Jesse Hirsh

Jesse Hirsh is an expert internet strategist, researcher, and broadcaster. Regularly appearing on the CBC Newsworld, Hirsh also has a weekly nationally syndicated column and show on CBC radio explaining and analyzing the latest trends and developments in technology using language and examples that are meaningful and relevant to everyday life.

For two years, Hirsh was the host of an interfaith show on the Rogers and OMNI networks called 3D Dialogue. The show explored all the world’s religions and spiritual paths through interviews with practitioners, gurus, holy people, and cynics regarding their rituals, scriptures, and beliefs (or lack thereof). Hirsh is also a dedicated blogger who commits many hours to the deconstruction of technology ideas and debates.

Hirsh owns and operates two companies, Openflows Networks Ltd., which specializes in using free and open source software for advanced interactive platforms, and Metaviews Media Management Ltd., which focuses on research and consulting around new media business models.

Educated at the McLuhan Program at the University of Toronto, his passion is educating people on the potential benefits and perils of technology. After two decades of public speaking, Hirsh’s passion and knowledge continues to keep his audiences interested, entertained and informed.

• K. Technology, Leadership, and Authority: What it Takes to be Taken Seriously in an Era of Rapid Change

  Jesse Hirsh has been engaged in a major research project focusing on the future of authority. The premise being that in a society that is constantly changing it is increasingly difficult to establish legitimate authority and provide the kind of leadership that is in great demand. Technology continues to have a disruptive impact on how and who people trust, leading to an unstable environment that requires a reconfiguration of how we relate to our leaders.

• J. The Problem of Speed and the Importance of Critical Thinking

  Seemingly the only constant when it comes to technology is change. The pressures of living in an accellerated culture mean that we rarely have the time to stop and reflect on how technology impacts our lives. Yet when it comes to education the need to be critical is more important than ever, as we are constantly evaluating and contemplating how new tools and environments will impact learning and collaboration. Technology is never neutral, but always carries within it an embedded culture and set of effects that must be understood if we are to modify or engage them. What are the virtues and vices of web culture that will challenge education and classroom environments? What should we champion, and what should we actively criticize as we move further down the path of a connected and real-time culture? As a society we are at a cross roads where the moral and ethical decisions we make today in defining our relationship with technology will greatly influence the opportunities or tragedies we face in the near future. Therefore it is even more crucial that we take the time in the here and now to think carefully about where we should go next.
  
  
  
  

• I. Government 2.0 Now or Never: The Risks Facing Open Government in an Age of Instant Gratification

  The principles of open government offer significant potential for peer to peer policy development that harnesses the wisdom of crowds. However visible leadership is required to tame the power of the mob and counter the culture of lawlessness. Are citizens discarding privacy in their quest to access social and economic rewards? Do emerging cultures of transparency further erode how we value and protect our privacy? As activists and advocates understand the power of surveillance are we moving to a sousveillance society where each individual is a potential little sister or little brother, engaged in their own on-demand monitoring. Will open government overwhelm us with data and simply reinforce existing inequalities based on literacy and class? We can deal with these challenges if we are open enough to acknowledge and address them appropraitely.

• H. Finding the Missing Pieces: Why Solving the Privacy Puzzle is a Lot More Difficult Than We Think

  Technology evolves so rapidly that we rarely have the time to understand or test the devices and systems we rely upon. This leaves us vulnerable, especially when it comes to our privacy, as the ability to engage in surveillance has become so normalized and accessible that a simple web search could lead someone to information on how to monitor their ex-lover, child, employee, or competitor. Where protecting privacy was once the domain of large institutions, it is increasingly becoming a life skill or literacy that we all must maintain. Part of this involves understanding the unintended consequences or capabilities of new technology, and here both artists and hackers offer us the insights and potential help we need in identifying some of the missing pieces required to properly secure and protect each other. The key problem is how do we slow down enough that we can study these unintended effects as they happen, experiment with the technology as it emerges, in hopes that we can rapidly recognize the abuses, both potential and real, so as to prevent future catastrophe.

• G. Learning at the Speed of Light: How Technology Accelerates Education and Expands the Classroom

  The challenge for educators in the face of rapidly evolving technology is not only how to keep up with changing tools, but also how to keep up with the students themselves. Collaborative tools allow us to harness the insights and intelligence of the entire class rather than relying solely on the instructor's knowledge. Similarly there are issues that impact education and economics in ways that require engagement, transforming the school from an area of intellectual isolation into a fertile ground for business and cultural incubation. The challenge is how to do more with less, and operate at a speed that makes critical thinking difficult, yet necessary. Further how do we bridge the digital divide and ensure that everyone has access to the education and empowerment our emerging society requires.

   

• F. Little Brothers and Little Sisters and the rise of the Surveillance Society

  The surveillance society has arrived and not via the command of a centralized authority but instead via the spontaneous actions of citizens and companies employing their own surveillance technology. What are the implications for privacy, and what options do we have when it comes to the democratic regulation of surveillance technology.

   

• E. The Wonders and Worries Associated with Web 3.0

  The first decade of the 21st century was all about the rise of social media, marking the second generation of web based interaction, a/k/a web 2.0. This next decade will bring the third generation, featuring the rise of artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and the semantic web. Harnessing the explosion of user generated content and participation, web 3.0 organizes and provides structure at a meta level that could either propel our society into the new renaissance that the internet has always promised, or the Orwellian dystopia that 20th century literature tried so hard to warn us about.

   

• D. Cyber Crime: History and Modern Day Challenges

  An overview of the origins of cyber crime and the growing threats to the Internet as we know it, from the early days of hacking to the modern threats of Cyber War.

• C. The Rise of Mobile Commerce: From Smart Phones to Virtual Currencies

  While the rapid explosion of mobile applications and smart phone usage is well underway, we're still in the early stages of a broader revolution in mobile commerce, and with it the growth of virtual currencies. As location based services emerge to guide consumers to specific stores or venues, it's important to understand how all of this technology will combine to create a new culture that fuses what we buy, with where we buy, and who will know that we've bought, and why.

• B. Understanding Social Media: Risks, Rewards, and Measuring Returns

  The ways in which your business can learn and grow from using social media. Industry specific analysis that focuses on developing strategy that can scale across organizations large and small. The method to social media is dialogue and the focus is on results.

• A. Politics 2.0 - Social Media and The Perpetual Campaign

  The impact of social media on politics has been largely found within the context of campaigns, as the tools are used to mobilize supporters and capture the fleeting and increasingly scare attention of an otherwise disinterested public. Politicians and advocacy groups face the opportunity (and curse) of the never ending campaign in which the art of the sound byte meets the long term relationship of the online conversation. Everything you say can and will be used against you, whether at the ballot box, or anywhere that it may or may not apply. Is this the dawn of a new age in politics or merely window dressing on the same old party machine?

• I know of no one who understands modern society, the turn of events or especially the internet, better than Jesse. He is the smartest young man I have encountered over my professional career.

  Allan Gregg, Chairman of Harris/Decima

• Jesse Hirsh has a unique feel for the new media and what is happening. He is the "go to" guy on technology and its uses and abuses.

  Hon. Bob Rae, P.C., O.C., O.Ont, Q.C.