Building on the work by the project group on the Internet as a cultural space, a second generation of projects addressed the subject of Internet governance. This work focuses on new regulations enforced on the Internet. There were two main empirical research projects: (a) The Reform of the Domain Name System (DNS) and (b) The Processes of Reaching a Consensus and Decision - Making on the Internet.
The objective of the study on the DNS was to analyse the differing interests and reform options and to evaluate them for their effects on users' opportunities to communicate and for the way in which the net is used.
The study on global processes of consensus-building and decision-making on the Internet ties into the discussion of trends toward transnationalisation in the area of international relations. The empirical focus of the work is on the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the Internet's new administrative and coordination organ. The primary question is about the relation between national and transnational forms of reaching a consensus. A particularly interesting aspect of this issue is the role of users in Internet governance. The objective of the study was to advance theory-building on transnational forms of democratic organisation and coordination.
