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Crowdsourcing Ideas as an Emerging Form of Multistakeholder Participation in Internet Governance
Author(s) -
Radu Roxana,
Zingales Nicolo,
Calandro Enrico
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
policy and internet
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.281
H-Index - 26
ISSN - 1944-2866
DOI - 10.1002/poi3.99
Subject(s) - crowdsourcing , transparency (behavior) , legitimacy , openness to experience , internet governance , accountability , the internet , corporate governance , public relations , open government , peer production , set (abstract data type) , political science , knowledge management , business , computer science , world wide web , politics , law , finance , psychology , social psychology , programming language
The online crowdsourcing of ideas for institutional change and legislation drafting has been widely adopted by public bodies from the local to the international level, for improving legitimacy, transparency, and accountability. In multistakeholder set‐ups, such an approach seems to fulfill the promise of openness, real‐time engagement and cross‐fertilization of ideas. Global Internet policy‐making appears as a natural experiment for harnessing the potential of crowdsourcing, in particular, as a means to restore trust after the Snowden revelations of mass surveillance. This article investigates two key initiatives of online collective brainstorming for digital policies: ICANN's Strategy Panel on Multistakeholder Innovation and the NETmundial process, highlighting the merits and limitations of crowdsourcing as an emerging form of multistakeholder participation. Our findings underscore the need for leveraging sufficient community interest for substantial input; defining procedures for the collection and screening of inputs; and committing to institutionalizing rules for incorporating feedback.