Shoshannah Richards

Hertie School of Governance

Shoshannah Richards – Jamaica

Academic background: In April 2015, I became a DAAD Public Policy and Good Governance scholar. As a Master of Public Policy student at the Hertie School of Governance, my research is focused on how the digital economy is reshaping society and politics. I have written papers on the bounded rationality of online privacy behavior, network neutrality in the European Union and how the Internet of Things affects the retail industry. I earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science at Barnard College in New York. I also studied in Rennes, France with School Year Abroad and attended boarding school in Lakeville, Connecticut.

Please explain why you are interested to participate at the Euro-SSIG:
I want to attend Euro-SSIG to deepen my existing knowledge of the Internet governance ecosystem. At the recent Princeton-Fung Global Forum, “Society 3.0+: Can Liberty Survive the Digital Age?” I learned about the future challenges of Internet governance. I left inspired by a proposal from the President and Chief Legal Officer at Microsoft to establish a Digital Geneva Convention. By participating at Euro-SSIG, I will have the opportunity to exchange ideas with leading scholars and emerging leaders in the field of multi-stakeholder Internet governance. To marry my Internet governance and policy knowledge, I recently wrote a profile of ICANN for a course on nonprofit management. ICANN is an innovative governance model for a range of policy issues. As a policy student and working student at an e-commerce firm, I have two vantage points of Internet issues. A course on Political Communication & New Media, taught me how e-commerce techniques are applied to political campaigning. For my master thesis I am researching how social media influences public agenda setting. Internet issues hold immeasurable importance for all facets of life. I hope to join you in Meissen this summer to learn how to best govern the Internet and anticipate the future challenges.