Books and journals Case studies Expert Briefings Open Access
Advanced search

Search results

1 – 10 of 166
Content available
Article
Publication date: 14 January 2019

Guest editorial

Milton Mueller and Farzaneh Badiei

HTML
PDF (26 KB)

Abstract

Details

Digital Policy, Regulation and Governance, vol. 21 no. 1
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/DPRG-01-2019-064
ISSN: 2398-5038

Content available
Article
Publication date: 11 September 2017

Guest editorial

Milton Mueller and Farzaneh Badiei

HTML
PDF (27 KB)

Abstract

Details

Digital Policy, Regulation and Governance, vol. 19 no. 6
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/DPRG-07-2017-0036
ISSN: 2398-5038

To view the access options for this content please click here
Article
Publication date: 5 November 2020

The hidden standards war: economic factors affecting IPv6 deployment

Brenden Kuerbis and Milton Mueller

The data communications protocol supporting the internet protocol version 4 (IPv4) is almost 40 years old, and its 32-bit address space is too small for the internet. A…

HTML
PDF (2.6 MB)

Abstract

Purpose

The data communications protocol supporting the internet protocol version 4 (IPv4) is almost 40 years old, and its 32-bit address space is too small for the internet. A “next-generation” internet protocol version 6 (IPv6), has a much larger, 128-bit address space. However, IPv6 is not backward compatible with the existing internet. For 20 years, the internet technical community has attempted to migrate the entire internet to the new standard. This study aims to address important but overlooked questions about the internet’s technical evolution: will the world converge on IPv6? Will IPv6 die out? or will we live in a mixed world for the foreseeable future?

Design/methodology/approach

The research offers an economically-grounded study of IPv6’s progress and prospects. Many promoters of IPv6 sincerely believe that the new standard must succeed if the internet is to grow, and assume that the transition is inevitable because of the presumed depletion of the IPv4 address resources. However, by examining the associated network effects, developing the economic parameters for transition, and modeling the underlying economic forces, which impact network operator decisions, the study paints a more complex, nuanced picture.

Findings

The report concludes that legacy IPv4 will coexist with IPv6 indefinitely. IPv6 is unlikely to become an orphan. For some network operators that need to grow, particularly mobile networks where the software and hardware ecosystem is mostly converted, IPv6 deployment can make economic sense. However, the lack of backward compatibility with non-deployers eliminates many network effects that would create pressure to convert to IPv6. A variety of conversion technologies, and more efficient use of IPv4 addresses using network address translation, will support a “mixed world” of the two standards for the foreseeable future.

Originality/value

The authors’ conceptualization and observations provide a clearer understanding of the economic factors affecting the transition to IPv6.

Details

Digital Policy, Regulation and Governance, vol. 22 no. 4
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/DPRG-10-2019-0085
ISSN: 2398-5038

Keywords

  • Economics
  • Standards
  • Conversion
  • Dual-stack
  • Internet protocol
  • IPv4/IPv6

To view the access options for this content please click here
Article
Publication date: 11 September 2017

Is cybersecurity eating internet governance? Causes and consequences of alternative framings

Milton Mueller

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the relationship between cybersecurity governance and internet governance and to explore the effects of the current tendency for…

HTML
PDF (197 KB)

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the relationship between cybersecurity governance and internet governance and to explore the effects of the current tendency for cybersecurity-related discourse to dominate and change the way we approach the established problems of internet governance.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper demonstrates the centrality of internet connectivity to any definition of cyberspace and to cybersecurity, which clarifies the way internet governance and cybersecurity governance are interdependent. Drawing on classic notions of a security dilemma, the paper also argues for distinguishing between national cybersecurity and societal cybersecurity.

Findings

Major structural features of the governance problem in cybersecurity and internet governance are analogous. Joint production of internet services and cybersecurity makes them heavily interdependent. This means that cybersecurity governance and internet governance models need to be compatible, and the approach we take to one will influence how we approach the other.

Originality/value

The interdependence of cybersecurity governance and internet governance has not been carefully examined before, and the relationship is not well understood. These two strands of thinking about cyberspace governance have not been properly connected. This paper bridges the gap and makes policymakers more aware of the potential tensions between a cybersecurity perspective and an internet governance perspective.

