The Center for Internet Development and Governance (CIDG) of Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management (Tsinghua SEM) held the First Internet Development and Governance Forum themed with “Global Internet Development and Governance” on the evening of May 16, 2016. This Forum is the first academic forum since CIDG was founded. Mr. Rod Beckstrom, former President and CEO of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and Founding Director of the National Cybersecurity Center of the United States, and Dr. Li Xiaodong, Director of China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) were present at the Forum, which was presided over by Professor Chen Yubo, Vice-president of the Tsinghua SEM and Director of the CIDG.
Professor Chen Yubo is holding the forum
The first part of the Forum is a keynote speech by Mr. Rod Beckstrom on “Economic Models and Cybersecurity for the Value of Networks”. He described in detail how to quantitatively evaluate the value of networks and services, and introduced the famous economic model “Beckstrom’s Law” in the field of cybersecurity with the example of social networks, and how to apply the law to network value assessment and cybersecurity assessment and other areas.
The second part of the forum is the Panel Discussion presided over by Professor Chen Yubo with two guests present. Invited by Professor Chen Yubo, Mr. Rod Beckstrom first shared his career with the audience, especially the experience and understanding under different roles (as an economist, entrepreneur of successful Silicon Valley pioneering enterprise, expert of cybersecurity and Internet governance). After that, Dr. Li also introduced his career in the Internet field, including his work experience and professional knowledge in different agencies in China and the international Internet field. The following discussion focused on three important issues related to global Internet development and governance. The first question is about the global governance of the Internet. What is the biggest challenge to global cybersecurity governance today for policymakers in different countries? How to avoid cyber conflict between different countries? Mr. Beckstrom said that the most important aspect of global Internet governance is to build trust between different countries and strengthen multilevel exchanges between governments and the private sector. Dr. Li Xiaodong first defined the difference between China and the West in the term “governance” and proposed that Internet governance should be the responsibility of all Internet users and require multi-party cooperation instead of just handing over to the government. As for the implementation of the responsibilities of Internet governance, Mr. Beckstrom described the efforts and progress of some existing international agencies in the area of cybersecurity prevention and control, but did not recommend the creation of a specialized agency to oversee the global Internet. The second question is about the development of the Internet and government regulation. National governments have formulated many laws and regulations related to Internet operation but the point is how to balance the contradiction between government regulation and free market in practical operation. Both honored guests pointed out that, due to the global and borderless nature of the Internet, the government's regulation of the Internet should be different from that of other areas, and the control should be properly relaxed so as to better integrate local Internet into the international environment and promote the development of the Internet economy. The third question is about data cooperation and privacy protection. As the owner and regulator of big data, how can the government better cooperate with enterprises and other institutions to give play to the value of data while strengthening privacy protection? From the perspective of current big data upsurge, Dr. Li Xiaodong analyzed and summarized the existing challenges of China’s national big data strategy, while Mr. Beckstrom analyzed and discussed the privacy protection issues in American Internet management. Afterwards, the audience discussed with experts about big data forecasting, cybersecurity governance and social responsibility of Internet enterprises. Professor Chen Yubo and two guests answered the audience's questions.
The Panel Discussion
