Euro-SSIG

Type:	Academic Organization
Industry:	Internet Governance
Founded:	2007
Founder(s):	University of Aarhus Medienstadt Leipzig e.V.
Website:	www.euro-ssig.eu
Key People
Wolfgang Kleinwächter, Chairman Wolf Ludwig, Communications Manager

Euro-SSIG stands for the European Summer School on Internet Governance, which offers one week academic courses to students interested in learning about internet governance. The topics discussed during the summer school include political, legal, economic, socio-cultural, and technological issues but also bring in a wide range of issues affecting the global Internet such as intellectual property, cyber crime, digital divide, new market opportunities etc. Euro-SSIG was established by the University of Aarhus and the Medienstadt Leipzig e.V. in 2007.Wolfgang Kleinwächter, serves as Chairman.

Establishing the First Euro-SSIG

The need to establish an International academic organization dedicated to providing comprehensive instruction on Internet governance was noted by the academic members of United Nations' Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG), who were also charged with defining and elaborating the terms 'Internet Governance'. In June, 2006, a meeting was held in Rathen, Germany, which was prepared and coordinated by an ad hoc working group made up of the International Association of Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), International Communication Association (ICA) and UNESCO. The result of the meeting was the establishment of the Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GIGANET) and Euro-SSIG. In July, 2007, the first courses were held in Meissen, Germany.

21 fellows from both developed and developing countries participated during the Euro-SSIG from July 31 to August 7, 2007. The faculties of the summer school provided 40 hours of lecture on the history and theories of Internet governance including the technical, economic, socio-political and legal implications of the global Internet. The lecturers included:

• Bill Drake, Graduate Institute for International Studies Geneva
• Jonathan Zittrain, Oxford Internet Institute
• Jeanette Hofmann, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin
• Avri Doria, Lulea Technology University
• David Souter, London School of Economics
• Bertrand de la Chapelle, ICANN's GAC- France
• Michael Niebel, ICANN's GAC- European Commission
• Olga Cavalli, ICANN's GAC- Argentina
• Wolfgang Kleinwächter, Euro-SSIG Faculty Chairman, University of Aarhus

Subsequent Euro-SSIG

The faculty list of the 2008 summer school on internet governance, which was held at on July 25 – 31, 2008, is available here: Faculty 2008

The 2009 Euro-SSIG was held in Germany on July 26 – August 1, 2009. There were 32 participants from 15 countries with 30 faculty members composed of professors from various universities, technical professionals and officers from ICANN and the IGF. The list of the faculty members is available here: Faculty 2009

The 4th European Summer School on Internet Governance was held on July 25-31, 2010. The list of faculty members is available here: Faculty 2010

The Euro-SSIG 2011 was held on July 2011. Thirty participants were chosen out of 133 applicants from 54 countries all over the world. There were 28 faculty members who shared their expertise on Internet governance from different international organizations including WSIS, WGIG, IGF, EURODIG, ICANN etc. According to Wolfgang Kleinwächter, "Internet governance is not yet an established academic discipline you can study at a university´s faculty. It is a multidisciplinary issue which crosses law, business, history, political, social and cultural science, informatics and mathematics and it has a very practical component. This special kind of knowledge is needed by a broad range of various constituencies working in the Internet world. With EuroSSIG we provide a high level space for learning in a multistakeholder environment where we enable fellows to become leaders of Internet Governance of tomorrow."

Governmental Advisory Committee. Considers and provides advice on the activities of ICANN as they relate to concerns of governments, particularly matters where there may be an interaction between ICANN's policies and various laws and international agreements or where they may affect public policy issues (ICANN Bylaws).

Internet Governance Forum