Using Computer Simulation to Improve ICT Governance

Communications policy decisions are forward-looking, intended to govern the information and communication technology (ICT) sector to achieve more desirable outcomes or to prevent undesirable ones. Policy choices often address situations that have no direct historical precedent. For example, network neutrality policy defines a framework for the future evolution of advanced communications services. Although learning from the past and the experience in other places is important, theoretical and empirical research based on past experience may only be of limited help for these forward-looking decisions. Our paper, which arises from a National Science Foundation-funded research project, proposes an alternative approach: the use of computational techniques to systematically explore the interaction of alternative governance decisions with the ICT system