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Internet standards are very important for the effective operation of organizations. This study extends on the model of Internet standards adoption by examining the effect of organizational factors on adoption of Internet standards across different cultures. We propose attitude, top management support, and participation as important organizational factors influencing Internet standards adoption. Surveys were conducted in Australia and China, and the results show that organizational factors indeed play an important role in Internet standards adoption. Moreover, the effects of organizational factors are significantly different between the two countries. Discussion and implications of these findings are provided to conclude this study.

There is a wide variety of policy instruments that political entrepreneurs wishing to influence policy outcomes in the field of Internet Governance may choose from. There is a strategic dimension to this choice. This paper studies how standards and laws interact in the governance of Web privacy, by looking at the case of two groups within the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C): the Tracking Protection Working Group and the Privacy Interest Group. Despite the prevalence of discourses stating that the realm of Internet standards are free from the “weary giants of flesh and steel” John Perry Barlow referred to in his Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace, laws, or at least some of them, do exercise a significant amount of influence in the shaping of Web standards dealing with privacy. Laws were quoted as arguments by participants trying to settle disagreements. They influenced certain – but not all – sections of the proposed Do Not Track specifications. This influence should not, however, be understood as meaning that there is a clear recognition by standard-setters that laws are, or even should be superior to standards in a hierarchy of norms that would be impossible to establish due to the nation-bounded nature of laws against the global scope of Web standards.

Interoperability is a major focus of the quickly evolving world of Health IT. Easy, yet secure and confidential exchange of imaging exams and the associated reports must be a part of the solutions that are implemented. The availability of historical exams is essential in providing a quality interpretation and reducing inappropriate utilization of imaging services. Today, the exchange of imaging exams is most often achieved via a compact disc. We describe the virtues of this solution as well as challenges that have surfaced. Internet- and cloud-based technologies employed for many consumer services can provide a better solution. Vendors are making these solutions available. Standards for Internet-based exchange are emerging. Just as radiology converged on DICOM as a standard to store and view images, we need a common exchange standard. We will review the existing standards and how they are organized into useful workflows through Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise profiles. Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise and standards development processes are discussed. Health care and the domain of radiology must stay current with quickly evolving Internet standards. The successful use of the "cloud" will depend on both the technologies and the policies put into place around them, both of which we discuss. The radiology community must lead the way and provide a solution that works for radiologists and clinicians with use of the electronic medical record. We describe features we believe radiologists should consider when adding Internet-based exchange solutions to their practice.

This article analyzes the engagement of Japanese, Korean and Chinese participants in the development of Internet standards at IETF on the basis of four quantitative metrics: attendance, patenting, authorship and leadership. The results are strikingly divergent. Japanese involvement in Internet standardization began early and Japan was, for many years, second only to the U.S. in terms of IETF participation. Though Japanese participation has declined since the early 2000s, Japan remains a major contributor to IETF standardization. Korean involvement in IETF has always been significant, but below the levels of Japan and major European countries. Korean participation in IETF has also declined over the past decade, and has been dominated by one firm, Samsung. Though meaningful Chinese involvement in IETF did not begin until the mid-2000s, it has rapidly expanded in recent years. Today, China is a major player in numerous areas of Internet standardization in terms of three metrics (participation, patenting and leadership), and is rapidly gaining in terms of document authorship as well. Most of China's recent IETF involvement can be attributed to Huawei, though other Chinese firms have recently begun to increase their participation in the organization. Thus, contrary to some views that China's engagement with standardization is primarily one of indigenous innovation and "catching up", China's experience with IETF demonstrates deliberate and effective engagement with a major Western standards-development organization on its own terms. Internet standardization originated with U.S. institutions and is now led by the IETF.Japan and Korea became involved early in the history of IETF.In recent years, China has supplanted Japan and Korea as the principal Asian participant in IETF activity, and may soon rival U.S. and European participation.

Multistakeholderism has emerged as a potential mechanism to address the interconnected complexity that defines many of today’s most pressing policy challenges. The goal of this thesis is to better understand the relationship between effectiveness and legitimacy in the nascent multistakeholder model, taking internet governance, a frequently cited example of multistakeholderism, as a case study. Applying four criteria elaborated from central theories that have influenced the development of multistakeholderism, this thesis evaluates several internet organizations based on participation, coordination, agreement, and action, with a focus on key differences between technical and political multistakeholder processes. Based on this analysis, the thesis concludes with recommendations for improving the legitimacy and effectiveness of multistakeholder policy-development initiatives related to internet governance as well as other fields.

