net and the information economy - for example State of the Net 1999.

The US Department of Commerce's Digital Economy office publishes significant reports. It has largely superseded the National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA) and the independent National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) as a major 'new economy' data source.

The US National Information Infrastructure (NII) Virtual Library offers information about the information superhighway, in particular as part of the Global Inventory Project (GIP).

Statistics Canada (StatCan) offers outstanding coverage of developments in the land of the moose, the muskrat and the mountie. It is superior to the UK National Statistics (NStats) Office.

The European Community Information Society Project Office (ISPO) has an array of statistics, generally deeply buried. 



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