Obit: Aaron Swartz

I wrote this obituary for The Irish Times last week.

Aaron Swartz, Born: November 8th, 1986 Died: January 11th, 2013 Aaron Swartz took his own life in an apartment in Brooklyn on January 11th. Though only 26 when he died, Swartz had many claims to fame.

Interview on the history + future of the Net

Jerry Brito, a tech thinker and writer for Time Magazine interviewed me about my recent book, A history of the Internet and the digital future as part of his ‘Surprisingly Free’ podcast series with techies. Jerry has an interesting background: he’s an academic, but he has also lead some interesting projects – see below – and has a interesting take on tech regulation.

• OpenRegs.com, an alternative interface to the federal government’s regulatory docketing system
• Very Local Data, demographic information for every jurisdiction in the country
• Stimulus Watch, crowdsourced accountability for federal stimulus spending

Our conversation jumped from Baran, RAND, ARPA/DARPA, the internet protocols, and then took a turn toward the political. The interview is online here http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/11/08/johnny-ryan/ and the MP3 is downloadable here Surprisingly Free podcast interview with Johnny Ryan by Jerry Brito

Principles, Norms, and Constraints: building a new national approach to digital issues

Discussion document for the new IIEA National Digital Principles Group: We are present at a unique moment in time when the shape and character of the emerging digital area is becoming clear. To grasp the opportunity, consider as historical precedents the decades following Gutenberg’s Press, or early decades of the Industrial Age. Strategic and inventive thought is critical at this moment because now is the time when the gains of smart action, and the costs of poorly conceived action, may be greatest.

My talk at Google EU HQ on fairuse

I spoke at Google last Friday (19 November 2010) on fairuse and the need for the law to adapt to leverage the benefits of the Internet.

The event was chaired by TJ McIntyre of Digital Rights Ireland.

Three strikes, copyright and copytight?

Together with a colleague at the IIEA, Caitriona Heinl, I have been examining the current state of three strikes measures against music piracy (see earlier related blog entry). This comes as part of an IIEA study.

Google vs China: capitalist model, virtual wall (new OpenDemocracy article)

Article in OpenDemocracy, co-authored by Johnny Ryan and Stefan Halper, 22 January 2010:

A speech on the theme of internet freedom around the world delivered by Hillary Clinton on 21 January 2010 contained a striking phrase. The United States secretary of state, speaking at Washington’s journalism-focused Newseum, argued that nation-states that chose to limit free access to information risked “walling themselves off from the progress of the next century”.

Violent radical content on the Internet – first outputs of IIEA study

As part of the IIEA study on non-legislative measures to prevent the dissemination of violent radical material on the Internet for the European Commission, the following outputs were released in December 2009:

1. Request For Comments document: An initial overview of the legal environment regulating child abuse, hatred and racism, copyright infringement, and terrorist content on the Internet by Oisin Suttle. (PDF)
2. Request For Comments document: An  initial overview of measures against illegal content on the Internet in all 27 EU Member States by Johnny Ryan, Caitriona Heinl, Oisin Suttle, Gilbert Ramsay, Tim Stevens. (html)

These are initial draft documents intended to be refined with the benefit of comments from interested parties. Any feedback or comments on the substance of these documents would be welcome.

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

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 the EU. Press release below…

ICANN becomes Independent!

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 the new announcement.

Interview with Tim Wu

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.

Models of state research spending: Vannevar Bush v Mike Mansfield

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 the fore is to what extent should Government direct strategic research funding to advance the national economic interest? Two examples worth examining for its pros and cons is the post war US  model established by Vannevar Bush, and also the countervailing approach that embodied in the Mansfield Amendment introduced of 1969.

Maths – East & West

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 Newt Gingrich, who was on the Hart-Rudman Commission, warned that “American high schools are obsolete”

The Irish Times on The Next Leap

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 like a bad time to get press coverage. The Sunday Business Post picked it up, as did the Irish Independent. Today, a month later, The Irish Times has a long piece covering the report, and its better to have attention brought back to it now, as the economic doom and gloom deepens, than it would have been if the report had featured prominently in December, when people had not yet made the mental leap to the new economic situation in which we now know ourselves to operate in.

This is all very heartening – especially at a time when we are trying to build momentum behind the blog attached to the report http://nextleap.wordpress.com on which we are discussing with visitors what areas within the report to focus on further. Full text of the article is below

Videos of Next Leap launch

Tanaiste’s (deputy prime minister) launch statement

my presentation

chair person’s introduction

The Next Leap: Competitive Ireland in the Digital Era

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 2008, at 7.00 PM at the IIEA.