There is a growing literature revolving around the role of non-State actors in the international law-making process. The starting point of this article is that although informal international law-making may not be legally binding, it would be unwise to dismiss it as legally irrelevant. Informal law-making can be relevant with respect to conceptualising and applying existing law, as well as guiding future regulation. The present discussion is placed in the context of cyberspace and, more specifically, the Internet standardisation bodies’ informal law-making functions when creating Internet protocols by setting Internet standards. The article addresses the legitimacy and the ongoing work of the Internet Advisory Board and Internet Engineering Task Force in setting Internet standards with the aim to protect Internet users from mass surveillance and serious threats to privacy online. The article makes two main arguments. First, the effective protection of online privacy cannot be understood only in terms of compliance with legal frameworks but – in practice – that also needs to be secured through technological means. Second, in the area of online privacy informal law-making and international law converge in a distinctive way. Internet standards should not necessarily be seen as “living a parallel life” to law or as displacing or merely complementing the law. Technical standards and international law can actively inform one another and converge in their application. The analysis explores the implications of the Internet’s technical features to policy-making and legal reasoning by discussing State and judicial practice. The article demonstrates how the technical perspective on privacy informs and enriches the manner in which the legal advisor argues about privacy, the legislator articulates the interests at stake and the judge and practitioner interpret and apply international human rights law.

In this paper, we introduce the first fully implemented two-way authentication security scheme for the Internet of Things (IoT) based on existing Internet standards, specifically the Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) protocol. By relying on an established standard, existing implementations, engineering techniques and security infrastructure can be reused, which enables easy security uptake. Our proposed security scheme is therefore based on RSA, the most widely used public key cryptography algorithm. It is designed to work over standard communication stacks that offer UDP/IPv6 networking for Low power Wireless Personal Area Networks (6LoWPANs). Our implementation of DTLS is presented in the context of a system architecture and the scheme's feasibility (low overheads and high interoperability) is further demonstrated through extensive evaluation on a hardware platform suitable for the Internet of Things.

With increasing societal dependence on the Internet and new application areas emerging, the need for securing communications and identifying communication partners is expected to increase. However, the original Internet architecture is lacking these functionalities, and most of the protocols proposed to fix these issues have not been widely deployed. Often one of the reasons for such failure is that protocol designers have insufficient understanding of the potential adopters' economic incentives so one may end up designing protocols based on false or inaccurate assumptions. In this paper, we analyze the Host Identity Protocol (HIP) from this viewpoint. Based on 19 expert interviews, we identify six main reasons why HIP has not been widely deployed yet. Most importantly, (1) the demand for the functionalities of HIP has been low. Where demand would have existed, substitute solutions have been favored because (2) they were earlier on the market, (3) they have relative advantage due to some design choices of HIP, (4) HIP lacks early adopter benefits necessitating costly coordination among multiple stakeholders in public deployment scenarios, and (5) people have misconceptions about the deployability of HIP. Additionally, (6) the research-mindedness of HIP developers has lead to strategic mistakes and non-optimal design choices from the perspective of deployment. We also suggest strategies that HIP developers could take to foster the adoption of HIP. Besides providing value to HIP developers, the results propose some new adoption barriers and deployment strategies that could be taken into account when designing new protocols. Finally, the article also provides a template that could be followed when studying the feasibility of other protocols.

