Johnny Ryan (academic)

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Johnny Ryan (born 1980) is a political researcher, on topics which include impacts of the internet, and works as a senior researcher at the Institute of International and European Affairs, a policy think tank and forum based in Dublin, Ireland. His work has been quoted widely in the media and has informed an EU policy position.

Contents

[edit] Life

Ryan was educated at University College Dublin, earning a BA and an MA, and at Cambridge University, from which he holds an MPhil. He is now an O'Reilly Scholar, resuming his earlier work with Prof. Christopher Andrew, official historian of MI5, now as a PhD candidate at Cambridge.[1] He lives in Ballsbridge, Dublin.[1]

[edit] Work

[edit] Current

[edit] Digital Future project

Ryan is currently Project Manager of the Digital Future project[[1]] at the Institute of International and European Affairs, and is drafting the Digital Competitiveness Report [2]. Meetings during this project have included presentations from Jonathan Zittrain, Fabio Colasanti, Linnar Viik, Toomas Ilves, Larry Sanger, Peter Fleischer and Susanne Dirks of IBM's Institute for Business Value. The project launched on 1 May 2008 a Digital Competitiveness Stakeholder Consultation, and will initially report to the Irish Government in September 2008.

[edit] Other current work

Ryan is also a paid Project Manager at the European Biometrics Forum.

On a voluntary basis, he is a member of the peer-review pannel of the EuroMesCo Research Consortium, an advisor to and online campaign designer for Senator Eugene Regan, and a member of the European Security Research and Innovation Forum’s Working Group 2, dealing with security of critical infrastructure.

[edit] Previous work

[edit] IEA

Ryan joined the then Institute of European Affairs in August 2005, as a researcher, achieving promotion to senior researcher in April 2007. He has led programmes on counter-terror and security, other aspects of home affairs policy and digital policy, and has participated in publication of reports, organisation of seminars and conferences, and associated networking, much at a high level.

[edit] "iWar"

In 2007, following a series of cyber attacks on Estonian banking and government websites, Ryan coined[3][4] the term "iWar" in TCS Daily to describe serious but low-level cyber conflict that could threaten economic life without impacting high-security or critical infrastructure.[5]. He published a lightly refined version of this concept in the Winter edition of NATO Review [6], and a longer treatment in OpenDemocracy [7]

[edit] Regulation of Internet Content

See also: A User Driven Strategy to Recover the Web
Ryan (centre) with Alan Dukes (left) and Larry Sanger (right) at the IIEA in 2007
Ryan (centre) with Alan Dukes (left) and Larry Sanger (right) at the IIEA in 2007

His mid-2007 book Countering militant Islamist radicalisation on the Internet: a user-driven strategy to recover the web[8] was heavily cited in the European Commission DG FSJ impact assessment {COM_SEC(2007)1424}, 6 November 2007, that decided against proposing an EU-wide Internet censorship system to limit access to illegal content.[9]. One of the primary concepts of the book is that communities on the Internet and the principle of open communication can, under the right circumstances, limit the harm of violent extremism on the Internet better than an attempt at censorship.[10]. Ryan has presented on this concept at meetings of the the OSCE annual CT experts meeting[11], Irish Government EuroMed conference, annual Swiss Federal Government CT conference, and at the Pluscarden Conference organised at St Anthonys, Oxford[12]. He has promoted the user-driven approach in various media outlets.

[edit] Recent voluntary work

In 2007, Ryan served on the selection committee for Irish postgraduate applicants to the College of Europe.

[edit] Early career

Ryan worked as Project Coordinator of Digital Publishing Innovations Ltd. for some months, and previously as a tutor at University College Dublin's School of History for over 18 months, and as Editor of The History Review for a similar time.

[edit] Publications

Aside from his current book, referenced above and below, Ryan recently signed a contract with Reaktion Books to write on the history of the political impact of the Internet, "from Paul Baran's memos at RAND on distributed networking to the impact of microfinance via mobile telephony on remote communities in the developing world". He has also published a range of papers, most relating to terrorism on, and anti-terror aspects of, the internet.

Previous work, before 2004, includes a paper on Ireland's presidency of the UN Security Council during the seige of Beirut, and another, presented at the Royal Irish Academy, on Foreign and Commonwealth Office failures in relation to Rhodesia.

[edit] Media

Ryan has appeared with or contributed expertise to Reuters, the Associated Press, the Irish Times, the Irish Independent, The Times of London, BBC World Service, BBC Radio Five Live, Austrian Broadcasting Corporation, NewsTalk 106FM, Today FM, RTE's Prime Time, and Business & Finance and Magill magazines.

[edit] Awards

[edit] Academic awards

Ryan is currently an O'Reilly Foundation Scholar.

Previously, as a graduate student at Cambridge and UCD, he won a partial Cambridge European Trusts bursary.

[edit] Media awards

Ryan has also won three awards at Ireland's national student media awards, as both editor and feature writer.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Dublin, Ireland: The Irish Independent, Friday 25 January 2008, p. 20, "MI5 spies help student unlock terrorists' web", Walshe, John; includes photograph of subject in group
  2. ^ The Digital Future Project website http://www.iiea.com/digital/
  3. ^ Author's first use of phrase in this context in TCS Daily http://www.tcsdaily.com/Article.aspx?id=071807B
  4. ^ Also see Arbor Networks analysis http://asert.arbornetworks.com/2008/04/nato-and-eu-cybercrime-summits/
  5. ^ Reported in USA Today, 2 April 2008 http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-04-02-1773731546_x.htm
  6. ^ NATO Review, Winter 2007 http://www.nato.int/docu/review/2007/issue4/english/analysis2.html
  7. ^ OpenDemocracy, "iWar: pirates, states and the internet", 6 February 2008 http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/iwar_pirates_states_and_the_internet
  8. ^ Dublin, Ireland, May 2007: Ryan, Johnny, Countering militant Islamist radicalisation on the Internet: a user driven strategy to recover the web, ISBN 1-874-109-86-9, 166pp, Amazon listing: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Countering-Militant-Islamist-Radicalisation-Internet/dp/1874109869
  9. ^ See assessment document {COM_SEC(2007)1424}, p. 8, 28, 41-2, 44 at http://www.ipex.eu/ipex/webdav/site/myjahiasite/groups/CentralSupport/public/2007/SEC_2007_1424/COM_SEC(2007)1424_EN.pdf
  10. ^ See Larry Sanger's (wikipedia co-founder) comments on the book on his blog, 2 October 2007 http://blog.citizendium.org/2007/10/02/powerful-cyber-polities
  11. ^ See Reuters coverage, 16 November 2007 http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSL1656842820071116?pageNumber=3&sp=true
  12. ^ Pluscarden programme http://www.sant.ox.ac.uk/events/pp_conf_programme.pdf

[edit] External Links

Ryan's first book is available as a free-to-view (but not print) volume at Google Books.

[edit] Background source