The Cognitive Crucible

This episode focuses on the intersection between education, terrorism, and information operations. Tony Sgro shares his experiences at the epicenter of social media efforts to curb recruitment and radicalization by engaging with students worldwide in creative projects. Click here for full show notes & resources Mr. Tony Sgro is the Founder and CEO of EdVenture Partners. EVP builds industry-education partnerships for economic and societal challenges by connecting students, educators and industry leaders across 900 universities and 76 countries. Tony has more than 40 years of experience in marketing, advertising and promotion. IPA is a non-profit organization dedicated to exploring the role of information activities, such as influence and cognitive security, within the national security sector and helping to bridge the divide between operations and research. Its goal is to increase interdisciplinary collaboration between scholars and practitioners and policymakers with an interest in this domain. For more information, please contact us at communications@information-professionals.org. Or, you can connect directly with The Cognitive Crucible podcast host, John Bicknell on LinkedIn. Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, 1) IPA earns from qualifying purchases, 2) IPA gets commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

In this episode, we have a wide-ranging conversation with Chris MacPherson on cognitive security and how it relates to business and innovation to include comparative examples between corporate marketing and military information operations, as well as algorithmic versus human decision-making. Click here for full show notes & resources Mr. Chris MacPherson has had a diverse career spanning academia, government and the private sector --  holding leadership, technical, and strategic roles focused on developing strategies, teams, capabilities and products to understand and augment decision-making. For example, at the global macro hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, Chris applied data systems to enable transformational change. Prior to Bridgewater, he spent over a decade focusing on technology, defense and national security issues for the US Government, with roles at the National Security Agency, the White House Situation Room, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He currently oversees government programs, marketing, and strategic initiatives at Shift.org, a San Francisco based labor marketplace for veterans. He is also an Adjunct Faculty member at Princeton University's Keller Center for Innovation in Engineering Education, and he runs Shadestream Innovations, an innovation consulting business. IPA is a non-profit organization dedicated to exploring the role of information activities, such as influence and cognitive security, within the national security sector and helping to bridge the divide between operations and research. Its goal is to increase interdisciplinary collaboration between scholars and practitioners and policymakers with an interest in this domain. For more information, please contact us at communications@information-professionals.org. Or, you can connect directly with The Cognitive Crucible podcast host, John Bicknell on LinkedIn. Disclosure: 1) As an Amazon Associate, IPA earns from qualifying purchases, 2) IPA gets commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Dr. Rand Waltzman is one of the founding members of the Information Professionals Association. During this conversation, we discuss how he coined the term, "cognitive security." Dr Waltzman considers the information threat to be like a chronic disease which has no cure; however, it may be managed. Towards the end of the conversation, Dr. Waltzman suggests that those who are interested to learn more about the origins of modern propaganda should check out the video documentary "Century of the Self." Some other excellent resources include: Computational Propaganda: Political Parties, Politicians, and Political Manipulation on Social Media by Woolley and Howard, as well as Propaganda by Bernays. Click here for full show notes & resources Dr. Rand Waltzman is Deputy Chief Technology Officer at RAND Corporation. Previous positions include acting CTO and Associate Director of Research of the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, Program Manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Chief Scientist in the Distributed Systems Lab at Lockheed Martin, and Associate Professor of Computer Science at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. He started his career at the Teknowledge Corporation, the world’s first commercial Artificial Intelligence company. He is also co-founder of the Information Professionals Association. IPA is a non-profit organization dedicated to exploring the role of information activities, such as influence and cognitive security, within the national security sector and helping to bridge the divide between operations and research. Its goal is to increase interdisciplinary collaboration between scholars and practitioners and policymakers with an interest in this domain. For more information, please contact us at communications@information-professionals.org. Or, you can connect directly with The Cognitive Crucible podcast host, John Bicknell on LinkedIn. Disclosure: 1) As an Amazon Associate IPA earns from qualifying purchases, 2) IPA gets commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

In this episode, we discuss the evolution of information operations since the early 1990s, the state of our national strategic efforts to compete in the information environment, and strategic approaches related to cognitive security. Click here for full show notes & resources Mr. Austin Branch is an Information Operations pioneer, practitioner and leader. He holds the distinction of being the Army’s very first Information Operations officer when that career field was just forming, and while in uniform, he served at the tactical, operational, and strategic levels. Since retirement from the Army, Mr. Branch served in several senior executive civilian roles within the Department of Defense which focused on information operations, cyber, and counter-terrorism. Most recently, he co-founded the Information Professionals Association or IPA. IPA is a non-profit organization dedicated to exploring the role of information activities, such as influence and cognitive security, within the national security sector and helping to bridge the divide between operations and research. Its goal is to increase interdisciplinary collaboration between scholars and practitioners and policymakers with an interest in this domain. For more information, please contact us at communications@information-professionals.org. Or, you can connect directly with The Cognitive Crucible podcast host, John Bicknell on LinkedIn. Disclosure: 1) As an Amazon Associate, IPA earns from qualifying purchases, 2) IPA gets commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Welcome to The Cognitive Crucible. I’m your host, John Bicknell. Each week, I will be examining aspects of our generational challenge: Cognitive Security. The Cognitive Crucible bridges the gap between military information operators, researchers, authors, and public policy makers. For the foreseeable future, the global security landscape will be significantly impacted by the information environment. Through the potency and reach of worldwide social media and sister messaging platforms, both nation states and actors can achieve outcomes formerly restricted to traditional military and security methods. Recognizing this reality, the mission of the Information Professionals Association is to provide a highest-level forum for information professional practitioners and scholars to interact, collaborate and develop #wholeofsociety or #wholeofgovernment solutions that enhance the cognitive security of the US and its allies. Please encourage people in your network to subscribe to the Cognitive Crucible, participate, and join our growing membership. Find out more at: information-professionals.org. Or, follow us on Twitter: @InfoProAssn. Or, you can connect directly with The Cognitive Crucible podcast host, John Bicknell on LinkedIn.