Introduction Patients can rapidly access the internet and more young people are using their mobile to access health-related information. The aim of this study is to assess the readability and quality of colorectal disease websites for colorectal cancer. Methods We searched the Google, Yahoo and Bing for colorectal cancer. Readability was assessed using Flesch Reading Ease Score (FRES), Flesch-Kincaid Grade (FKG) and Gunning Fog Index (GFI). The LIDA tool and DISCERN instrument were used to measure the design and content of health information on the Internet. A sub-group analysis was performed on websites certified by HONcode and Information Standard against non-certified websites. Results The mean FRES were 56.3, mean FKG of 6.9, mean GFI of 9.5, equivalent to TIME magazine. The mean LIDA Tool overall score was 85.6% and mean DISCERN instrument was 52.2 (95% CI 45–59.4). Conclusion This study shows that colorectal cancer websites were readable but potentially unreliable. Government certified sites were superior to non-certified sites. Improvements are required to provide patients with reliable information to make informed decisions on medical treatments. We propose that national cancer services develop reliable and easily readable information regarding the diagnosis and investigation of colorectal cancer. The site should provide adequate information regarding the treatment options and importantly how each treatment option would affect the patient's quality of life. Clinicians can then provide these websites to the patients before and after their consultations to allow the patient to be fully informed.

Background Patients use the Internet regularly to access health-related information. This study's goal was to assess the quality and content of Internet-based information for common foot and ankle diagnoses. Methods We identified the ten most common foot and ankle diagnoses in our academic foot and ankle practice. Ten websites for each diagnosis were identified using two large Internet search engines. A custom grading form was used to determine website quality, based upon the Health On the Net Foundation (HON) principles, and information content. Four independent reviewers graded each website. Results One hundred thirty-six unique websites were reviewed. Average HON score was 62.4 (range, 52.3–68.8) and content score was 49.7 (range, 33.8–62.1) out of a maximum of 100. Interobserver variability was low. Conclusions The overall quality of Internet information for common foot and ankle diagnoses is variable, raising concerns about what information is currently available to patients.

Background: Health consumers are increasingly using the Internet to access information about health care, to self-diagnose, and to purchase medication. The use of the Internet to purchase herbal products is of particular interest because of the high level of consumer expenditure on herbal medicines, and the misperception by some consumers that herbal products are natural, and thus absent of any contraindications, drug interactions and adverse effects. It is possible that consumers may purchase herbal medicines via the Internet without consulting health professionals and therefore, use these medicines in an unsafe manner. Design: Cross-sectional survey of 54 selected websites, including online pharmacies, online health food stores and manufacturers of herbal medicines. Main outcome measure A modified version of the DISCERN instrument was used to assess the quality of websites. Objectives: To examine the quality of e-commerce websites that sell herbal products; specifically, websites where St. John's wort (Hypericum perforatum) can be purchased. Design Cross-sectional survey of 54 selected websites, including online pharmacies, online health food stores and manufacturers of herbal medicines. Main outcome measure A modified version of the DISCERN instrument was used to assess the quality of websites. Results: The majority of websites rated poorly with a concerning lack of information about the interaction between hypericum and warfarin, anti-depressants and oral contraceptives. Most sites also failed to provide sufficient information about the contraindications and adverse effects of hypericum treatment. Conclusions The results of this study strongly support the need for improved consumer education about herbal medicine, as well as the application of more stringent standards to websites that sell medications. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

We develop an adoption model of infrastructure technologies and test it with survey data collected from companies in six industries in South Korea (hereafter: Korea). The implementation of a new Internet standard such as Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) depends on the usefulness of the technology to the adopting organizations and the environment in which they operate. The adoption of IPv6 in Korea is mostly driven by a governmental strategy that created user demand, and normative pressure. IPv6 adoption in Korea is also driven by perceived resource concentration and power due to the uneven allocation of IPv4 addresses. Conversely, killer applications, technical sponsorship and financial factors had no influence on the adoption decision by Korean companies. Taken together, the findings of our explorative study suggest the need to consider technical as well as social and policy factors to understand the adoption dynamics of infrastructure technologies.

Objectives The use of social networking (SN) sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, has skyrocketed during the past 5 years, with more than 400 million current users. What was once isolated to high schools or college campuses has become increasingly ubiquitous in everyday life and across a multitude of industries. Medical centers and residency programs are not immune to this invasion. These sites present opportunities for the rapid dissemination of information from status updates, to tweets, to medical support groups, and even clinical communication between patients and providers. Although powerful, this technology also opens the door for misuse and policies for use will be necessary. We strive to begin a discourse in the surgical community in regard to maintaining professionalism while using SN sites. Results The use of SN sites among surgical house staff and faculty has not been addressed previously. To that end, we sought to ascertain the use of the SN site Facebook at our residency program. Of 88 residents and 127 faculty, 56 (64%) and 28 (22%), respectively, have pages on Facebook. Of these, 50% are publicly accessible. Thirty-one percent of the publicly accessible pages had work-related comments posted, and of these comments, 14% referenced specific patient situations or were related to patient care. Conclusions Given the widespread use of SN websites in our surgical community and in society as a whole, every effort should be made to guard against professional truancy. We offer a set of guidelines consistent with the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and the American College of Surgeons professionalism mandates in regard to usage of these websites. By acknowledging this need and by following these guidelines, surgeons will continue to define and uphold ethical boundaries and thus demonstrate a commitment to patient privacy and the highest levels of professionalism.

