Alex Burns

Burns, Alex & Eltham, Ben (2009). 'Twitter Free Iran: An Evaluation of Twitter's Role in Public Diplomacy and Information Operations in Iran's 2009 Election Crisis'. In Papandrea, Franco & Armstrong, Mark (Eds.). Record of the Communications Policy & Research Forum 2009. Sydney: Network Insight Institute, pp. 298-310 [PDF pp. 322-334]. Presentation slides here.

Social media platforms such as Twitter pose new challenges for decision-makers in an international crisis. We examine Twitter's role during Iran's 2009 election crisis using a comparative analysis of Twitter investors, US State Department diplomats, citizen activists and Iranian protesters and paramilitary forces. We code for key events during the election's aftermath from 12 June to 5 August 2009, and evaluate Twitter. Foreign policy, international political economy and historical sociology frameworks provide a deeper context of how Twitter was used by different users for defensive information operations and public diplomacy. Those who believe Twitter and other social network technologies will enable ordinary people to seize power from repressive regimes should consider the fate of Iran's protesters, some of whom paid for their enthusiastic adoption of Twitter with their lives.

Burns, Alex & Saunders, Barry (2009). 'Journalists as Investigators and 'Quality Media' Reputation'. In Papandrea, Franco & Armstrong, Mark (Eds.). Record of the Communications Policy & Research Forum 2009. Sydney: Network Insight Institute, pp. 281-297 [PDF pp. 305-321]. Presentation slides here.

The current 'future of journalism' debates focus on the crossover (or lack thereof) of mainstream journalism practices and citizen journalism, the 'democratisation' of journalism, and the 'crisis in innovation' around the 'death of newspapers'. This paper analyses a cohort of 20 investigative journalists to understand their skills sets, training and practices, notably where higher order research skills are adapted from intelligence, forensic accounting, computer programming, and law enforcement. We identify areas where different levels of infrastructure and support are necessary within media institutions, and suggest how investigative journalism enhances the reputation of 'quality media' outlets.

A 2008 academic publication that made the Top 25 downloaded papers of the past year on Victoria University's institutional repository:

Floyd, Josh, Burns, Alex and Ramos, Jose (2008). A Challenging Conversation on Integral Futures: Embodied Foresight & Trialogues. Journal of Futures Studies, 13(2), 69-86.

Practitioner reflection is vital for knowledge frameworks such as Ken Wilber's Integral perspective. Richard Slaughter, Joseph Voros and others have combined Wilber's perspective and Futures Studies to create Integral Futures as a new stance. This paper develops Embodied Foresight as a new approach about the development of new Integral Futures methodologies (or meta-methodologies) and practitioners, with a heightened sensitivity to ethics and specific, local contexts. Three practitioners conduct a 'trialogue' - a three-way deep dialogue - to discuss issues of theory generation, practitioner development, meta-methodologies, institutional limits, knowledge systems, and archetypal pathologies. Personal experiences within the Futures Studies and Integral communities, and in other initiatory and wisdom traditions are explored.

Personal Research Program

The Stafford Beer-Brian Eno Connection: Alex Hough of Manchester Business School mentions how the cybernetics scientist Stafford Beer influenced musician and producer Brian Eno. Beer also influenced a generation of researchers and practitioners in modular organisational design, management, and systems thinking. Eno's collaborator Robert Fripp was influenced by a precursor, John Godolphin Bennett's systematics.

START Bulletin Fall 2009: The US National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) has just released its Fall 2009 bulletin on its programs of research and major research reports. I'm always on the lookout for 'good practice' examples of how to communicate the research results to different audiences.

R&D Management: Michel Bauwens tipped me off to a special issue on Henry Chesbrough's 'open innovation' and 'open R&D': looks very interesting. Journal article idea: Under what conditions might the innovation tournament be a more efficient allocative mechanism for R&D resources, human capital and commercialisation than other institutional structures, such as university-industry consortia and joint ventures?

SmartyGrants: An intriguing new package developed by the Australian Institute of Grants Management for grant-makers and grant-writers to manage the end-to-end grant cycle. SmartyGrants uses a subscription-based 'software as a service' delivery model, akin to Salesforce.com.

Mergers & Acquisitions

M&A Market Themes: NYT's Steven M. Davidoff on the US M&A market and Warren Buffett's acquisition of the railway Burlington Northern Santa Fe. Davidoff's new book Gods at War: Shotgun Takeovers, Government by Deal, and the Private Equity Implosion (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2009) surveys the recent M&A market and deal trends.

