Columbia Institute for Tele-Information (CITI)

A university-based research center focused on strategy, management, and policy issues in telecommunications, computing, and electronic mass media.

Recent & Upcoming Events

November 2, 2023, 11:00am-12:00pm

CITI-IMMAA Seminar: Gregory W. Harper, Futurist and President, Harpervision Associates

The Next Generation of Media Video Devices and their Implications

To register, visit: https://citiimmaaharper.eventbrite.com

October 5, 2023, 11:00am-12:00pm

CITI-IMMAA Seminar: Pablo Medina Aguerrebere, Professor of Corporate Communications at University of Dubai's School of Communication (UAE)

Building Meaningful Brands for Non-Profits: A branding model for Hospitals

American hospitals face different challenges that will determine their corporate communication strategies in the next years: new business models, patients’ new requirements, economic crises, and smart technologies (artificial intelligence, big data).

Reviewing and evaluating historical hospital branding efforts of the past sixty years, this presentation proposes a modified cultural branding model of how hospitals can address these challenges in building meaningful brands that enhance their relations with stakeholders and improve their business models in the next twenty years.

Pablo Medina Aguerrebere holds a BA, MA and Ph.D. in Corporate Communication from the University of Navarra in Spain. He has served as professor at several universities in Switzerland (University of Geneva) and Spain (International University of Catalonia). He has also worked for several years in healthcare companies (Publicis Conseil France, Clinica Universidad de Navarra) and led consulting projects about health communication (Sanofi, Cinfa, Hospital Mutua Terrassa).

Pablo has published more than 130 scientific publications about health communication in different journals such as Review of Communication Research, Communication and Medicine, or the Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science. He has also published two books about the past, present and future of advertising and corporate communication in Spain, based on interviews with the CEOs and communication directors of global companies such as Publicis, DDB, Ogilvy, Telefonica, Repsol, and Acciona.

To register, visit: https://citiimmaapablo.eventbrite.com

September 20, 2023, 11:00am-12:30pm

Digital Economy Agreements and Digital Partnerships: Modular Paths to International Cooperation

Digital Economy Agreements and Digital Partnerships are new approaches to international cooperation and policy convergence. Governments from the Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Europe have established a handful of these arrangements since 2020, and more are in negotiation. They use modular architectures to treat individual issues separately within an integrated framework. Modular approaches allow policymakers a much greater flexibility and avoids the ‘all or nothing’ negotiation dynamics that often impede progress in trade and other negotiations.

The arrangements have institutionalized cooperation on many difficult issues: transparency, supply chains, inclusion, identities, cross-border data flows, forced data localization, online customs duties and the trade treatment of digital products, business and trade facilitation, e-invoicing and certifications, the protection of source code, cybersecurity, consumer protection, privacy and data protection, open government data, standards and interoperability, fintech and e-payments, innovation and regulatory sandboxes, artificial intelligence and support for small and medium-sized firms.

Outstanding questions are how impactful they can be, and whether more major digital countries will pursue them. China is seeking to join a key one. And the United States is centrally involved in parallel initiatives that have some commonalities, e.g. the digital work streams of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Technology Council.

This webinar assembles a panel of expert analysts to assess these new institutional frameworks and consider their potential for the future of digital cooperation and governance. As always, the panelists’ conversation will be followed by an open dialogue among all participants.

Introduction

Eli Noam is Paul Garrett Professor, Emeritus, and Director of the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information at Columbia Business School.

Moderator

William J. Drake is Director of International Studies at the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information and an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School.

Panelists

Neha Mishra is an Assistant Professor at Geneva Graduate Institute. She was previously a lecturer at the Australian National University College of Law and a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for International Law, National University of Singapore. She researches international legal issues in the digital economy, focusing on international economic law, data flows and digital trade, and the interface of trade law and emerging digital technologies. (Switzerland)

Richard Samans is Director of the International Labor Organization’s Research Department and has been its sherpa to the G20, G7 and BRICS processes. He was Founder and Chairman of the Climate Disclosure Standards Board, a Managing Director of the World Economic Forum and Director-General of the Global Green Growth Institute. He served as Special Assistant to the President for International Economic Policy and NSC Senior Director for International Economic Affairs in the second Clinton Administration, and as economic policy advisor to US Senate Democratic Leader Thomas A. Daschle. (Switzerland)

