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Daily Archives: February 28, 2015

Governance of Online Intermediaries: Observations from a Series of National Case Studies

Gasser, Urs and Schulz, Wolfgang, Governance of Online Intermediaries: Observations from a Series of National Case Studies (February 18, 2015). Berkman Center Research Publication No. 2015-5. Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2566364 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2566364

Online intermediaries in various forms – including search engines, social media, or app platforms – play a constitutive role in today’s digital environment. They have become a new type of powerful institution in the 21st century that shape the public networked sphere, and are subject to intense and often controversial policy debates. This paper focuses on one particular force shaping the emergence and future evolution of online intermediaries: the rapidly changing landscape of intermediary governance at the intersection of law, technology, norms, and markets. Building upon eight in-depth case studies and use cases, respectively, this paper seeks to distill key observations and provide a high-level analysis of some of the structural elements that characterize varying governance regimes, with a focus on intermediary liability regimes and their evolution. Analyzing online intermediary governance issues from multiple perspectives, and in the context of different cultures and regulatory frameworks, immediately creates basic problems of semantic interoperability. Lacking a universally agreed-upon definition, the synthesis paper and its’ underlying case studies are based on a broad and phenomenon-oriented notion of online intermediaries, as further described below. In methodological terms, the observations shared in the synthesis paper offer a selective reading and interpretation by the authors of the broader take-ways of a diverse set of case studies examining online intermediary governance frameworks and issues in Brazil, the European Union, India, South Korea, the United States, Thailand, Turkey, and Vietnam. These case studies, in turn, have emerged in the context of an international research pilot by the Global Network of Internet & Society Research Centers (NoC), through a process of in-person consultations and remote collaborations among the researchers, and are based on a set of broader questions regarding the role of online intermediaries in the digital age.”

A Guide to the Supreme Court Argument in King v. Burwell

Kaiser Family Foundation – “On March 4, 2015, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in King v. Burwell, a case challenging the availability of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) premium subsidies in states with a Federally-run Marketplace (including states with a Federally-facilitated Marketplace (FFM) and states with a Partnership Marketplace). In addition to expanding… Continue Reading

Speech – Remarks at the 2015 U.S. Monetary Policy Forum

February 27, 2015 William C. Dudley, President and Chief Executive Officer. Remarks at the 2015 U.S. Monetary Policy Forum, New York City. Remarks [snipped] “It is a great pleasure to have the opportunity to comment on this year’s Monetary Policy Forum paper, “The Equilibrium Real Federal Funds Rate, Past, Present and Future.”  Let me preface… Continue Reading

Problem-solving ability and response to novelty in mountain chickadees (Poecile gambeli) from different elevations

Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology – February 2015. 17 Feb 2015. Problem-solving ability and response to novelty in mountain chickadees (Poecile gambeli) from different elevations. David Y. Kozlovsky, Carrie L. Branch,Vladimir V. Pravosudov “Animals inhabiting challenging and harsh environments are expected to benefit from certain phenotypic traits including cognitive abilities. In particular, innovation and habituation are… Continue Reading