Views on Russian Hacking: In a Certainty Trough? I have been amazed by the level of consensus, among politicians, the press and the directors of security agencies, over the origins and motivations behind the Russian hacking of the 2016 presidential election. Seldom are security agencies willing to confirm or deny security allegations, much less promote … Continue reading Russian Hacking and the Certainty Trough
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Twitter Foreign Policy and the Rise of Digital Diplomacy
Recent Chinese concerns over ‘Twitter Foreign Policy” are just the tip of the iceberg on the ways in which the Internet has been enabling diplomacy to be reconfigured, for better or worse. Over a decade ago, Richard Grant, a diplomat from New Zealand, addressed these issues in a paper I helped him with at the … Continue reading Twitter Foreign Policy and the Rise of Digital Diplomacy
Email Disrupting Life at Home?
Email Disrupting Life at Home? Careful What You Ask For In France and other nations there is discussion of somehow banning email after 6pm or outside of working hours. For example, see here. Perhaps this could help provide a better work-life balance or prevent households from competing with email for the attention of their family. … Continue reading Email Disrupting Life at Home?
Forthcoming Ukrainian Publication on Distributed Intelligence
Aspects of my work on the role of distributed intelligence in problem solving, what I have called distributed collaborative networks, was published in English as Dutton, W. H. (2015), ‘Lend Me Your Expertise: Citizen Sourcing Advice to Government’, pp. 247-63 in Johnston, E. W. (eds), Governance in the Information Era: Theory and Practice of Policy … Continue reading Forthcoming Ukrainian Publication on Distributed Intelligence
Don’t Panic over Fake News
Fake News is a Wonderful Headline but Not a Reason to Panic I feel guilty for not jumping on the ‘fake news’ bandwagon. It is one of the new new things in the aftermath of the 2016 Presidential election. And because purposively misleading news stories, like the Pope endorsing Donald Trump, engage so many people, … Continue reading Don’t Panic over Fake News
10th Anniversary of OII’s DPhil in Information, Communication & the Social Sciences
It was a real honour today to speak with some of the alumni (a new word for Oxford) of the Oxford Internet Institute’s DPhil programme. A number came together to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the DPhil. It began four seemingly long years after I became the OII’s founding director in 2002. So while I … Continue reading 10th Anniversary of OII’s DPhil in Information, Communication & the Social Sciences
The 2016 US Presidential Election and the Institution of the Presidency
One of the classic works on the governance of England is Walter Bagehot’s (1867) The English Constitution. He observed that through the evolution of its unwritten Constitution entailed two critical but separate components, the ‘dignified’ and the ‘efficient’. The former exercised symbolic power and was represented by the monarch, who did not have effective power … Continue reading The 2016 US Presidential Election and the Institution of the Presidency
A Virtual Professor: Putting Herself in the Hands of Others
The Department of Media and Information at Michigan State University had one of its (now) annual retreats on a beautiful Friday in the clubhouse of a local golf course. One of our faculty members, Professor Carrie Heeter, was in San Francisco, but she worked with colleagues to create a means for her to participate virtually. … Continue reading A Virtual Professor: Putting Herself in the Hands of Others