Policy Impact Assessments: Considering the Public Interest in Internet Standards Development
Year: 2003
Type: article
Abstract: It is now widely understood that technical design decisions about the Internet can have lasting impacts on policy and individual rights. 1 This raises a critical question: How can policy considerations, and the interest generally, be best accounted for in the development of the Internet’s “code?” To answer this question, this paper first looks at the value of participation in standards bodies by policy experts and interest advocates, and concludes that such involvement is a necessary but not sufficient response. A more systematic approach is needed to ensure that the policy impacts are more widely considered. This paper proposes one tool to address this need ‐ the use of ritualized public policy impact in the Internet standards development process. The paper details the authors’ proposal toward for policy assessments within the context of one standards body ‐ the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). It then examines their more general applicability, benefits, and limitations for a broader range of Internet standards efforts. Since 2000, the Internet Standards, Technology, and Policy Project of the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) has explored the interest in information and communications technology (ICT) standards. The Standards Project has participated in the work of key Internet standards bodies, engaged technologists and policy experts, and undertaken to inform and educate other policy advocates and policymakers about the ICT standards processes. 2 * The authors work for the Center for Democracy and Technology, a nonprofit Internet policy and civil liberties group based in Washington, DC. John Morris is the Director of CDT’s “Standards, Technology, and Policy Project,” and Alan Davidson is CDT’s Associate Director. This paper is based on work made possible through the generous support of the Ford Foundation. The authors wish to acknowledge: Jerry Berman, Matt Blaze, Scott Bradner, Carl Cargill, Lorrie Cranor, Sally Floyd, Becky Lentz, Alison Mankin, Jonathan Peizer, Allen Renear, and Stefaan Verhulst, among many others, for their input, ideas, and feedback on the work of CDT’s Standards Project, much of which is found in this paper. 1 This concept has been most recently and most accessibly explained in Lawrence Lessig, Code and
Authors: John B. Morris, Alan Davidson
Language: English
Topic: ICT Impact and Policies
Subfield: Economics and Econometrics
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2187318708