September 27, 2000
Major universities launch consortium in Internet studies
Will the Internet dissolve the nation-state? Three major research universities located in hubs of high-tech innovation are uniting to explore this question and others concerning the impact of the Internet on economic and political systems.
Representatives of the University of Cambridge, the National University of Singapore and the University of Washington agreed to establish a ground-breaking consortium ? the Internet Political Economy Forum (IPEF). The Forum, with private and public-sector partners, will study the political, social and economic implications of the Internet.
The consortium represents a global academic response to a global challenge with founding partners located in three major high-tech hubs in Asia, Europe and North America. The establishment of the Forum formalizes and expands an earlier initiative, which has already yielded two major conferences, hosted by the University of Washington in September 1999 and by the University of Cambridge in May 2000. Professor James Mayall, director of the Centre of International Studies at the University of Cambridge, stressed that the ?Internet represents a radical transformation of mankind?s communications environment that has the potential to reconfigure many aspects of political, economic, and social life. However, up until now, there has been little disinterested empirical or theoretical research by social scientists to explore this transformation and its implications..?
?Analyzing these issues from different cultural perspectives is critically important because the Internet is inherently a global phenomenon? commented Professor K.C. Ho, director of the Information and Communication Management Program at the National University of Singapore.
Professor Steven Olswang, vice provost of the University of Washington, reinforced to the three founding universities during the three-day meeting that ?the future of learning is increasingly international. The IPEF will build an institutional framework for students and faculty to work on a regular basis with their peers around the world.?
The IPEF will also integrate perspectives from non-university organizations in both the public and private sectors. Already the IPEF has held two major conferences in Seattle and Cambridge that featured Internet visionaries such as Vinton Cerf, an Internet founding father, Craig Mundie, senior vice president of Microsoft Consumer Systems, John Perry Barlow, co-founder, Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Manuel Castells, professor of sociology, University of California, Berkeley.
The National University of Singapore will host the next annual IPEF conference in September 2001 on the topic of the Internet and development in Asia.
The academic units leading the IPEF are: University of Washington Center for Internet Studies (IPEF Secretariat); University of Cambridge Centre of International Studies and Wolfson College, and the National University of Singapore Information and Communications Management Programme.
Funding for a three-day retreat to formalize the consortium and develop an initial series of programs and research topics was provided by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The retreat was held at the Whiteley Center, a new broadbad conference facility at the UW”s Friday Harbor Laboratories on San Juan Island, Sept. 25-27.
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For further information and interviews with IPEF faculty members please contact Chris Coward or Rex Hughes, Co-Directors of the Center for Internet Studies, University of Washington at 206.616.9191 or media@cis.washington.edu.
