Global Internet Community Research Articles

Internet Governance in China: Toward a New Cyber Civilization

The year 2023 marks the 30th anniversary of its access to the Internet. This paper provides a comprehensive review of China’s domestic network governance, with a focus on the ethical meaning of civilization in the Chinese context. It aims to explore how regulating Internet cultural phenomena and building a civilized Internet have become distinctive features of China’s Internet civilization construction. It uses a qualitative research design to analyze China’s Internet development over the past three decades, from coping with technological shocks to autonomously constructing a civilized regulatory system and making China’s Internet civilization propositions. The findings reveal the reasons for forming the current network governance pattern, highlighting Beijing’s unique approach to Internet governance. The study explores the intersection between China’s traditional cultural values and its modern Internet development, providing insights into Beijing’s Internet regulatory efforts and their impact on the global Internet community and making a number of recommendations. Additionally, the practical implications of this study are discussed, along with suggestions for future research directions in the field of Internet civilization construction.

Cultural/Social Media Space of the Digital Generation

Taking the example of Kazakhstan, this study examines the formation and analysis of the cultural media space of the digital generation. Information and communication technologies are the basis of a communicative media environment that has an internal regulated structure, which affects the socialisation of a person. The content of the cultural media space of the digital generation is formed on the basis of digital technologies and represents people’s visual worldview with images, signs and symbols.
 The processes of transformation of society affect the young generation and the content of the media space that determines their social and ethnocultural identity. The study presents the results of working with schoolchildren and students aged 14-18 using focus groups to explore the impact of digital culture (media culture) on adolescents in Kazakhstan. Based on the interdisciplinary approach, the findings demonstrate intergenerational contradictions because of the active involvement of Kazakhstan in the global internet community. The cultural media space of Kazakhstan has been shaping the social communications of the digital generation that has grown up in a sovereign state. The theoretical concepts of P. Bourdieu, C. Mannheim and other scientists served as a methodology for this study. Based on the interdisciplinary approach, the findings demonstrate intergenerational contradictions because of the active involvement of Kazakhstan in the global internet community. The findings also unravel that the transformation of the value orientations of adolescents is influenced by the factors of geographical location and ethnicity.

Illegal pet trade on social media as an emerging impediment to the conservation of Asian otters species

Social media has become an increasingly popular platform to trade legal and illegal wildlife. Here, we evaluate the online trade of otters, a group of globally threatened taxa in Thailand, a country of high global social media use. During the 14-month period, we monitored five Facebook groups to establish a primary understanding of the scope and scale of the trade. We recorded 160 sales posts (337 individual otters) of two species, the Asian small-clawed otter (Aonyx cinereus) (81%) and the smooth-coated otter (Lutrogale perspicillata) (19%). Newborn otter pups accounted for 53% of the offers, whereas young otters accounted for 35%. Prices averaged US$78, where the smooth-coated otter was offered at a significantly higher price than the Asian small-clawed otter. Juvenile otters were also significantly more expensive than newborns. Trade appears to be domestic; however, the potential for international trade cannot be overlooked. Although otters are protected domestically, we find that the trade is easily accessible and prevalent. The results reflect current inadequacies in enforcement and legislation in keeping pace with the rapidly shifting nature of the Internet in Thailand and throughout the global Internet community. A consistent collaborative effort from consumers, enforcement agencies, and operators is required to address this illicit trade.

Uncovering the diverse cultural bases of social identity: Ingroup ties predict self‐stereotyping among individualists but not among collectivists

On what basis do people form their social identities? To investigate this issue, the present research investigates cross‐cultural differences in self‐stereotyping, a key outcome of social identification. In particular, the research tests the hypothesis that ingroup ties are a stronger predictor of self‐stereotyping among people from individualist cultures than among people from collectivist cultures. In Study 1, university students (N = 117) completed measures of ingroup ties and self‐stereotyping with respect to an intimacy group (family and friends). Consistent with predictions, ingroup ties significantly predicted self‐stereotyping among individualists but not among collectivists. Study 2 (N = 104) found a similar pattern of results among members of the global internet community who considered either an intimacy group (their friends), a task group (their work group) or a social category (their gender). These results indicate that people in individualist cultures are more likely than those in collectivist cultures to base their social identities on ingroup ties. The implications of these results are discussed in relation to self‐categorization theory's depersonalization account of social identification.

