Digital issues « Assorted Materials: Johnny Ryan

Archive for the ‘Digital issues’ Category

Measures to prevent the spread of violent material on the Net across the EU?

Posted by: johnnyryan on: 3 November 2009

The IIEA and the European Commission have just signed a contract to begin a study on non-legislative measures that might prevent the spread of violent radical content on the Internet. Our job is to examine the measures currently in practice, determine whether any are appropriate and functional, and whether these would work if applied across [...]

Tags: internet censorship, content filtering, internet regulation, internet governance, counter terrorism, internet, online radicalisation, violent radicalisation, European Commission, iiea, DG FSJ, Freedom Security and Justice, FP7, tender, bid

ICANN becomes Independent!

Posted by: johnnyryan on: 1 October 2009

Yesterday’s announcement from ICANN ends a lingering point of controversy surrounding the governance of the Internet: the United States’ continued control of the Internet’s Domain Name System (DNS). ICANN’s announcement of 30 September 2009 ends that controversy. A relevant snippet from the forthcoming book gives the background to ICANN, the controversy, and the importance of [...]

Tags: DNS, IANA, ICANN, internet, Jon Postel, Vint Cerf

The Big Idea: the death of the center and the new centrifugal trend

Posted by: johnnyryan on: 21 September 2009

Now that it is complete, a clear narrative has emerged from the forthcoming book. The Internet, like many readers of the book itself, is a child of the industrial era. Long before digital communications, the steam engine, telegraph pole, and coalmine quickened the pace of the world. Industrialized commerce, communications and war spun the globe [...]

Tags: Death of the Center, distributed network, history, Industrial, internet, RAND

Al Gore and the Internet

Posted by: johnnyryan on: 23 August 2009

With the forthcoming book almost complete, there are one or two matters that I had to get to the bottom of. Foremost among them, Al Gore’s involvement in the development of the Internet, and the controversy that surrounded this question in the 2000 presidential election…
For a brief moment during the 2000 presidential election in the [...]

Tags: Al Gore, internet

Civic Hacking (citizen activism online, and very 2.0)

Posted by: johnnyryan on: 18 August 2009

Researching two-way politics and online citizen activism in the US for the forthcoming book, I spoke to John Tauberer recently. Josh set up the website GovTrack.us, an “independent, nonpartisan website that started the “civic hacking” movement in the United States”. The site contains data on the status of legislation, voting records of senators and congressmen, [...]

New Audiences and the digital fourth wall

Posted by: johnnyryan on: 25 July 2009

Working on the forthcoming book. Here’s a teaser the changed media environment…
The theatres of the Elizabethan and Stuart eras were venues where ‘a thousand townsemen, gentlemen and whores, porters and serving–men together throng’. The decorum of the modern theatre did not apply. Heckles and sometimes projectiles came at the players from every direction. To the [...]

Tags: broadcast, cult of the amateur, Culture, distribution, Media, New audiences, southwark, theatre

The origins of “smart casual”?

Posted by: johnnyryan on: 22 July 2009

Short teaser from the forthcoming book… The tailored suit has a long history. The coat, waistcoat, and breeches gradually became the gentleman’s mainstay from the English Restoration in the 1660s onward, when the elaborate dress common at European courts fell out of favor. Embroidery and silk died out from the middle of the 18th century [...]

Tags: David Filo, Gordon Gekko, Marc Andreessen, nerd norms, nerd values, Po Bronson, The Golden Geeks, Time Magazine

The bubble… (eBay, Amazon, Netscape, Webvan, Pets.com…)

Posted by: johnnyryan on: 18 July 2009

Continuing from the earlier snippet about the Dot Com Collapse… this is a continuing piece from the forthcoming book. (feedback welcome)
The collapse had been foreseen by a shrewd few. In early December 1996, Alan Greenspan, the Chairman of the US Federal Reserve, attended a dinner in his honor at the American Enterprise Institute. After the [...]

Tags: angel investors, goldie hawn, IPO, irrational exhuberance, NASDAQ, netscape, pets.com, ron conway, VA Linux, warren buffet, Webvan

Newspaper circulation decline

Posted by: johnnyryan on: 28 June 2009

The decline in newspaper circulation is a topic I’ve begun to explore for the forthcoming book on the history of the Internet. In May 2009, the Newspaper Association of America issued figures revealing a 29.7% decline in US newspapers’ print advertising revenues in a single quarter at the beginning of 2009. This presumably is partly [...]

