Urs Gasser and John Palfrey have
continued to contribute to the World Trade Institute’s NCCR Trade Policy projectwith a particular focus on the interoperability as an enabler of innovation and
creativity in international trade. Over the course of two years, this project
has developed three in-depth exploratory studies.
Each study explores the various institutions, policies and approaches that
shape the interoperability landscape and investigates the effects of these
factors and drivers on trade in the globalized economy.
The series examines:
(i) to what extent and how interoperability has contributed to the promotion of
international trade;
(ii) what respective roles international organizations have played in concert
with other stakeholders with regard to interoperability and international
trade;
(iii) what policies and approaches to supporting interoperability have been
used, and with what results; and
(iv) what can be learned from these experiences with regard to emerging
interoperability issues in the context of international trade.
The three studies address this set of questions from different angles,
acknowledging the multi-faceted character of the concept of interoperability
(Gasser & Palfrey, Basic Books 2012). Two of them “Fostering innovation and
trade in the global information society: The different facets and roles of
interoperability”, and “Mapping Cloud Interoperability in the Globalized
Economy: Theory and Observations from Practice” – focus specifically on cloud
computing, an emerging technical paradigm through which to analyze the policy
relevance of interoperability in a globalized economy. This example also
facilitates exploration of some of the key issues and practical challenges that
arise as various stakeholders engage with cloud services, infrastructure, and
data across the world, as well as the implications for trade, policy, and
different actors, especially, governments.
The third study, “Interoperability
in Information and Information Systems in the Furtherance of Trade” is focused
on the role, current debates, and associated benefits and challenges in
establishing a system of interoperability for information and information
systems in the service of trade in a global economy over time.