Paul Rellis, Managing Director of Microsoft Ireland, will chair the event. Details below.

Visit this link or E-mail reception@iiea.com and note your organisation and contact details if you would like to attend.

Title: The Next Leap: Competitive Ireland in the Digital Era

Subtitle: Strategic Report on the Trends of Change in the Digital Sector, and Government Opportunities for Action, Based on the IIEA Digital Sector Stakeholders’ Consultation

The Next Leap: Competitive Ireland in the Digital Era is intended to be a useful point of reference as Government considers a new national strategy to maximise Ireland’s competitive advantage in the digital era. It is an exercise in digital foresight that describes: Emerging trends that will characterise the digital environment incoming years; and Government actions that could capitalise on these trend. This report presents a cross-cutting draft plan of action derived from the diverging inputs of stakeholders across the digital sector.

Coverage of ‘The Next Leap’

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

My interview with Ann Cavoukian for the EBF

Ann Cavoukian is the Information & Privacy Commissioner of Ontario

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.

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:

Swiss Government CT paper: “Internet governance: why openness is security”

I spoke on the issue of Internet governance at the Swiss Government’s counter terrorism seminar on 29 April 2008. Here is the presentation.

My interview with Toomas Ilves, President of Estonia, on digital infrastructure

I interviewed Toomas Ilves, President of the Republic of Estonia, on 15 April 2008, about digital infrastructure, the DDOS attacks, and the future of digital competitiveness.

Associated Press picks up on my take on iWar

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iOa2mqt5DXi7h40NageheWNxCyTQD8VPR7JG0

The Associated Press report that:

NATO needs to gear up for “iWar” — systematic attacks on the Web that could disrupt commerce worldwide by using crippling computer worms to shut down consumer online services such as Internet banking — warns Johnny Ryan, a researcher with the Institute of International and European Affairs.

“iWar will proliferate quickly and can be waged by anyone with an Internet connection,” Ryan cautioned in an analysis for NATO.

“In the short term, iWar poses a gathering threat to NATO members,” he said. “NATO must approach the problem as an immediate threat and strive to develop practical defensive cooperation.”

New project: The Digital Competitiveness Report

On 1 May, I will be starting a round of high-level stakeholder consultations on behalf of the Institute of International & European Affairs on means to maintain Ireland’s competitive edge and the implications of change in the Digital Future. I anticipate the report being delivered to Government in September. Here below Peter Sutherland, Chairman of Goldman Sachs and of BP takes part in an initial consultation with me as part of the project. For information about this project, visit WWW.IIEA.COM/DIGITAL or contact me.

Short interview on the future of Biometrics

I interviewed Frank Paul, Head of Large-Scale Information Systems, at the European Commission DG FSJ, about the future of biometrics in the European Union…

Pluscarden paper

I spoke at the Pluscarden Conference last weekend. Here’s the paper.

New article in openDemocracy – iWar: pirates, states and the internet

Full story http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/iwar_pirates_states_and_the_internet

I have introduced the term “iWar” (in an piece in NATO Review [Winter 2007], as well as this longer openDemocracy article) to denote attacks carried out over the internet that target the consumer internet infrastructure, such as the websites that provide access to online banking services. In this understanding, iWar is distinct from what the United States calls “cyberwar” or from what China calls “informationalised war”. Each of these refers to controlling communications, access to imagery intelligence, electronic espionage, and battlefield command and control; China’s defence white paper of December 2006, for example, emphasises the importance of gaining supremacy in space to control information assets such as satellites. iWar is different because it exploits the ubiquitous, low-security infrastructure. As a result, while nation-states alone can engage in “cyber” and “informationalised” warfare, iWar can be waged by individuals, corporations, and communities.

BBC interviews – on the UK Home Secretary’s proposals

There was little detail in the speech by the UK Home Secretary yesterday, but one possibility is that the CleanFeed system of hybrid URL filtering might be applied to attempt censorship of radical material on the Internet.

I was interviewed for the BBC World News Service and BBC Radio’s Simon Mayo programme. One thought which occurred is that the Home Secretary’s use of language about “grooming” suggests a belief that violent militant radicalisation is a top down process, similar to an adult grooming a child for criminal purposes. I think this is perhaps misleading. Radicalisation on the internet seems to be bottom up and horizontal, a process in which like minded individuals consult the Internet for information that will support their assumptions, and lend foundations to their political perspective. Fighting violent radicalisation as “grooming” would prioritise the identification of “groomers”, which could divert effort from the true priority: tacking the narrative that some young people in Europe are using to groom themselves as militants.

