Johnny Ryan (academic)

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. One of his works has been quoted widely in the media and has informed an EU policy position.

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 Magdalene College, Cambridge.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] He lives in Ballsbridge, Dublin.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]

Work

Current

Digital Future project

Ryan is currently Project Manager of the Digital Future project [http://www.iiea.com/digital/] at the Institute of International and European Affairs, and is drafting the "Digital Competitiveness Report" [The Digital Future Project website http://www.iiea.com/digital/ ] ['Major digital sector report planned for Government', SiliconRepublic, 24.06.2008 http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/article/10881/business/major-digital-sector-report-planned-for-government] ['News - Have your input into Government Digital Policy', IT@Cork, 24 June 2008 http://www.itcork.ie/index.cfm?page=news&newsId=1010] . 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.

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".

Previous work

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.

"iWar"

In 2007, following a series of cyber attacks on Estonian banking and government websites, Ryan coined [Author's first use of phrase in this context in TCS Daily http://www.tcsdaily.com/Article.aspx?id=071807B] [Also see Arbor Networks analysis http://asert.arbornetworks.com/2008/04/nato-and-eu-cybercrime-summits/] 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. [Reported in USA Today, 2 April 2008 http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-04-02-1773731546_x.htm] . He published a lightly refined version of this concept in the Winter edition of "NATO Review" [NATO Review, Winter 2007 http://www.nato.int/docu/review/2007/issue4/english/analysis2.html] , and a longer treatment in OpenDemocracy [OpenDemocracy, "iWar: pirates, states and the internet", 6 February 2008 http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/iwar_pirates_states_and_the_internet]

Regulation of Internet Content

His mid-2007 book "Countering militant Islamist radicalisation on the Internet: a user-driven strategy to recover the web" [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] 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. [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] . 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. [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] . Ryan has presented on this concept at meetings of the the OSCE annual CT experts meeting [See Reuters coverage, 16 November 2007 http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSL1656842820071116?pageNumber=3&sp=true] , Irish Government EuroMed conference, annual Swiss Federal Government CT conference, and at the Pluscarden Conference organised at St Anthonys, Oxford [Pluscarden programme http://www.sant.ox.ac.uk/events/pp_conf_programme.pdf] . He has promoted the user-driven approach in various media outlets.

Recent voluntary work

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

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.

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 siege of Beirut, and another, presented at the Royal Irish Academy, on Foreign and Commonwealth Office failures in relation to Rhodesia.

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.

Awards

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.

Media awards

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

Notes and references

External links

* Ryan's [http://books.google.com/books?id=hsUGK-PpEuUC first book] is available as a free-to-view (but not print) volume at Google Books.

* Ryan's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYMviULDr-8 dorm room] is available as a free-to-view (but not enter) video at Youtube Videos.

Background source

* [http://www.linkedin.com/in/johnnyryan1 Personal (self-written) profile at professional social network site]
* [http://johnnyryan.wordpress.com Personal blog and online CV / resume]