Details

Digital Policy, Regulation and Governance, vol. 19 no. 6
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/DPRG-05-2017-0025
ISSN: 2398-5038

Keywords

  • Global governance
  • Cybersecurity
  • Internet governance
  • Security dilemma

To view the access options for this content please click here
Article
Publication date: 14 January 2019

Data flows and the digital economy: information as a mobile factor of production

Milton Mueller and Karl Grindal

This paper aims to analyze the direction and balance of transnational information flows and look at how nonpriced digital information exchanges related to international…

HTML
PDF (145 KB)

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to analyze the direction and balance of transnational information flows and look at how nonpriced digital information exchanges related to international trade in goods and services.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors obtained quantitative data about Web-related data flows between countries and regions using Telegeography data on “Server Location as a Percentage of Top Websites.” They then explore how those flows are correlated to trade in goods.

Findings

Web traffic is highly transnational. More than half of the top 100 websites in 9 of the world’s 13 sub-regions are hosted in the USA. More than 15 per cent of the top 100 websites in 9 of the 13 subregions are hosted in Western Europe. East Asia has the largest negative balance in the relationship between incoming and outgoing Web requests. The authors found a very strong negative correlation (−0.878) between Web traffic balances and the balance of trade in goods across all subregions. A similarly strong positive correlation was found with services trade; however, the incompleteness of the data does not allow for strong conclusions yet.

Research limitations/implications

Further research is needed to correlate Web traffic flows with capital flows. The authors also do not have a well-developed theory to explain the strong negative correlation between information flows and goods trade.

Practical implications

The data and analysis have useful implications for digital economy policy. It indicates that digital protectionism of the sort practice by China may succeed in increasing domestic producers’ share of Web requests, but does not make them globally competitive. The strong negative correlation between the balance of unpriced Web information and the balance of trade in goods indicates interdependence rather than domination, challenging narratives that information flow imbalances are caused by market power of the big platforms.

Social implications

The paper demonstrates the degree to which unpriced digital exchanges are transnational and how various countries are more or less globally competitive in the supply of information that the rest of the world finds attractive.

Originality/value

No other published papers have used the data on website traffic data, and previous research has not explored empirically the correlation between information flows and goods trade.

Details

Digital Policy, Regulation and Governance, vol. 21 no. 1
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/DPRG-08-2018-0044
ISSN: 2398-5038

Keywords

  • Internet
  • International trade
  • Information society

To view the access options for this content please click here
Article
Publication date: 23 September 2013

Dimensioning the elephant: an empirical analysis of the IPv4 number market

Milton Mueller, Brenden Kuerbis and Hadi Asghari

This article aims to quantify the emerging transfer market for internet protocol (IPv4) numbers and provides an initial assessment of factors and policies impacting those…

HTML
PDF (103 KB)

Abstract

Purpose

This article aims to quantify the emerging transfer market for internet protocol (IPv4) numbers and provides an initial assessment of factors and policies impacting those transactions.

Design/methodology/approach

The research draws on Regional Internet Registry records and conducts basic analysis of stocks, flows and proportions to assess the nature of this emerging market for IP number blocks and explore some of its implications for internet governance.

Findings

There is a thriving and growing market for IPv4 number blocks. The market is improving the efficiency of IPv4 address allocation by moving numbers from unused or under-utilized holders to organizations that need them more. Buyers willingly pay for number blocks they could get for free in order to benefit from more liberal needs assessments and stronger property rights.

Research limitations/implications

Information about prices is not available and some transfers may take place through leasing arrangements, which are not covered by this paper. Future research should continue to investigate the transfer market, including activity skirting or occurring outside the current RIR policy environment.

Practical implications

RIRs should liberalize needs assessments and remove other sources of friction to the transfer market.

Originality/value

No known prior assessment of the transfer market has been conducted. The research has value for policymakers and industry decision makers.

Details

info, vol. 15 no. 6
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/info-07-2013-0039
ISSN: 1463-6697

Keywords

  • Governance
  • Policy
  • Internet addresses
  • IPv4
  • IPv6
  • Transfer market

To view the access options for this content please click here
Article
Publication date: 1 April 2001

Domains without frontiers

Milton Mueller

Delineates the Clinton administration’s handing over licensing control of the Internet domain names and IP addresses from federal government to a non‐profit making…

HTML
PDF (79 KB)

Abstract

Delineates the Clinton administration’s handing over licensing control of the Internet domain names and IP addresses from federal government to a non‐profit making organization that represents the industry (ICANN). Wonders whether the US President may have overreached his administration’s area of authority.