Marta Soprana is a Fellow in International Political Economy at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She has extensive experience working with international organizations – including FAO, ITC, UNCTAD, UNESCAP, World Bank and WTO – and national governments on trade policy-related projects. Her research interests include digital trade, trade in services, law and technology, with a focus on the relationship between AI governance and international economic law. (United Kingdom)

Stephanie Honey is a trade policy consultant, focusing on digital trade, regional economic integration in the Asia-Pacific region, and inclusion and sustainability in trade. She was formerly a New Zealand WTO trade negotiator, and currently serves as Lead Staffer to the New Zealand members of the APEC Business Advisory Council and Trade Policy Adviser to the New Zealand Asia Institute at the University of Auckland, alongside consultancy work for governments, international institutions and the private sector. (New Zealand)

September 14, 2023, 11:00am-12:00pm

CITI-IMMAA Seminar: Jeffrey Cole, Director of Business Strategy, USC Annenberg

Disruptors at the Gate: How Technology Changes Everything

Using twenty-five years of research from the Center for the Digital Future at USC Annenberg, Jeffrey Cole will look at why disruption causes fear and paralysis in governments and organizations, seldom (almost never) leading to good decisions. Disruption always comes from an unexpected place: the disruption of retail should have come from Wal-Mart, not an upstart book seller in Seattle; the disruption of the automobile business should have come from GM or Toyota, not a South African immigrant with no background in automotive. Not recognizing what is happening leads to bad decisions and doubling down on old ways.

Jeffrey Cole has been at the forefront of media and communications technology issues in the United States and internationally for the past three decades. An expert in the field of technology and emerging media, Cole serves regularly as an adviser to governments and leading companies around the world as they craft digital strategies.

Cole founded and directs the World Internet Project, a long-term longitudinal look at the effects of computer and Internet technology, a study conducted in over 35 countries. At the announcement of the project in June 1999, Vice President Al Gore praised Cole as a “true visionary providing the public with information on how to understand the impact of media.”

June 22, 2023, 11:00am-12:30pm

Function Follows Form: The Proposed UN Digital Cooperation Forum

On June 5, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres presented a policy brief on his Global Digital Compact initiative to the General Assembly. Among the brief’s ideas is a proposal to create an annual Digital Cooperation Forum (DCF). This new UN forum would not be a negotiation body, but would instead foster action-oriented dialogue and analysis concerning international cooperation on digital policy issues. A proposal like this has been anticipated since the SG’s High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation issued its report in 2019. The case for a DCF is being championed in particular by the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology. The proposal has yet to garner support but will be discussed by a ministerial meeting in September 2023 that is to help prepare the groundwork for the UN’s 2024 Summit of the Future.

The policy brief states that the DCF would coexist with existing bodies and processes like the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in an integrated hub and spoke system. However, aside from its presumably broader scope, in many respects the DCF appears to duplicate the IGF. Given that the IGF has long faced challenges from those governments that are unhappy with its multistakeholder character, the existence of a comparatively intergovernmental DFC could complicate the renewal of the IGF’s mandate at the 2025 WSIS+20 review. In addition, there are a number of other issues raised by proposing a new forum without specifying its substantive focus and institutional modalities or assessing the demand for one. The experiences over the past twenty years with failed proposals to create new institutions for global Internet and digital governance merits consideration in this context.

An inclusive dialogue is needed to determine whether the DCF vision can overcomes the potential barriers to its realization or at least contribute to strengthening international cooperation in other settings. To help with that task, this webinar assembles a panel of expert participants in the debate about the United Nations’ role in global digital cooperation and governance. The group will assess the driving issues and interests, potential negotiation dynamics and outcomes, and larger digital governance implications of the DCF proposal.

As always, the panelists’ conversation will be followed by an open dialogue among all participants.