The advantages and disadvantages of using the Internet in both qualitative and quantitative researches in the field of health are readily available in the literature, but little examination has been made of the factors to be considered in developing and running Internet-mediated research. A bibliographic search of English language publications indexed in eight computerized databases (EBSCO, EMBASE, MedLine, PsycInfo, CINAHL, PubMed, Cochrane, and TRIP) was undertaken with no limit set for the data of publication. The keywords Internet, research, quality, credibility, reliability, and validity were used in all possible combinations, and mappings to headings made wherever possible. The search revealed three key areas in setting up and undertaking Internet-mediated research: addressing sampling biases, ensuring ethical practice, and exploring the validity of data collected using an online interface. This paper contributes to the ongoing development of quality standards in the conduct and write-up of Internet-mediated research in the field of health.

A number of studies have been carried out to assess health information on the internet and they all have demonstrated that, whereas the internet can be the third opinion for many patients, often contains inaccurate and misleading information. Furthermore, as herbal medicines are increasingly used by patients, it is imperative to assess the quality of information presented on the internet. Hence, the aim of this study was to assess the quality and safety of the information presented on the internet about medicinal herbs specifically in the field of cancer. Two hundred relevant websites were initially selected from a process using 10 search engines and the keywords 'herbs' and 'cancer', and 43 sites actually met all inclusion criteria. Assessment of both quality and safety indicators was carried out using the DISCERN instrument, which has been developed to enable consumers and information providers to judge the quality of health information. Readability scores of the sites were also obtained (Flesch formula). It was shown that most sites had low quality in a number of indicators, including accuracy of information, revealing sources of information, biased presentation of information or regularity of updates. The mean score for quality was 22.12 (S.D.=4.18) out of a maximum score of 50. The mean safety score was 13.26 (S.D.=2.14) out of a maximum score of 30. Commercial sites had the most inaccurate or misleading information, emphasizing only the positive aspects of the use of herbs, with little or no evidence. The only biomedical sites assessed achieved the highest score in both quality and safety. Readability of the information was equal to the school level of college (mean=44.63). Seven percent of the sites discouraged the use of conventional medicine. Results suggest that health professionals should talk about use of alternative therapies with their patients and help them find the best available information when using the internet.

The paper offers a general view of Web-based Training (WBT) as a number of knowledge transfer processes utilizing current and advanced Internet technology to facilitate and speed the flow of knowledge from people possessing that knowledge to people who need to acquire it. The key here is in the use of both conventional and innovative tools compatible with current Internet standards to transfer the knowledge. Thus, the paper introduces an innovative application of Internet technology to acquire, store, structure and transfer different types of human knowledge in a working environment. It starts with a number of typical training scenarios and shows that traditional WBT systems support only most rudimentary ones. It demonstrates a number of concepts and tools necessary in the real training situations. Those tools are bringing together a number of disparate areas, encompassing more than what was traditionally considered simply 'WBT'. The following knowledge transfer processes are discussed: WBT, Web-based tutoring, Web-based mentoring as well as Web-based knowledge mining, Web-based knowledge profiling and Web-based knowledge delivery. These processes were implemented as a number of typical knowledge transfer scenarios (http://coronet.iicm.edu). The scenarios were practically tested and evaluated with hundreds of users in a real industrial environment.

