Updated strategic questions for the Digital Competitiveness Report

See http://www.iiea.com/digital/

1. What are the current policy (or other) opportunities & challenges that Ireland faces in the digital sector?
2. Which emerging trends are potentially dominant in the digital sector?
3. In which niches can Ireland become a world leader?
4. What is the most important strategic investment of relevance to the digital sector that Ireland could make at this point to enhance its competitiveness in the next 10 years?
5. What are the next three steps that Government could take?

ADD YOUR VOICE TO THE TECH VOX POP OF BUSINESSES, RESEARCH CENTRES, EDUCATORS, PUBLIC SECTOR BODIES, DIGITAL INNOVATORS, AND GURUS…

Contribute responses of any length by E-mail to JOHNNY.RYAN@IIEA.COM

Deadline for input 14 July 2008. For an overview of the project and its context see [PDF] [GoogleDoc slideshow].

Norms on the Net: Governing the Internet and the perils of failure

(I just published this article on the online magazine http://www.nthposition.com/, which Seamus Sweeney introduced me to.)

Odd as it might seem in a world of ubiquitous computing and hand held email devices, the first ever web browsing software made its debut in 1991. Not until the mid 1990s did the Internet begin to make any commercial impact, and only since 2000 has it become a mainstream social and political medium. Human society is still in the first stages of adapting to the Internet and discovering new beneficial uses. Yet already, risks are beginning to mount. Over the next few years, humanity will have to consider how it will govern and protect the Internet as a new global commons. Otherwise, it is possible that ‘iWar’, a form of conflict waged over the Internet, will upset the beneficial development of the Internet across the globe.

My interview with Peter Hustinx, European Data Protection Supervisor

I interviewed Peter Hustinx, the EDPS (European Data Protection Supervisor), for the European Biometrics Forum recently. Transcript below.

Making better presentations

In 2003, I delivered my worst presentation ever at the podium of the Royal Irish Academy. I stood and read an irrelevant academic paper, to a disinterested audience, and had planned my delivery so poorly that it was necessary to skip paragraphs at random to keep within time. Since then I’ve looked at how Hardt, Lessig, Kawaneski, and Zittrain present complicated issues in engaging ways. I’ve learnt four rules from their example.

Internet censorship book free to view on Google Books

One of the benefits of having published Countering militant Islamist radicalisation on the Internet: a user driven strategy to recover the web with the Institute of International & European Affairs is that I am free to make the book freely available. It has attracted interest from unforeseen quarters. I recently discovered that it was on a training course for FBI agents. I think it’s now time to make it freely available in its entirety on Google Books – see the entire text at http://books.google.com/books?id=hsUGK-PpEuUC&printsec=frontcover

Launch of The Digital Future Consultation project

We’ve initiated the Digital Future project at the IIEA. Click below to see my intro presentation, outlining 5 strategic questions for Ireland and The Digital Future:

The Talk of The Year

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/benjamin_zander_on_music_and_passion.html