The attention of a goldfish?
Friends and Colleagues
Cyber Insecurity
If I tell friends and colleagues that I am working on a ‘cybersecurity project’, I can see them mentally move along to other topics. In sounds technical and only technical. Arguably, most internet users and ordinary people generally see cybersecurity as a technical field – one that is likely to be impenetrable or uninteresting … Continue reading Cyber Insecurity
Saving Strunk and White
Looking into one of my College’s hallway recycling bins, as one does, I found a fourth edition paperback of Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style. Arguably, for my generation, as Strunk died the year before I was born, this has been one of the most useful and inspiring books for any young writer or … Continue reading Saving Strunk and White
The Fifth Estate Needs Better Public Information
The following is a comment on my book, The Fifth Estate, from Marian FitzGerald, a Visiting Professor of Criminology at Kent Crime and Justice Centre in Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research at the University of Kent and a freelance consultant & researcher. Posted with the permission of Professor FitzGerald. Marian FitzGerald "Your … Continue reading The Fifth Estate Needs Better Public Information
Society and the Internet, AI, and All Things Digital
HIIG and its Advisory Council
Oral Histories of your Family
Oral Histories of your Family: Questions I Failed to Ask With age, I’ve become more aware of the questions I should have asked my parents and grandparents. Like many others, I was interested in my family’s history. For example, I have long treasured my “Aunt Ann’s” family bible with key dates and events recorded in … Continue reading Oral Histories of your Family
Call for Nominations for ICT Communication & Technology Awards
Dear Colleagues, I am pleased to be chairing the Awards Committee of the ICA Communication and Technology (CAT) Division and would like to draw your attention to the call for nominations for two awards: (1) the Frederick Williams Prize for Contribution to the Study of Communication and Technology and the (2) Herbert S. Dordick Dissertation … Continue reading Call for Nominations for ICT Communication & Technology Awards
Should Elites Get Off Twitter?
Should Elitists Get Off Twitter? An opinion piece in the Financial Times by Janan Ganesh (2022) argued that the real reason to get off Twitter was that it “reeks of low status”. Stay on it long enough and you can “catch” its tone of “domestic mediocrity”. Even elites who use this micro-blogging site should beware … Continue reading Should Elites Get Off Twitter?
An ICA Tribute to Elihu Katz
Unparalleled Contributions of Elihu Katz to Studies of Communication Inspired members of the International Communication Association (ICA) are organizing a preconference on the ‘legacies’ of the American-Israeli sociologist, Elihu Katz. This promises to be a fitting and most deserved tribute to his contributions to multiple academic fields, and certainly to the field of communication. My … Continue reading An ICA Tribute to Elihu Katz
Social Intelligence
Social Intelligence: Fascinating progress in a new approach to understanding public issues. In research on governmental and management use of computing in the 1970s, I found that some of the most consequential management information was gained by mining operational data (Dutton and Kraemer 1978; Kraemer, Dutton, and Northrop 1981). For example, there was a complaint … Continue reading Social Intelligence