Internet Standards Observatory: Monitoring standards to prevent fragmentation

Research Question

1. What are the central features of these proposals and what strategy are they adopting to succeed in standardising an alternative Internet? How are themes and strategies evolving over time?
2. What are effective ways for supporters of the open, global Internet to respond to such threats emerging at the level of standards development organisations? What guidelines can be followed to assess and deal with problematic proposals? What are ways to devise more robust cooperation schemes to respond to these drivers for Internet fragmentation manifesting at the level of standards?
3. What are the technical arguments to rebut standards proposals that seek to break the Internet?

Why Is This Research Important?

 The research project is innovative in two ways. First, it seeks to deploy a novel research methodology that relies on automated means to facilitate standards tracking and apply existing text analysis technologies to the world of standards. Secondly, the Internet Standards Observatory provides open and public access to the tool to facilitate greater engagement by policymakers and enable greater scrutiny of standards by the research community. The tracking tool is expected to enable new insights into the analysis of trends and transformations in strategy, and the ability to keep tabs on what elements of the Internet infrastructure are being challenged by controversial proposals. This facilitates the development of response and containment strategies, including tailored technical arguments to defend the Internet’s current way of networking.

The project also contributes to concrete proposals about ways in which the Internet community can develop reactive and proactive strategies to strengthen multi-stakeholder participation and engagement across multilateral standards and international organizations. 

The impact of the research involves (a) facilitating timely access to information about relevant developments in standards settings that may impact the future of the Internet; (b) offering knowledge translation – in particular for non-technical audiences, such as policymakers, academia and civil society – about the meaning of ongoing discussions at key standards development organizations on policy issues pertaining the evolution of the Internet; and (c) enabling evidence-based conversations about strategies for supporters of the open, global Internet to respond to potential drivers for fragmentation at the level of standards.  

Methodology

The research adopts different methodologies for the development of the automated tracking tool and for conducting policy research. For the automated standards tracking tool, the documents to be analyzed are the standards proposals submitted for consideration at ITU-T and IETF, and the data analysis is conducted using Doc Monitor, the text analysis tool of the DNS RF’s Data Analytics Platform. This analysis is descriptive: it outlines what controversial content is featured in proposals and scores and ranks proposals to highlight which standards contributions may require the highest level of attention from supporters of the open, global Internet. 

On the other hand, policy research explores a broader range of questions relating to standardization and fragmentation. By using the tracking tool, the policy research maps out trends and evolving strategies in fragmentation at the level of standards. Secondly, the research also explores ways to improve response strategies among supporters of the open, global Internet, including aspects such as the development of guidelines for conducting standards assessment, the identification of technical arguments for the defense of the Internet’s way of networking, and the introduction of recommendations to broaden coalitions in standardization processes and strengthen cooperation strategies among the like-minded. Data sources are determined by the various researchers setting out to produce the studies but mainly are the data from the tracking tool, as well as desk research and primary data collected through interviews or surveys. 

Media and Publications

• Internet Standards Observatory Hosts the Standards Tracker, and research outputs and blogs
• IETF Standards tracker Tracking internet standards development by the Internet Engineering Task Force.
• ITU Standards tracker Tracking voluntary standards development at the ITU Telecommunication Standardisation Sector.