I’m Jesse Sowell, welcome to my little web presence. I am a multidisciplinary industrial political economist. My primary focus is understanding Internet operations and its implications for governance and society through various lenses: infrastructure resource management and policy, security, credible knowledge assessment, and public policy. While the majority of this site is focused on my research, the more fun activities I chase in my “copious” spare time include running, hiking, dystopian literature, craft beer and home brewing, darts, and travel.

Dissertation Research

I hold a PhD in Technology, Management, and Policy from MIT. My dissertation (Sowell, 2015) evaluated common resource management institutions that sustain the integrity of the Internet’s numbers and routing system. The dissertation documents the institutions created by operator communities manage the complex of common resources that support the Internet infrastructure’s global connectivity. The concluding analysis focuses on the character of political authority in these communities and the family of consensus processes used to adapt resource policy apace with Internet growth and development.

Publication Summary

I have published a number of papers at TPRC. My first paper is a summary of my Master’s thesis (Sowell, 2010) in Technology and Policy. The paper focused on the contextual integrity of online privacy (Sowell, 2010). Subsequent papers have reviewed early descriptions of dissertation studies (Sowell, 2012), the value of networks’ participation in IX-mediated interconnection platforms (Sowell, 2013), and work with Lee Howard on the variety and success of policy strategies employed by governments and community institutions incenting IPv6 deployment (Howard & Sowell, 2014).

Industry Activities

Currently, I am a member of the the Program Committee for NANOG. At M3AAWG, I am Special Advisor to the Chairmanand Vice-Chair of the Growth and Development Committee. In addition to academic conferences, I have presented at a number of community venues, including NANOG, M3AAWG, GPF, UKNOF, LACNIC, and AMS-IX’s More-IP events. I am currently consulting for the Markley Group and will be joining Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) as Cybersecurity Policy Fellow in the Fall of 2016.

References

  1. Sowell, J. H. (2015, February). Finding Order in a Contentious Internet (PhD thesis). Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge MA, USA.
  2. Sowell, J. H. (2010, September). Deficiencies in Online Privacy Policies: Factors and Policy Recommendations (Master's thesis). Technology and Policy Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
  3. Sowell, J. H. (2010). Mixed Context and Privacy. In Proceedings of the 38th Research Conference on Communication, Information and Internet Policy. Arlington, VA: Telecommunications Policy Research Consortium.
  4. Sowell, J. H. (2012). Empirical Studies of Bottom-up Internet Governance. In Proceedings of the 40th Research Conference on Communication, Information and Internet Policy. Arlington, VA: Telecommunications Policy Research Consortium.
  5. Sowell, J. H. (2013). Framing the Value of Internet Exchange Participation. In Proceedings of the 41st Research Conference on Communication, Information and Internet Policy. Arlington, VA: Telecommunications Policy Research Consortium.
  6. Howard, L., & Sowell, J. H. (2014). A Comparison of Public Policy Approaches to the IPv4-IPv6 Transition. In Proceedings of the 42nd Research Conference on Communication, Information and Internet Policy. Arlington, VA.