The study aimed to explore the information needs of cancer patients, to solicit their views of Internet-based health information and to consider whether the DIPEx website would have addressed specific unmet information needs of people with breast or prostate cancer. Focus groups were conducted first to identify information needs. Participants were recruited through four breast and prostate cancer support groups in the UK. Individual interviews, in which participants were shown DIPEx and asked to search for material related to concerns that had been important to them as cancer patients, were conducted after the focus groups. Respondents said their information needs had been complex and changed over time while the information they had been given was often patchy, inconsistent, contradictory and haphazard. Access to practical and experiential information from other patients was highly valued. Those with experience of using the Internet expressed a clear preference for non-commercial sites for health information. Sites attached to recognised centres of excellence such as universities or well-known medical centres were also preferred. Respondents were aware of the possible pitfalls of taking health information from the Internet and often compared information from several sources before believing it.

There are thousands of health web sites, but because of the unregulated nature of the Internet, not all sites provide accurate, complete, and up-to-date information. Nurses have an important role in evaluating health web sites and directing patients to quality sites with information they can understand. The purpose of this article is to describe how to evaluate health web sites and use them as a component of patient education. An evaluation of web sites on wound care is included as a means of illustrating issues patients face when searching the Internet for health information.

AliEn (http://alien.cern.ch) (ALICE Environment) is a Grid framework built on top of the latest Internet standards for information exchange and authentication (SOAP, PKI) and common Open Source components. AliEn provides a virtual file catalogue that allows transparent access to distributed datasets and a number of collaborating Web services which implement the authentication, job execution, file transport, performance monitor and event logging. In the paper we will present the architecture and components of the system.

Content distribution networks (CDNs) increase the capacity of individual Web sites and attempt to deliver content from caches that are located 'closer' to end-users than the origin servers that provide the content. CDN brokering provides CDNs a way to interoperate by allowing one CDN to intelligently redirect clients dynamically to other CDNs. This paper describes the goals, architecture, and performance of a CDN brokerage system. Our system has been deployed on the Internet on a provisional basis, and our architectural ideas have helped advance the evolution of Internet standards for interoperating CDNs.

In the last decade several concepts as Teleworking, Teleeducation and Telecooperation have been commonplace in the Internet scenario. Nevertheless, there is a lack of support for speeding up the development of new and specific distance operating applications. In this paper, a Virtual Operating System (VOS) environment is presented, which fills the gap between Internet standard transport protocols and new groupware applications. The VOS exports a public interface offering heterogeneous services as: information sharing, security, distributed transactions on a shared distributed file system, remote administration and dynamic downloading/uploading of Java code within a CORBA environment.

Because of the Internet's benefits of interoperability, statistical sharing, and (usually) positive network externalities, providers of new applications and services will attempt to create new markets for their services through the Internet, even if the underlying technical architecture of the Internet is not intrinsically designed to support such services. This article unravels the strands of economic and network theory and business practice to place new Internet standards such as Diffserv, Intserv, and RSVP, and associated new service pricing models in perspective. This article explains how the next generation Internet may work economically, and what the business strategy and policy implications may be of these changes in the Internet's architecture and infrastructure.

This study aimed to determine the type, accuracy and content of information available on the internet regarding head and neck cancer. The search engine Google was used to generate a list of the top 100 websites about head and neck cancer. The websites were evaluated using the DISCERN instrument and the JAMA benchmarks and whether the site displayed the Health on the Net seal was also recorded. The search yielded 1,650,000 sites on the Google website. Of the top 100 sites, a total of 33 sites were suitable for analysis due to duplicate links, non-functioning links and irrelevant website. 45% achieved all four JAMA benchmarks and 18% achieved only 1 benchmark. No website receiving the maximum mark on the overall score and four websites received the lowest overall score regarding the DISCERN instrument. The question with the poorest response score was 'Does it describe how the treatment choices affect overall quality of life?' 39% of the websites displayed the Health on the Net (HON) seal. A wide variety of types of information are available on the internet regarding head and neck cancer with variable accuracy levels based on both Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmarks and DISCERN. The onus lies with the practitioner to guide the patient regarding scientific reliability of information and to direct the patient in filtering the information sourced. The inclusion of quality of life related information is currently lacking and should be addressed to ensure a more comprehensive understanding for patients of treatment options.

This paper presents the functionality and architecture of a new conference-control management system called Confman 2.0. It enables the user to initiate and participate in online conferences based on current Internet standards. Supported system platforms include Unix workstations and Microsoft operating systems as well. Starting with a short description of current Internet conferencing technology the paper describes Confman's conference-control functionality and gives a brief overview of Confman's distributed software architecture.

