Command Lines: The Emergence of Governance in Global Cyberspace

The Center for International Education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is pleased to announce

Command Lines: The Emergence of Governance in Global Cyberspace
a colloquium at the Hefter Conference Center, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, April 29-30, 2005, organized by Sandra Braman, Dept. of Communication, braman[at]uwm[dot]edu and Thomas Malaby, Dept. of Anthropology, malaby[at]uwm[dot]edu.

free and open to the public

The transfer of many realms of social life to the global domain of cyberspace presents numerous challenges to formal governance through law and law-making while increasing the relative importance of other approaches to "the conduct of conduct." While governments struggle to develop and apply laws to cyberspace, the producers of the internet (its users and programmers) create their own parameters, norms, practices, and rules that control life online. Experience within cyberspace, whether building a virtual world, making or participating in games, or learning how to communicate congenially and productively in a listserv, is becoming the most important training in political life for many. Governance systems being developed within cyberspace in turn are providing models for, or interact with, the laws of governments. This colloquium will examine the diverse ways in which governance is developing within cyberspace and the effects of such approaches on governance in the off-line world. Sessions will cover the entire range of types of governance mechanisms, from the formal laws of government through the formal and informal governance mechanisms of both state and non-state actors to the cultural practices of governmentality that sustain and enable both governance and government.