Introduction:

Eli Noam is Paul Garrett Professor, Emeritus, and Director of the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information

Moderator:

William J. Drake is Director of International Studies at the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information

Panelists:

Fiona M. Alexander is both Distinguished Policy Strategist in Residence in the School of International Service and Distinguished Fellow at the Internet Governance Lab at American University. Previously, for close to 20 years, she served at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) in the U.S. Department of Commerce where she was Associate Administrator for International Affairs. (USA)

Anriette Esterhuysen is Senior Advisor for Internet Governance at the Association for Progressive Communications (APC). She was APC’s Executive Director from 2000 until April 2017, and served as Chair of the IGF’s Multistakeholder Advisory Group from 2019 to 2021. Anriette was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame in 2013. (South Africa)

Nigel Hickson works on Internet Governance at the United Kingdom’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) where, among other roles, he is the UK representative on the Government Advisory Committee at ICANN. From 2012 he worked for ICANN in Brussels and Geneva before returning to the UK government in 2020 to work on Brexit-related data protection issues. (UK)

April 6, 2023, 11:00am-1:30pm

Blockchain Decision Rules and Their Impact on Performance and Stability

The aim of this webinar is to present new and ongoing research on the impact of governance structures of the workings of blockchains, which relates to the larger discussion of technology regulation and digital regulation underway in the US, Europe, and elsewhere. Permissionless blockchains are nominally consensus mechanisms that operate according to rules and algorithms encoded in software. However, the rules governing blockchains go beyond what is encoded in the software and include rules that determine how the software is updated, the setting of fees, staking requirements and other decision-making processes related to the on-going management of the blockchain. The performance and stability of blockchains embodying different rules frameworks, or equivalently, governance structures will affect performance and stability properties associated with the trust properties those rules frameworks embed.

The webinar explores this proposition with new empirical data reflecting the diversity of rules frameworks that characterize the largest open blockchains currently operating. The empirical work on different governance structures of operating blockchains is paired with economic theory work that helps interpret the impacts on blockchain performance and stability. This is explored for its implications on regulatory policy and industry structure for the evolving blockchain ecosystem.

Organizers: David Salant (Toulouse/CITI) in collaboration with William Lehr (MIT), William Drake (CITI), Eli Noam (Columbia University), and Jason Buckweitz (CITI)

Draft Agenda:

Introductions – Eli Noam (Columbia University)

Blockchain Governance Dilemmas: an Economic Framing of the Issues

Hanna Halaburda (NYU) and David Salant (Toulouse/CITI)

Blockchains are decentralized mechanisms that rely on a consensus by participants to ensure that transactions achieve the desired outcomes. Rules for governance are required. And these rules affect how much confidence an entity buying or operating with tokens will have that the transaction will achieve an outcome consistent with ex ante expectations.

The paper describes the different types of consensus mechanisms. It shows how any consensus mechanism that relies on generic types of voting will necessarily have limitations.

Commentator: Christophe Bisiere (Toulouse)

Blockchain Governance Practices

Chitra Marti (NYU), Neil Gandal (Tel Aviv U.), Hanna Halaburda (NYU), Noa Barnir (Tel Aviv U) and David Salant (Toulouse/CITI)

This presentation covers the governance of the largestProof-of-Stake (POS) blockchains. It also provides a preliminary analysis of blockchain performance. It presents new data characterizing the diversity of rules frameworks governing the largest POS blockchains.

Comments: William Lehr (MIT)

Blockchain Governance – Practical Concerns.

Nicolas Biagosch (Q-Dev.AG and Postero.IO)

Code has been the equivalent of law on blockchains. This talk discusses some of the issues and concerns raised by relying solely on code. We describe the challenges of implementing a blockchain that conforms to a constitution and yet remains a decentralized consensus mechanism. Conflicts always do arise, and some ex ante rules can mitigate potential harm from conflicts.

Blockchains, trust and money

Ken Rogoff (Harvard), Thomas Dünser (Director, Office for Financial Market Innovation and Digitization, Government of Liechtenstein)

Perspectives on implications of blockchain rules frameworks for public policy and regulatory frameworks. Thoughts on the future research agenda.

Audience and Panel Discussion: Tying the Theory, Empirics to the Policy/Regulatory Challenges and a Path Forward

How do blockchain protocols need to evolve for them to create a reliable place for transactions? Where will blockchains be particularly useful? Where will blockchains fit within the financial sector?