Linguistic diversity on the internet: Arabic, Chinese and Cyrillic script top-level domain names

The deployment of Arabic, Chinese, and Cyrillic top-level domain names is explored in this research by analyzing technical and policy documents of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), as well as newspaper articles in the respective language regions. The tension between English uniformity at the root level of the Internet׳s domain names system, and language diversity in the global Internet community, has resulted in various technological solutions surrounding Arabic, Chinese, and Cyrillic language domain names. These standards and technological solutions ensure the security and stability of the Internet; however, they do not comprehensively address the linguistic diversity needs of the Internet. ICANN has been transforming into an international policy organization, yet its linguistic diversity policies appear disconnected from the diversity policies of the United Nations, and remain technically oriented. Linguistic diversity in relation to IDNs at this stage mostly focus on the language representation of major languages that are spoken in powerful nation-states, who use the rhetoric of national pride, local business branding, and inclusion of non-English speakers. This situation surfaces the tension between nation-states and the new international governing institution ICANN.

ICT in the Brics Agenda Before The 2015 Summit: Installing the Missing Pillar?

Today the BRICS states constitute one of the most massive and rapidly growing segments of the global internet community. In 2013 the total number of internet users in BRICS states exceeded 900 mill...

Choosing the Right Path to a Permanent Accountability Framework for ICANN

Over the next month, the ICANN Board will consider its options for ensuring that some framework is in place to ensure ICANN’s accountability to the global Internet community after the approaching expiration of the its Memorandum of Understanding and Joint Project Agreement (MOU/JPA) with the U.S. Department of Commerce. The Board ought to allow the time necessary for the development of a permanent accountability framework in consultation with the global Internet community, as required by ICANN’s Bylaws, however should should avoid rubber-stamping a recent proposal to essentially make the MoU/JPA a permanent instrument as inadequate to ensure ICANN’s long-term accountability. The alternative, simply ending ICANN’s relationship with the U.S. Government, would raise serious legal questions concerning ICANN’s ability to collect fees from registrars and registries and the transfer of property rights underlying the domain name system. ICANN’s new CEO Rod Rod Beckstrom should exercise the kind of leadership he advocated in his 2005 book, The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations, which explains the advantages of decentralized managerial “nervous systems” (“starfish”) over top-down hierarchies (“spiders”). “Instead of focusing on ‘spider’-esque permanent instruments with a single government, Beckstrom and the ICANN Board should focus on more ‘starfish’-like solutions that both continue the USG’s stewardship role and involve more governments that want to participate in the unique private-public partnership known as ICANN - without compromising ICANN’s guiding principles and commitment to private sector leadership, the authors conclude. Only this outcome will ensure the long-term viability of ICANN as a global trustee of the Internet’s unique identifiers.”

Comments of Michael Palage, PFF to Dept. Of Commerce National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) NOI on 'ICANN 3.0'

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has strayed from the technical coordinating mandate originally envisioned in the 1998 White Paper and has become a quasi-monopolistic regulator accountable to no one but itself. This NOI provides the global Internet community the opportunity to deconstruct the current the failed ICANN 2.0 governance model and put in place an ICANN 3.0 governance model incorporating a back to basics approach (restoring ICANN's original mission) and implementing important lessons learned to make ICANN more responsive and accountable to its stakeholders. ICANN is also wrong in its haste to escape its Joint Project Agreement (JPA) with the Department of Commerce, by pointing to its completed [independent review] reports and subsequent public comments and declares 'Mission Accomplished!' without having fully implemented the changes recommended in those reports. Four overarching issues to address: - ICANN's Periodic Review of its internal operations and supporting organizations has failed, and has become nothing more than a perpetual motion machine of public comments and documentation producing no meaningful results. Only a second Evolution and Reform Process can solve ICANN's current deficiencies; - ICANN must hardcode into its policies and its contracts the principle that its policies cannot supersede national laws; - ICANN must cease any operational role in technical infrastructure as required by its bylaws and focus instead on its mission as a technical coordinator; and - Congress must avoid kicking the JPA can down the road and instead provide much-needed leadership by creating a solid foundation for ICANN 3.0 in legislation after proper consultation with the Government Accounting Office.