'Sell' for Research Renegades: Edward Robinson's Bloomberg Markets cover-story showcases a group of 'sell-side' researchers who have gone solo. Robinson notes the good security analysts have gone to hedge funds whilst others have founded independent research firms. This is a model I suggested the Smart Services CRC look at during its initial planning stages for its lessons on commercially relevant research and human capital management.

The Myer IPO: Fairfax's Michael West blames Myer for ruining the Australian IPO market for others. Three observations: (i) I agree with West that Myer's private equity owners were driven by a macroeconomic/monetary policy timing window to cash out after their cost cutting and change management; (ii) Brokerages and commission-based sales provided an 'echo chamber' to talk up the Myer IPO so that the underwriter's market-making activities are supported in the aftermarket; and (iii) always factor in market volatility into daily commentary --- an 8% shift is normal in the current market conditions due to buyer-seller resistance, post-IPO speculation and different views of Myer's fair market value --- and the likelihood that the underwriter and other investment banks will attempt to stabilise the stock's support level.

Noosphere Memes

Vale Claude Levi-Strauss: The anthropologist's structuralist approach is credited with changing how we perceived primitive societies and their cultural and religious practices. He is probably best known in popular culture for naming the Fine Young Cannibals' most successful album.

Tom Hooper's The Damned United (2009) dramatises Brian Clough's 44-day stint as Leeds United football coach. You don't have to be an English football film to appreciate the film which is a cautionary lesson on leadership, set in the downtrodden, rainy Northern English landscape that has become a Screen Yorkshire aesthetic.

Clough (Michael Sheen) makes several classic mistakes which self-saboages his leadership. He accepts the job because of personal animus with his predecessor Don Reavey (Colm Meaney), whose team has used dirty tactics in games with Derby County, a third league team which Clough and assistant coach/talent scout Peter Taylor (Timothy Spall) have taken into the first league. Clough's aggressive leadership style alienates the Leeds players who still feel loyal to Reavey, and who undermine their new coach. Clough does not have a 100-day transition plan and improvises his training sessions. Nor does he brief the Leeds players on pre-game tactics, whereas Reavey compiled detailed dossiers, in advance, on Leeds' competitors. Clough's overconfidence and chutzpah becomes a liability to the Leeds board when he fails to deliver results, and he blows-up. Anyone who has been through an exit interview will empathise with Clough's sad observation outside the boardroom, 'every story ends with two words . . . the end.'

Peter Morgan's script (The Queen, Frost/Nixon, The Last King of Scotland) based on David Peace's novel (The Red Riding Trilogy) contrasts Clough's troubles with his earlier success with Derby County. A sub-narrative reveals how Taylor's expertise was essential to Clough's success, and how the assistant coach 'grounded' Clough's all-consuming ambitions. The relationship frays when Clough miscalculates during a brinkmanship negotiation with Derby County's board, which accepts Clough and Taylor's resignation, despite them getting the club to the top of the English league. On reflection, The Leeds board suggests that their error was in the wrong hiring decision: they should have hired Clough and Taylor, rather than Clough alone. Clough's blindspot was a lack of political savvy: as a manager he refused to negotiate with Derby County's owner or to heed his advice, and to listen to the Leeds board.

The film's epilogue shows Clough and Taylor's later success with Nottingham Forest, which won the European Cup in 1979 and 1980.The Damned United alludes to a deeper reason why Clough failed at Leeds: the 'situational fit' of talent to strategic circumstances that may only become clear in retrospect. Clough was a gifted turnaround coach whose chutzpah was needed to energise and motivate teams. Leeds had hired Clough with a different aim, to sustain and build its high performance team. Clough was correct to see how money would redefine English football, but in this transitional period, managers did not yet have the power to out-negotiate boards and club owners.

Personal Research Program

Slate's Daniel Gross on why Conde Nast closed Gourmet: Gross contends CN's decision is a 'capitulation' indicator to leave a market, and it needed a McKinsey's report to cut costs.The New York Times has an interactive feature on CN's shrinking portfolio of publications.

ACSPRI's 2010 summer program on mixed methods research.