April 26, 2023, 11:00am-12:30pm

"Social Media and International Governance: The UNESCO Guidelines for Regulating Digital Platforms"

The many issues raised by social media platforms have stimulated calls for new governance mechanisms. Some platforms have responded by establishing self-governance systems like oversight boards, and some governments and regional bodies like the European Union have responded with laws and regulations, in particular for the largest platforms. At the multilateral level several in initiatives are underway, in particular the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) effort to develop Guidelines for Regulating Digital Platforms. The Guidelines are intended to promote regulations that both support freedom of expression and deal with content that is illegal and risks harm to democracy and human rights. A draft was debated at UNESCO’s February 2023 Internet for Trust conference.

In the course of this process, stakeholders have raised a wide range of concerns. Some have argued that:

The need for UN-created guidelines has not been demonstrated;
The process has been inadequately inclusive and transparent;
The scope of entities covered and the respective roles and responsibilities of relevant actors are unclear;
The intended creation of regulatory agencies and frameworks and their treatment of potentially harmful content are problematic;
The inattention to competition policy, privacy and data protection, and business models based on data harvesting is severely limiting;
Above all, that the guidelines, despite good intentions, could provide international legitimacy and support for nondemocratic governments seeking to penalize and suppress a wide variety of speech.

This webinar assembles a panel of leading expert participants in the UNESCO debate and related discussions. The group will assess driving issues and interests, negotiation dynamics, potential outcomes and larger digital governance implications.

As always, the panelists’ conversation will be followed by an extensive and open dialogue among all participants.

Introduction

Eli Noam is Paul Garrett Professor of Public Policy and Business Responsibility, Professor of Finance and Economics, emeritus, and the Director of the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information

Moderator and Organizer

William J. Drak e is Director of International Studies at the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information and Adjunct Professor, Columbia Business School.

Panelists

Alison Gillwald is the Executive Director of Research ICT Africa (RIA), a digital policy and regulatory think-tank based in South Africa. She is also an adjunct professor at the University of Cape Town’s Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance. (South Africa)

David Kaye is Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the International Justice Clinic at the University of California, Irvine. He is also Chair of the Board of Directors of the Global Network Initiative, a multistakeholder initiative that brings together 85 leading businesses, NGOs, and academics. From 2014 to 2020, he served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression. (USA)

Laura O’Brien is Senior UN Advocacy Officer at Access Now, an NGO that advocates for the digital civil rights and organizes the annual RightsCon Convention. Previously, Laura engaged in strategic litigation support, including at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and for human rights organizations, clinics, and experts including two U.N. Special Rapporteurs. (USA)

May 4, 2023, 11:00am-12:00pm

CITI-IMMAA Seminar: Shelly Palmer, CEO, The Palmer Group, and Professor of Advanced Media in Residence at Syracuse University

The Intractable Problem of Alignment in AI

Artificial Intelligence has emerged as an major subject of interest and hype. While some of the talk has focused on ways that AI will improve people’s lives, much of it has been dystopian.. This session will focus on how these two views can be merged, and how to align the various models of AI with values important to humanity.

Shelly Palmer is the Professor of Advanced Media in Residence at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, CEO of The Palmer Group, a consulting practice that helps Fortune 500 companies with technology, media and marketing, and co-founder of Metacademy, a free educational platform that teaches practical applications of blockchain, crypto, NFTs, Web3, the metaverse. Named LinkedIn’s “Top Voice in Technology,” he covers tech and business for Fox 5’s Good Day New York, and is a regular commentator on CNN and CNBC. He’s the co-host of the award-winning podcast Techstream with Shelly Palmer & Seth Everett and he hosts the Shelly Palmer #Web3Wednesday Livestream.

Shelly is a prolific author. Along with his daily newsletter, his books include, the Amazon #1 Bestseller, Blockchain – Cryptocurrency, NFTs & Smart Contracts: An executive guide to the world of decentralized finance and Television Disrupted: The Transition from Network to Networked TV, the seminal book about the technological, economic, and sociological forces that have changing everything about the business of television, Overcoming the Digital Divide: How to use Social Media and Digital Tools to Reinvent Yourself and Your Career, and Digital Wisdom: Thought Leadership for a Connected World.

Register at: https://citiimmaapalmer.eventbrite.com