Tags: circulation, newspaper association of america, newspaper decline

Interview with Tim Wu

Posted by: johnnyryan on: 12 June 2009

Tim Wu was speaking at the IIEA in Dublin on 25 May. I had a talk with him on the record about Theodore Vail, AT&T Bell, net neutrality, Internet regulation, Google and “the temptation of Goolge”, norms on the Internet, and the future of mobile networks.

Tags: AT&T, Bell, Google, mobile networks, net neutrality, norms, Reding, Theodore Vail, Tim Wu

Models of state research spending: Vannevar Bush v Mike Mansfield

Posted by: johnnyryan on: 6 June 2009

A new statement from Ireland’s Science Advisory Counsel calls for an exploration of how “Ireland can maximise the revenue potential of its investment in STI”. The Irish Science Advisory Counsel is composed of senior figures in industry and research including Sean Baker of IONA and Roger Whatmore of the Tyndall Institute. The question coming to [...]

Tags: ARPA, Competitiveness, Digital competitiveness, internet, Mansfield, Neil McElroy, NSF, RAND, Vannevar bush

Maths – East & West

Posted by: johnnyryan on: 16 April 2009

I have been thinking about the following problem recently: Maths.
In 2001, the bipartisan Hart-Rudman Commission warned that the failure of math and science education posed a greater threat to American power than any conceivable conventional war in the new century. In his 2005 book, and in later postings on his site, the conservative US politician [...]

Tags: Competitiveness, innovation, mathematics

The Irish Times on The Next Leap

Posted by: johnnyryan on: 23 January 2009

In: Digital issues
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The Irish Times calls The Next Leap “an excellent report … [which] deserves to be read and considered, especially right now, as the Government struggles to find a constructive way forward out of an economic morass”.

When the IIEA released my report, The Next Leap: Competitive Ireland in the Digital Era, in mid December, it seemed [...]

CB3 Communications – web 2.0 in zones of conflict?

Posted by: johnnyryan on: 23 December 2008

In: Politics
1 Comment

I have just accepted a role with CB3 Communications, a Cambridge-based consultancy run by a friend of mine, Jem Thomas. (I will be keeping my other position at the IIEA.)

Videos of Next Leap launch

Posted by: johnnyryan on: 19 December 2008

Tanaiste’s (deputy prime minister) launch statement

my presentation

chair person’s introduction

Tags: Digital competitiveness, innovation, internet

The Next Leap: Competitive Ireland in the Digital Era

Posted by: johnnyryan on: 16 December 2008

Video from the launch event
Tanaiste’s (deputy prime minister) launch statement

my presentation

chair person’s introduction

The Tánaiste (Irish deputy prime minister) and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mary Coughlan, will launch my report on Tuesday, 16 December [...]

Tags: the digital future, The Next Leap

Coverage of ‘The Next Leap’

Posted by: johnnyryan on: 15 December 2008

Coverage of The Next Leap in Silicon Republic. The editor, John Kennedy, wrote this positive endorsement of the report at http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/article/11959/business/urgent-call-for-digital-industry-task-force

Much happening in Ireland’s digital sector

Posted by: johnnyryan on: 1 November 2008

In: Digital competitiveness
1 Comment

Not only will this month see the launch of the new CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team), lead by Brian Honan, but also the discussion on establishing a digital rights trading and services hub in Ireland has been heating up. The Digital Media Forum, based at the Digital Hub, has released an article entitled “A vision [...]

Tags: digtial rights trading, intellectual property

My interview with Ann Cavoukian for the EBF

Posted by: johnnyryan on: 9 June 2008

In: Privacy
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Ann Cavoukian is the Information & Privacy Commissioner of Ontario

Tags: biometrics, biometrics encryption, cavoukian, fleischer, Privacy

Updated strategic questions for the Digital Competitiveness Report

Posted by: johnnyryan on: 29 May 2008

See www.iiea.com/digital/

What are the current policy (or other) opportunities & challenges that Ireland faces in the digital sector?
Which emerging trends are potentially dominant in the digital sector?
In which niches can Ireland become a world leader?
What is the most important strategic investment of relevance to the digital sector that Ireland could make at this [...]

Tags: Competitiveness, development, digital media, innovation, Irish, tech

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Assorted Materials: Johnny Ryan