The article considers the global governance of knowledge systems, exploring concepts of power, networks, standards (defined as normative practices), and structuration. The focus is on science as a form of predominantly private global governance, particularly the self-regulatory and collaborative processes stretching across time and space. These constitute networks and are largely (and increasingly) outside the gaze of governments. Although science worldwide, but especially in the West, has been increasingly characterized by forms of scientific nationalism, in which science is funded, regulated, and harnessed for national governmental ends, the article argues that the growth of the new communicative technologies and the rise of openness as an ontology in the digital age is facilitating global science as a more private sphere, one of sociability rather than sovereignty, and one that is characterized by loose ties and curiosity-driven scientific ambitions.