The (im)balance of nature: a public perception time-lag?

The last two decades have seen a conceptual shift within environmental and social sciences from an emphasis on ecosystem stability and balance to an acknowledgement of the importance of flux and change in the natural world. This has profound implications for conservation management and policy and has driven an (incomplete) transition from managing to maintain (bio)diversity and ecological stability at some historically derived "optimum" to managing to maintain important ecosystem and evolutionary processes such as nutrient cycles and migration. Here, we investigate whether this change from a "balance of nature" metaphor to a more dynamic perspective ("flux of nature") is reflected in the representation of conservation and ecosystem management in the news media, the Internet, and the academic literature. We found that the media and the global Internet community still portray the aim of conservation science and of conservationists as being one of maintaining stability, harmony and balance.

Science rides the online wave

Science rides the online wave

A conceptual framework for curbing the epidemic of information malice: e-hygiene model with a human-factor approach

To address tsunami-scale damage, socially and economically, caused by information malice to the global Internet community, the authors propose an e-hygiene model augmented by human-factors as an effective means to curb the epidemics. The model, constructed upon the survey on e-hygiene habits of college students, demonstrates that: Human Factor (HF) is the major vulnerability of the information security; and Awareness, Capitals and Abilities form the three dimensions of the HF that information users must act to minimise the risks of information malice. Only when anti-malicious technology is coupled with good user e-hygiene can information malice be reduced.

IDNs: Straightforward Technical Problem or Machiavellian Nightmare?

Three of the leading figures trying to solve the technical aspect of internationalized domain names (IDNs) - Internet domain names containing non-ASCII characters, such as those used in Arabic or Chinese - have been alternately hopeful and pessimistic recently. Vint Cerf, chairman of the ICANN board, says he's more optimistic about finally deploying a globally workable IDN solution than he's been in a year. Cary Karp, director of Internet strategy and technology at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm, paints a darker picture of disingenuous and cynical maneuvering by parties with axes to grind. And John Klensin, former chairman of the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), says his outlook on one of the global Internet community's most vexing and longest-running problems depends on the developments on any given day

NEWS AND COMMENT ON RECENT DEVELOPMENTS FROM AROUND THE WORLD : Domain companies files law suit against ICANN

The deployment of Arabic, Chinese, and Cyrillic top-level domain names is explored in this research by analyzing technical and policy documents of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), as well as newspaper articles in the respective language regions. The tension between English uniformity at the root level of the Internet׳s domain names system, and language diversity in the global Internet community, has resulted in various technological solutions surrounding Arabic, Chinese, and Cyrillic language domain names. These standards and technological solutions ensure the security and stability of the Internet; however, they do not comprehensively address the linguistic diversity needs of the Internet. ICANN has been transforming into an international policy organization, yet its linguistic diversity policies appear disconnected from the diversity policies of the United Nations, and remain technically oriented. Linguistic diversity in relation to IDNs at this stage mostly focus on the language representation of major languages that are spoken in powerful nation-states, who use the rhetoric of national pride, local business branding, and inclusion of non-English speakers. This situation surfaces the tension between nation-states and the new international governing institution ICANN.

Talk Across the Oceans: Language and Culture of the Global Internet Community

(1996). Talk Across the Oceans: Language and Culture of the Global Internet Community. Journal of Visual Literacy: Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 11-24.