Initially I thought I was witnessing an unusual practice. Individuals with whom I was speaking were simultaneously involved in other conversations. Then, when I was part of a team planning and organising an event online – a video conferenced workshop, the organisers set up a social media account for us to communicate with each other … Continue reading A New Way to Video Conference – Badly
Socio-technical Systems
Back to the Future of Academic Conferences
Is the end of hybrid conferences arriving just as they have been invented? I assumed that in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and the shifts to more people working remotely and from home, that academic conferences would not think twice about embracing hybrid forms of meeting even as academics begin to travel again. Well, … Continue reading Back to the Future of Academic Conferences
Riyadh’s Global Cybersecurity Forum
Delighted to have participated in the 2023 Global Cybersecurity Forum, 1-2 Nov, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia #GCF2023. It provided me with a jam-packed two days of activities. I did interviews and a podcast, but my main contributions were: First, a talk on cybersecurity capacity building, moderated by Alexandra Topalian, a truly helpful moderator and speaker … Continue reading Riyadh’s Global Cybersecurity Forum
The Societal Costs of Attention Deficits
The attention of a goldfish?
Cognitive Politics
In the preface to Harold D. Lasswell’s (1936: v) book entitled Politics, he famously defined politics as the study of ‘who gets what, when, and how’ – also the subtitle of his book. He went on to argue that influence is central to politics and that “[c]oncepts for the study of influence must be changed … Continue reading Cognitive Politics
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
Technology is Catching Up with Seminal Thinkers in Education
I read with interest today that some leading computer scientists believe that AI innovations might well transform basic educational practices, such as what goes on in the classroom. While I agree and believe these changes are most likely to be quite positive, let me suggest that the sequence is somewhat the opposite of what the … Continue reading Technology is Catching Up with Seminal Thinkers in Education
The Right to Send Anytime, Anywhere, All at Once
I respect the right of anyone to choose when and how they reply to an email. The person receiving an email has the power to delete, ignore, read, respond immediately or respond whenever they choose. They can even have an automatic response, say over their holiday or weekend, that they are away from work and … Continue reading The Right to Send Anytime, Anywhere, All at Once
AI Hype
AI HYPE: A Commentary by A. Michael Noll March 29, 2023 Copyright © 2023 A. Michael Noll The 1968 movie “2001: A Space Odyssey” by Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick frighten us with the computer “HAL” that reads lips, makes decisions, kills, and ultimately goes berserk. Decades later around 2011, IBM introduced its “Watson” … Continue reading AI Hype
The Myth of an AI Leisure Class?
The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) is real and significant. But AI is not new albeit in 2023 it is more focused on machine learning than programming. On a recent trip to Singapore, the rise of robots was clear, cleaning the floors of the airport and moving trays around restaurants, for instance. That said, the … Continue reading The Myth of an AI Leisure Class?