The Self-Ordering Net

• Some are old -- hate speech, obscene content.
• Some are new -- spam, framing, computer viruses, caching, new types of invasions of privacy.
• Some are old problems raised in a new guise, under circumstances that may call for new approaches -- protection of online identifiers (including trademarks), defamation.

But it's often not clear which court or legislature has the power to govern global electronic commerce.

And some have suggested that the self-ordering processes of the Net may provide new ways of addressing such problems, limiting the impact of harmful actions.

This site will attempt to survey the problems and various self-ordering mechanisms (e.g., contracts, filters, electronic labels, encryption, and responsible trade practices by system operators) that are emerging to deal with them.

• What is self-ordering?
• How would we know if the net is behaving as a self-ordering system?
  
  
• The Public Policy Problems of the Internet
• Self-Ordering Mechanisms of the Internet
• Relationships -- Diagrams
  
  
• What evidence is there that self-ordering is occuring?
• Is self-ordering the best source of "governance" for the net?
• In what ways might self-ordering mechanisms fail?
  
  
• Essay: Let's Let the Net Self-Regulate
  
  
• Glossary