Details

info, vol. 3 no. 2
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/14636690110801833
ISSN: 1463-6697

Keywords

  • Internet
  • Licences
  • Federal government

To view the access options for this content please click here
Article
Publication date: 1 February 2000

Caught in the Web: the public interest and the battle for control of China’s information superhighway

Yuezhi Zhao

Analyses the evolution of China’s telephone and cable systems, in terms of the public interest, discussing current bureaucratic conflicts and policy debates over…

HTML
PDF (332 KB)

Abstract

Analyses the evolution of China’s telephone and cable systems, in terms of the public interest, discussing current bureaucratic conflicts and policy debates over convergence, and construction of an independent broadband cable network. Looks in depth at China’s problems and the different problems for its citizens with regard to poverty levels and access to the Web.

Details

info, vol. 2 no. 1
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/14636690010801311
ISSN: 1463-6697

Keywords

  • World Wide Web
  • Telecommunications
  • China

To view the access options for this content please click here
Article
Publication date: 1 December 1999

ICANN and Internet governance: sorting through the debris of “self‐regulation”

Milton Mueller

Discusses ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), which is a new private corporation for managing Internet domain names and IP addresses, which was…

HTML
PDF (319 KB)

Abstract

Discusses ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), which is a new private corporation for managing Internet domain names and IP addresses, which was created in the USA and produces a historical and conceptual assessment of the policy involved.

Details

info, vol. 1 no. 6
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/14636699910801223
ISSN: 1463-6697

Keywords

  • Internet
  • Regulations
  • USA

To view the access options for this content please click here
Article
Publication date: 23 September 2013

Cookies versus clams: clashing tracking technologies and online privacy

Andreas Kuehn

This article compares the use of deep packet inspection (DPI) technology to the use of cookies for online behavioral advertising (OBA), in the form of two competing…

HTML
PDF (107 KB)

Abstract

Purpose

This article compares the use of deep packet inspection (DPI) technology to the use of cookies for online behavioral advertising (OBA), in the form of two competing paradigms. It seeks to explain why DPI was eliminated as a viable option due to political and regulatory reactions whereas cookies technology was not, even though it raises some of the same privacy issues.

Design/methodology/approach

The paradigms draw from two-sided market theory to conceptualize OBA. Empirical case studies, NebuAd's DPI platform and Facebook's Beacon program, substantiate the paradigms with insights into the controversies on behavioral tracking between 2006 and 2009 in the USA. The case studies are based on document analyses and interviews.

Findings

Comparing the two cases from a technological, economic, and institutional perspective, the article argues that both paradigms were equally privacy intrusive. Thus, it rejects the generally held view that privacy issues can explain the outcome of the battle. Politics and regulatory legacy tilted the playing field towards the cookies paradigm, impeding a competing technology.

Originality/value

Shifting the narrative away from privacy to competing tracking paradigms and their specific actors sheds light on the political and the regulatory rationales that were not considered in previous research on OBA. Particularly, setting forth institutional aspects on OBA – and DPI in general – the case studies provide much needed empirical analysis to reassess tracking technologies and policy outcomes.

Details

info, vol. 15 no. 6
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/info-04-2013-0013
ISSN: 1463-6697

Keywords

  • Cookies
  • Privacy
  • Deep packet inspection
  • Facebook Beacon
  • NebuAd
  • Online behavioral advertising

Access
Only content I have access to
Only Open Access
Year
  • Last week (1)
  • Last month (1)
  • Last 3 months (1)
  • Last 6 months (10)
  • Last 12 months (16)
  • All dates (166)
Content type
  • Article (128)
  • Book part (36)
  • Earlycite article (2)
1 – 10 of 166
Emerald Publishing
  • Opens in new window
  • Opens in new window
  • Opens in new window
  • Opens in new window
© 2021 Emerald Publishing Limited

Services

  • Authors Opens in new window
  • Editors Opens in new window
  • Librarians Opens in new window
  • Researchers Opens in new window
  • Reviewers Opens in new window

About

  • About Emerald Opens in new window
  • Working for Emerald Opens in new window
  • Contact us Opens in new window
  • Publication sitemap

Policies and information

  • Privacy notice
  • Site policies
  • Modern Slavery Act Opens in new window
  • Chair of Trustees governance statement Opens in new window
  • COVID-19 policy Opens in new window
Manage cookies

We’re listening — tell us what you think

  • Something didn’t work…

    Report bugs here

  • All feedback is valuable

    Please share your general feedback

  • Member of Emerald Engage?

    You can join in the discussion by joining the community or logging in here.
    You can also find out more about Emerald Engage.

Join us on our journey

  • Platform update page

    Visit emeraldpublishing.com/platformupdate to discover the latest news and updates

  • Questions & More Information

    Answers to the most commonly asked questions here