Author: Taylor Owen

Edward Greenspon and I on the likely evolution of #fakenews: a pernicious mix of AI, commercial surveillance, adtech and social platforms that is going to undermine democracy in some critical ways. If fake text had a social impact on our understanding of events and news, imagine what the coming fake

Mike Ananny and I have an oped in the Globe and Mail on the ethics and governance of AI.  We wrote it in response to the Federal government’s recent funding announcement for AI research and commercialization. Ethics and governance are getting lost in the AI frenzy Taylor Owen and Mike

Emily Bell and I have written a Tow Center report exploring how Silicon Valley has reengineered journalism. We look at how publishers have been absorbed into the platform ecosystem, how ad tech has shaped both media economics and political campaigns, and do a deep dive into Facebook and the 2016

My edited book for Columbia University Press with Emily Bell, Journalism After Snowden: The Future of the Free Press in the Surveillance State, on journalism and state surveillance has recently been released. It includes chapters by a pretty wonderful group of journalists and scholars, including: Steve Coll, Cass Sunstein, Clay Shirky,

The oped below was written after the publishing of The Shattered Mirror: News, Democracy and Trust in the Digital Age, on which i served as a research principal.  I have been surprised that what I believe is the most radical and potentially transformative idea in the report has received almost no

For the past year I have had the fortune to work with Ed Greenspon, the Public Policy Forum, and a wonderful group of scholars and journalists on a report on the state of journalism in Canada. The resulting report was recently released, The Shattered Mirror: News, Democracy and Trust in

I have an article in the Columbia Journalism Review that explores virtual reality, Facebook, the challenges of doing journalism in and on virtual realities, and the importance of holding platform companies accountable for the worlds they are building.  Full piece is here, below is from the introduction: As Facebook and others

Last year I was fortunate enough to get to attend a remarkable workshop at the University of Sidney lead by James Der Derian. It was part of a workshop series and documentary project that James is leading called Project Q: Peace and Security in the Quantum Age. The goal of the project is to bring […]

I have a short article in Policy Magazine summarizing a broader argument that I have been making about the limitations of a siloed digital foreign policy. The argument draws extensively on Disruptive Power.  In short, I argue that a digital foreign policy: will first and foremost require a rethinking of the approach to online governance. It means addressing […]

I have a review of Don and Alex Tapscott’s new book, Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin Is Changing Money, Business and the World in this month’s Literary Review of Canada.  The full piece is here, but in short: The book is at its best when explaining the complex concepts underpinning blockchain, but ultimately falls […]

I was on The Agenda with Steve Paikin a couple of weeks ago to talk digital technology, power and some Canadian foreign policy. We got into both my Disruptive Power and The World Won’t Wait books. At the end though, I was asked about Trump. My answer relates to Brexit as well though.  The growing desire to burn […]

I recently received the Public Policy Forum’s Emerging Leader award. It was presented at their annual Testimonial Dinner, which brought together a pretty remarkable group of over a 1000 policy, business and media leaders. Below are the remarks that I gave: The video is here: https://vimeo.com/162134671 Full text: Thank you Premier MacLauchlan. It is an […]

Roland Paris and I have a new edited volume out on Canadian Foreign Policy.  The World Won’t Wait: Why Canada Needs to Rethink if International Policies features analysis from a wonderful group of wicked smart colleagues and friends.  The abstract is below and the intro chapter from Roland and I is available here: ‘A Transforming […]

I have recently released a report with the Tow Center for Digital Journalism on Virtual Reality Journalism.  The Executive Summary is below, the full report can be found here, and the accompanying Frontline virtual reality documentary can be seen in Google Cardboard here, and in Facebook 360 here.   Virtual Reality Journalism After decades of […]

I was recently on a panel on digital diplomacy at the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum, titled:  Foreign Policy in 140 Characters: How Technology is Redefining Diplomacy.  It was a fun conversation. Here is the video:      

Last week I had the chance to talk about Disruptive Power with Quentin Hardy, the deputy technology editor of the New York Times at the San Francisco World Affairs Council. Here is the video:

Over the coming weeks, on OpenCanada.org, I will be exploring the challenges and opportunities for a new Canadian foreign policy. Ideas for this series are based partly on the 2014 Ottawa Forum, a conference of next-generation foreign policy leaders organized with Roland Paris. Our book on this topic, due out

Cool! Disruptive Power reviewed in Foreign Affairs alongside the fabulous Data and Goliath by Bruce Schneier.

I have an article in Foreign Affairs on the governance challenge posed by algorithmic decision making: The Violence of Algorithms

The following was in the San Fransisco Chronicle, on May 1 Why the U.S. should but won’t partner with hactivists Anonymous For a barbaric movement grounded in early Islamic apocalyptic prophecies, what is perhaps most striking about the rapid rise of the Islamic State has been its use of modern