This study was initiated to examine the feasibility of providing multimedia mail, in particular video mail, on the existing World Wide Web platform. In this instance, the Web browser will act as the user agent of the mailing system. With this, users will be able to compose, send and read video mail directly on the Web. This paper examines a number of possible system architectures that can be employed for the development of video mail. Based on the following key issues: portability of system, flexibility of system, Internet standard support, security and authentication, and message compression and storage, a final architecture was selected to build video mail. The approach taken is that the system will be interfaced to the Web using a standard HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) server and a standard Web browser. This is achieved through the use of Common Gateway Interface (CGI) programs and forms which reside in a standard HTTP server to provide the functionality of video mail, and a separate mail server for the storage and management of messages. This will cause the HTTP server to behave as if it is an electronic mail (E-mail) system. Video mail has been successfully implemented at the School of Applied Science, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. The development work has been carried out on a Sun SPARC5 workstation and the Typhoon relational database system was used to construct the mail server. All software codes were written in C or C++. A video capturing application used in conjunction with a SunVideo card has been developed for video and audio recording. The paper also addresses implementation issues pertaining to the use of CGI programs, mail server development, and video and audio management.

Efforts to study and practice Internet governance start, virtually without exception, from the premise that the Internet is governed by an innovative, unusual (perhaps unique) ‘multistakeholder’ model. Preserving that model is a primary goal for the broader Internet community as well as for many governments, though not for all. Viewing multistakeholderism as a teleological goal for Internet governance creates several problems. First, multistakeholderism is often elevated as a value in itself rather than as a possible approach to meeting more salient public interest objectives such as preserving Internet interoperability, stability, security, and openness. Second, multistakeholder governance may not be appropriate in every functional area of Internet governance. Internet coordination is not a monolithic practice but rather a multilayered series of tasks of which some are appropriately relegated to the private sector, some the purview of traditional nation-state governance or international treaty negotiations, and some more appropriately multistakeholder. It is a misnomer to speak not only of multistakeholder governance but also of Internet governance as a single thing. The concept of multistakeholderism can also serve as a proxy for broader political struggles or be deployed as an impediment to the types of Internet coordination necessary to promote conditions of responsible governance. For example, governments with repressive information policies can advocate for top-down and formalized multistakeholderism to gain additional power in areas in which they have traditionally not had jurisdiction. These types of efforts can result in multilateral rather than multistakeholder approaches with non-governmental actors limited from participating in formal deliberations and lacking any meaningful voting power. Alternatively, companies and other actors with vested interests in current governance arrangements can deploy multistakeholderism in a manner either meant to exclude new entrants (whether public or private) with incommensurate interests and values or to preserve incumbent market advantage.This paper suggests that multistakeholderism should not be viewed as a value in itself applied homogenously to all Internet governance functions. Rather, the appropriate approach to responsible Internet governance requires determining what types of administration are optimal for promoting a balance of interoperability, innovation, free expression and operational stability in any particular functional and political context. Doing so requires conceptual and theoretical tools that have not yet been developed. Accordingly, the paper proceeds in three parts. First, it presents a more granular taxonomy and understanding of Internet governance functions – differentiating between, for example, cybersecurity governance, Internet standards setting, and the policymaking function of private information intermediaries. Second, it performs the same task of disaggregation with respect to multistakeholderism. It presents distinct varieties of multistakeholder Internet governance (which differ according to the varieties of actors involved and the nature of authority relations between them) and sets these arrangements in a broader context of modalities for accomplishing global governance in other issue areas. Such an approach contributes both to the study and practice of Internet governance, and to scholarship in International Relations and global governance.

This paper describes the design and implementation of a remote procedure call (RFC) transaction manager. The structures and constructions of RFC-based systems have been widely discussed, yet how to manage the RFC transactions by using these existing structures and constructions remains unclear. We have designed a system for managing RFC transactions based on our RFC transaction model. The system is designed at first to manage single RFC transactions. It is then expanded to manage parallel RFC transactions as well. Some properties of the system are described. We also present some descriptions of the preliminary implementation of our RFC transaction manager.

