Hello everyone, I am re-sending my previous message that bounced back due to an attachment. At the moment, however, there seem to be two ICA pre-conferences on Internet governance. To clear the confusion, this one will take place in Tokyo. I am pasting the call below and it is also available online: http://giga-net.org/page/ica2016intgov Please consider submitting and feel free to distribute widely. Thank you! Dima P.S. Thank you again to Alex and his team for the excellent conference! ====== ICA 2016 Preconference Call for Papers Power, communication, and technology in Internet governance Organized by GigaNet (Global Internet Governance Academic Network) Co-Sponsored by ICA's Communication Law and Policy, and Communication and Technology Divisions Hosted by Kanazawa Institute of Technology (Tokyo campus) Wednesday, 8 June 2016 Extended abstract due: 15 January 2016 Full papers due: 15 April 2016 Submit at: http://tiny.cc/ica2016intgov Research on Internet governance has been gaining momentum since the concept broke into public and policy discourses in the years leading to, and especially during, the WSIS (World Summit on Information Society). The year 2015 marks the 10thanniversary of the WSIS process and the year 2016 marks the 10th anniversary of the first GigaNet symposium, which owes its genesis to a joint ICA-IAMCR workshop and has been part of the Internet Governance Forum since 2006. Over the years research on Internet governance has evolved and is no longer focused solely on Internet infrastructure and politics surrounding its protocols, unique identifiers, and domain names. Social media, sharing economy, cyberwarfare, Internet of things, and wearable technology are just a few relatively new developments raising new governance challenges. Yet, even with the expanding boundaries, the core questions of Internet governance remain focused on the intersection of power, communication, and technology. With this pre-conference we want to embark on a boundary searching exercise for Internet governance studies. What do we see as cutting edge work on Internet governance both conceptually and empirically? What questions do Internet governance researchers ask? What methods are they using? What theories do they build upon? What are the burning issues and the most provocative challenges in the field? What are the best cases illustrating those issues and challenges? How has Internet governance changed over the years? What are the events that have shaped this trajectory? What have we learned about technology, politics, agency, and power over close to two decades of Internet governance research? What are we expecting Internet governance to encompass in the years to come? What forces will shape it? We invite contributions from researchers working on Internet governance questions in the broadest sense. All theoretical and methodological approaches are welcome. Potential more specific topics may include, but are in no way limited to, the following: -  Meta explorations of Internet governance research (paradigms, theories, methods). -  Multidisciplinarity in Internet governance research: key concepts, methodological challenges, theoretical innovations. -  Power dynamics in Internet governance ecosystem. -  Internet Governance 10 years after the WSIS. -  Analyzing, critiquing or supporting multistakeholder governance as an ideology or practice. -  Reflecting and analyzing the outcome of UN negotiations about prolongation of IGF mandate. -  Sustainable development and inequalities as it relates to global Internet Governance. -  Trade agreements and Internet governance. -  Technical, legal and policy initiatives for cybersecurity and their impact on global Internet Governance. -  The respective powers of the users, technology designers and regulators in distributed systems. -  The changing role of governments in Internet governance. -  Analysis of key Internet governance concepts such as net neutrality, multistakeholderism, digital divide, etc., and their contestations. The preconference is organized by Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet) and co- sponsored by the ICA Communication Law and Policy and Communication and Technology divisions, but it touches upon the fields of many more ICA divisions and interest groups. We aim to bring together researchers from different theoretical and methodological backgrounds, as well as practically oriented researchers of Internet governance. Given the location of ICA this year and our plan to have the pre- conference in Tokyo, we hope to see increased participation of researchers from the region. Depending on the mix of submissions we will seek to engage in a dialogue with the local community of Internet governance practitioners. Our goal to have a mutual learning process and exchange of ideas and challenges for the further development of Internet governance research. SUBMISSION DETAILS At this time we invite authors to submit extended abstracts (800-1000 words) that describe the main thesis, research goals, and to the extent possible, the methodological background and findings of their paper. All extended abstracts must be uploaded through EasyChair at http://tiny.cc/ica2016intgov by 15 January 2016, with all identifying information removed. All contributions will be blindly peer-reviewed, and acceptance notifications will be sent out before the end of February 2015. Authors of the accepted abstracts will be asked to submit a full original manuscript of approximately 4000 to 8000 words, which have not been published elsewhere, by 15 April 2016. Based on the volume and the quality of submissions we intend to explore a potential thematic publication of pre-conference materials. PRE-CONFERENCE LOGISTICS The preconference will take place on Wednesday, 8 June 2016 on the Tokyo campus of Kanazawa Institute of Technology. Presenters are expected to register for the pre-conference, but registration is open to both presenters and non-presenters. At the moment, the registration fees stand at 75 USD. GigaNet is an international association of academic researchers with a focus on the multidisciplinary field of Internet Governance. It was founded in 2006 and is open to researchers from all over the world who are contributing to local, regional and international debates on Internet Governance. More information on GigaNet's institutional structures and activities can be found on the website http://www.giga-net.org. For any direct inquiries regarding this preconference, please contact: Dmitry Epstein (dmitry@uic.edu) On Fri, Oct 30, 2015 at 9:21 AM, Dmitry Epstein <dmitry.epstein@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello everyone,

Thank you again to Alex and his team for the excellent conference!

Please find attached a call for papers for an Internet governance pre-conference for the annual meeting of the International Communication Association. The call is also available online <http://giga-net.org/page/ica2016intgov>.

Please consider submitting and feel free to distribute widely.

Thank you! Dima