Debating Internet Governance

Yesterday on Slate Glenn Reynolds, Tim Wu, and Jack Goldsmith discussed their respective books on internet governance as part of Slate's Book Club. Glenn Reynolds authored "An Army of Davids" and Tim Wu and Jack Goldsmith recently published "Who Controls the Internet."

Glenn Reynolds opened up the conversation with: Now my question: In Who Controls the Internet? you note that geographical boundaries are starting to matter more, as the Internet sheds its original character as a community of rootless cosmopolitan academic types and becomes more like everyday life, where location does shape how we interact. You also argue that this is in many ways a good thing. But I found that part of the argument a bit less clear. At times, it almost seemed that you were alluding to the sorts of arguments that are often made on behalf of federalism within the United States, arguing that it provides opportunities for experiments in varieties of governance and allows people to "vote with their feet" to choose the rules they will live under. Am I right? Might you elaborate a bit on why we're better off with an Internet that reflects real-world geography?

Click here to read Tim Wu's response.

If you are interested in issues concerning Internet governance, try reading:
*Mary Rundle, Beyond Internet Governance: The Emerging International Framework for Governing the Networked World
*Prof. John Palfrey, Local Nets: Filtering and the Internet Governance Problem
*Prof. Jonathan Zittrain, "Without a Net"
*Prof. John Palfrey, David E. Abrams, and Derek Bambauer, "Stemming the International Tide of Spam: A Draft Model Law"