It is known that during the Internet's formative years United States government agencies influenced Internet standards and global governance arrangements. (Abbate, 200; Froomkin, 2003; Mueller, 2002) And while the impact of "code" (i.e., Internet standards) on "law" (i.e., Internet governance) has been famously asserted (Lessig, 2000), little is known about how the interaction between Internet standards and governance actually occurs. Looking at the case of secure routing, this paper uncovers the social networks that coalesce around and span the global Internet standards and policy making institutions. It identifies how United States government agencies are learning to influence efforts to secure critical Internet resources through a combination of engaging these social networks and delegation (principal-agent) relationships. In doing so, they achieve outcomes concerning critical Intern resources consistent with its multiple interests.

A domain name is a unique alphanumeric designation that facilitates reference to sets of numbers which actually locate a particular computer on the Internet. Domain names are a fundamental part of the Internet's user interface. Improving the usability of

If code is law then standards bodies are governments. This flawed but powerful metaphor suggests the need to examine more closely those standards bodies that are defining standards for the Internet. In this paper we examine the International Telecommunications Union, the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers Standards Association, the Internet Engineering Task Force, and the World Wide Web Consortium. We compare the organizations on the basis of participation, transparency, authority, openness, security and interoperability. We conclude that the IETF and the W3C are becoming increasingly similar. We also conclude that the classical distinction between standards and implementations is decreasingly useful as standards are embodies in code - itself a form of speech or documentation. recent Internet standards bodies have flourished in part by discarding or modifying the implementation/standards distinction. We illustrate that no single model is superior on all dimensions. The IETF is not effectively scaling, struggling with its explosive growth with the creation of thousands of working groups. The IETF coordinating body, the Internet Society, addressed growth by reorganization that removed democratic oversight. The W3C, initially the most closed, is becoming responsive to criticism and now includes open code participants. The IEEE SA and ITU have institutional controls appropriate for hardware but too constraining for code. Each organization has much to learn from the others.

On September 15, 2003, VeriSign, Inc., the company that operates the databases that allow Internet users to reach any Internet resource ending in .com or .net, introduced a new service it called Site Finder. Less than three weeks later, after widespread protest from the technical community, at least three lawsuits, and a stern demand from ICANN (the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers, which has undertaken responsibility for managing the Internet domain name space), VeriSign agreed to shut Site Finder down. In between those dates, the Internet community saw a passionate debate over the roles of ICANN, VeriSign, and the Internet's technical aristocracy in managing the domain name space. In this paper, I unpack the Site Finder story. Site Finder was highly undesirable from a technical standpoint; it contravened key elements of Internet architecture. ICANN had power to force VeriSign to withdraw it, though, only if VeriSign was violating the terms of its registry contracts. The arguments that Site Finder violated VeriSign's contractual obligations are plausible, but they don't derive their force from Site Finder's architectural or stability consequences. The registry contracts gave ICANN no hook to invoke those concerns; if VeriSign was in breach, it was by happenstance. Part of the lesson of Site Finder is that there needs to be an effective institutional mechanism for protecting the domain name space infrastructure from unilateral, profit-driven change that bypasses the protections and consensus mechanisms of the traditional Internet standards process. Notwithstanding ICANN's flaws, it may be better suited than any other existing institution to protect against that threat. Yet ICANN regulation is itself highly problematic, and so any plan to expand its authority must be approached with care.

The coalition of biotechnology, pharmaceutical and computer companies known as Interoperable Informatics Infrastructure Consortium (I3C) is attracting new members. The consortium was established earlier this year with the goal of developing an open platform to enable researchers to share data about genomics and proteomics using the Java programming language and the XML Internet standard for data exchange. Representatives from IBM, Millennium Pharmaceuticals and Accenture were among the new members who recently joined founders Sun Microsystems, TimeLogic, Blackstone, Incogen, LabBook, Oracle and the National Cancer Institute. The new consortium, which includes, among its academic and public-sector participants, the European Bioinformatics Institute and Manchester University, was launched at the BIO 2001 conference in San Diego, USA (24–27 June). If the I3C address the challenge successfully, common standards will be set for manipulating data from several different sources over the Internet. This will particularly aid the efforts of smaller companies that have difficulty coping with the raging number of existing applications based on particular operating systems. Members of the coalition agreed that all standards coming out of the project will be fully public. AR(http://news.ft.com/home/uk)