The New Yorker's George Packer on what Obama and the Generals are reading: Packer has two excellent paragraphs on the limits of analogical thinking, what history is useful for, and how it should guide policymakers. Worth comparison with the National Defense University's Professional Military Reading List notably the Joint Forces Staff College reading list. Packer has a useful decision rule to deal with confirmation bias: "no books that you already know will confirm the views you already hold."

Vanity Fair's Next Establishment list: there's a potential research program here for somebody to map Digital Hollywood's deal flow using Pajek or other social network analysis software.

Personal Research Program

McKinsey asks Conde Nast for an across-the-board 25% cut to its expenditure budgets.

US M&A deal flow is on the rise, such as the Xerox-ACS deal (CNBC video).

The New Yorker's John Cassidy on the 'rational irrationality' of financial markets.

How private equity targets the vulnerabilities of integrated supply chains in America's automobile manufacturing industry.

Australian strategist Paul Monk on the rise of the market state.

Tweet Memes

New York Times and Slate obituaries on speechwriter and columnist William Safire.

TNR's Daniel Pauly poses a dystopian scenario: the 'aquacalypse' or end of fish.

Personal Research Program

Twitter's Latest Valuation: $1 Billion.

McKinsey to cut Conde Nast magazine budgets by 25%?

David Elstein's Beesley Lecture on public media in the digital age and Guardian commentary.

Iran Under Ahmadinejad.

Tweet Memes

Editors take a red pen to Dan Brown and Sarah Palin.

Popmatters remembers 'gonzo' journalist Hunter S. Thompson.

Venezuela's Dangerous Liaisons.

Personal Research Program

The Analysis of Breathtaking Risk research note and applied summary.

George Packer reads the McChrystal Report on Afghanistan, after The Washington Post's editors delayed its public release.

Michael O'Hanlon's Foreign Affairs article on the retreat of US missile defence in Europe.

Scenes from the Violent Twilight of Oil.

Entertainment Economy

Slate's Louis P. Masur on the making of Bruce Springsteen's Born To Run.

Tweet Memes

Why Richard Posner Became A Keynesian.

Newly Declassified Files Detail Massive FBI Data-Mining Project.

What I'm Reading

Edwin Elton, Martin Gruber and Christopher Blake's The Investment Portfolio User's Manual and Software (2nd ed, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken NJ, 2007).

Personal Research Program

Slate's Jack Schafer on US 'save the newspapers' legislation.

Wired on the Apocalyptic Soviet Doomsday Machine and New York Times review and excerpt.

University Commercialisation and Research

Big Universities Report Steep Investment Losses: Is this the end of the Swensen model?

The Netflix Prize research dividend as reported by Wired, Slate and The New York Times.

Are you coming to UniGateway's launch in October for university commercialisation activities?

Tweet Memes

New Yorker video 'Pecking Order' on backyard chickens.

Matt Jones' presentation on trends in architecture and city anthropology (with thanks to Barry Saunders).

The return of chess grandmasters Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov.

Dr Ken Henry's GFC talk to the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Robert Fripp's soundscapes for Microsoft's Vista and Worldwide Telescope software.

Stephen Kinsella's Economics for Business lectures.

Carl Jung's Red Book and The New York Times coverage of the behind-the-scenes battle to get the memoirs published.

Joshua Gans take note: how inventors are using auction theory to protect their patents, via firms including Pluritas, Intellectual Ventures, Allied Security Trust and Rational Patent Exchange.

Christopher Hitchens and The New York Times obituaries of neoconservative 'godfather' Irving Kristol.

Foreign affairs maven Robert D. Kaplan on the Al Jazeera network.

Australian Treasury press release and consultation discussion paper on R&D tax incentives.

The merger battle between University of Melbourne and Melbourne Business School.

John Boyd's essay Destruction & Creation (1976) and compendium.

John Boyd's presentation Organic Design for Command and Control (PowerPoint and original).

Background on the Nifty Nugget (1978) and Proud Spirit (1980) war mobilisation exercises, which Boyd mentions.

LTC Steven W. Peterson's interesting essay Central But Inadequate (2004) about Boyd's influence and the role of classical military theorists on the US military's 2003 campaign in Baghdad, Iraq.

The two recent academic studies on Boyd, Grant T. Hammond's The Mind of War (Smithsonian, Washington DC, 2001) and Frans Osinga's Science, Strategy and War (Routledge, New York, 2007), are on my PhD 'draft zero' reading list.