Reuters – on the UK proposals on militant websites

“…experts have expressed serious doubts about what can be effective to prevent radicalisation over the Internet, saying little research has been carried out.

Johnny Ryan, Senior Researcher at Dublin’s Institute of International and European Affairs, has told Reuters that users could easily circumvent any restrictions imposed by the authorities.

Web sites could relocate from one country to another unless there was international agreement, while the controversial content was often distributed through services that are hard to block, such as legitimate chat rooms, he said….”

NATO Review: “iWar”

 

Title: “iWar”: A new threat, its convenience – and our increasing vulnerability.

See news coverage of this article at Associated Press.

 

With a computer in virtually every home and office, the chances for mass communication are better than ever before. But how well protected are we if that communication is malicious or hostile? John Ryan makes the case that iWar attacks could be the most innovative form of warfare since the invention of gunpowder.

 

A short time from now it is likely that “iWar”, a form of internet-based warfare, will erupt across the globe.This form of warfare’s potency will grow as economies, governments, and communities close the so-called “digital divide”. Those embracing the internet most will be increasingly vulnerable to iWar attacks which exploit the consumer infrastructure.

European Commission’s official impact assessment rules out Internet censorship – and cites my study

The European Commission’s impact assessment on Vice President Frattini’s Internet censorship proposals was made public on 6 November 2007.

My book was cited (10 citations of 112 total) in the report, which happily concluded that censorship was not a practical response to violent radicalisation on the Internet. This is a major event in the debate over whether to attempt to regulate online content.

See the European Commission DG FSJ impact assessment {COM_SEC(2007)1424}, 6 November 2007 [at this link]

Speech at the OSCE experts meeting on violent radicalisation

I spoke recently at the OSCE’s restricted experts meeting on means to counter radicalisation to terrorism on the Internet. See coverage by Reuters here.

This is a draft transcript of my speech

———————-

Excellencies, Ladies & Gentlemen,

Reuters – on OSCE experts meeting…

Reuters reported on some of our presentations at the OSCE annual experts meeting on violent radicalisation on the Internet.

Europe, terrorism and the internet

This is a new article I published on openDemocracy (http://www.opendemocracy.net)

European Union member-state governments are increasingly aware of the danger of terrorism perpetrated within their own borders – sometimes by their own citizens. From late 2005 onwards, the European commission and justice and home affairs (JHA) council of ministers have rightly begun to place a high priority on curbing radicalisation and recruitment into terrorism, particularly on the internet. The latest manifestation of these efforts is the adoption by the European commission on 6 November 2007 of a new “counter-terrorism package”.

Reuters – Experts say West can’t stop Web radicalisation

Michael Holden’s piece for which he interviewed me is at Reuters
http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKL2658640020071106

the same day that I was interviewed on the same topic by FM4 Radio (Austrian Broadcasting Corporation) http://www.iiea.com/audio/jryaninternet.mp3

iWar

Published in TCSDaily http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=071807B, 13 August 2007.

The “virtual siege” of Estonia in which distributed denial of service attacks shut down important banking, government and media websites throughout late April and May 2007 is an example of “iWar”. The Estonian example should be considered as a sign of things to come.

A short time from now it is likely that a new form of Internet based warfare will erupt across the globe. The potency of this iWar will grow as the economies of the world steadily embrace the Internet to deliver services. At the same time, iWar will maintain its ease of adoption and low cost. iWar may also maintain its deniability.

These two key trends – cheap, deniable warfare and increasing vulnerability to attack – are likely to result in a conflagration of iWar. This new form of warfare can be waged by individuals, communities, corporations, nations and alliances. The economic toll of a conflagration could be enormous.

The militant Islamist call and its echo

Published on openDemocracy (http://opendemocracy.net/article/democracy_terror/islamism_web)

On the internet, in gymnasiums, bookshops and video-clubs, recruitment propaganda is viewed by and debated among prospective Islamist militants. This wide-ranging material contains four recurrent themes; understanding them is the first step to forming an effective counter-narrative to dissuade the next generation of would-be militants from embracing violence, and channelling their energies and ideas into democratic routes of political and religious persuasion.

EU should not attempt to censor the ‘Net

I was interviewed about this on RTE’s Prime Time TV programme, 5 July 2007. Adrian Lydon’s report, and my contribution to it, are available here. See also my letter to The Times (London), published on 6 July 2007.