Internet Governance

Press Release September 26, 2011

Kiel Institute
for the World Economy

in Cooperation with

Increases in Internet crime indicate that a broad-based international discussion needs to be conducted about the fundamental values that should be upheld in the Internet. “Technological and regulatory systems could help to resolve Internet problems,” says Korinna Werner-Schwarz, administrative editor of the Kiel Institute’s innovative e-journal Economics and one of the organizers of the Global Economic Symposium (GES) panel session entitled Internet Governance Structures. Further, she says that self-regulation could also work, “but only if all the parties involved have similar interests and only if it is generally accepted by the public.” The GES session on Internet governance will concern itself with identifying the elements that would be necessary for an acceptable global regulatory system for the Internet.

The rapid development of the Internet has sparked a debate about how to regulate and control Internet activities. A forward-looking regulatory system that protects the interests of users, organizations, and national security is needed, and the free flow of information in the Internet needs to be reconciled with the rights of third parties. Thus, a globally recognized Internet regulatory system is needed.

What are the key values that should underpin Internet governance? What would constitute adequate organizational arrangements with which to implement these values at an international level? What conditions would have to obtain for self-regulation to work? These and other questions will be discussed at the Global Economic Symposium in Kiel.

Kiel will turn into a think tank on 4–6 October, when more than 400 high-ranking experts from business, government, academia, and civil societies will meet for the fourth Global Economic Symposium (GES), which is being jointly hosted by the Kiel institute for the World Economy and the Bertelsmann Stiftung, in cooperation with the German National Library of Economics (ZBW) – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics. Among those expected to participate are Hans-Paul Bürkner, President and CEO of the Boston Consulting Group, René Obermann, CEO of Deutsche Telekom, Joaquín Almunia, Commissioner for Competition, European Commission, Yves Leterme, Prime Minister of Belgium, Anders Borg, Finance Minister, Sweden, Mehmet Şimşek, Minister of Finance, Turkey, and Erik Stark Maskin and Oliver E. Williamson, both Nobel laureates in economics.

Further information about speakers and themes at the GES can be found at www.global-economic-symposium.org.

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