Network of Internet and Society Research Centres

The Network of Internet and Society Research Centres (NoC) was established in 2012 in order to foster and promote an interdisciplinary collaboration of research, teaching, and engagement between academic and non-academic institutions in matters concerning Internet policy. The NoC activities include learning calls, meetings, conferences, exchanges of researchers, collaborative project work, co-teaching, and other academic activities.

The NoC operates independent of political and economic interests and does not take formal positions on policy issues. Its policy is determined by a steering committee, consisted of eight academic centres, according to the principle of rough consensus. The administrative management of the NoC alternates periodically among the participating centres.

There are two types of participants in the NoC: 63 participating academic research centres (from around the world) and 15 affiliated participants which are non-academic research centres. All of the NoC’s centres are committed to the principles of openness, collaboration, and diversity.

The NoC has initiated two research projects: the NoC study on Online Intermediaries, which examines the meaning of intermediary governance, and the NoC Internet Governance Case Studies, which explores a series of 12 cases studies of multistakeholders models of governance. In addition, the NoC holds meetings and workshops on topics such as human rights, personal data protection, Internet bill of rights, and so forth.