The Cognitive Crucible
The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association. During this episode, Genia Simkin discusses his firm’s Samizdat technology which makes it possible to bypass DNS blockades set up by autocratic regimes. Recording Date: 5 Aug 2024 Research Question: Genia Simkin suggests as interested student examine OSINT practices. For example, would it be possible...
info_outline #201 John Bicknell on Cognitive Indicators and Global CompetitionThe Cognitive Crucible
The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association. During this episode, "reverse-interviews" John Bicknell, the CEO|Founder of and traditional Cognitive Crucible podcast host. John discusses More Cowbell Unlimited's cognitive indicators and related technology that the US Army is prototyping in order to create effects, maintain Information...
info_outline #200 Remi Whiteside on Media, Information, and Data Literacy Fundamentals against Malign Information in the Open Information EnvironmentThe Cognitive Crucible
The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association. During this episode, Remi Whiteside discusses his Ph.D. research and dissertation which is entitled: Peering into US Army Media, Information, and Data Literacy Fundamentals against Malign Information in the Open Information Environment: A Qualitative Case Study. According to Remi Whiteside, the US Army...
info_outline #199 Ellen McCarthy on Trust in Media and InformationThe Cognitive Crucible
The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association. During this episode, Ellen McCarthy discusses how to conceptualize and develop standards and measurements on information quality, how to align AI with accurate and reliable information, and how challenges and potential of leveraging AI can support information quality. Also, be sure to check out and...
info_outline #198 Melissa Graves Frank Emerson and Pat Hendrix on OSINTThe Cognitive Crucible
The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association. During this episode, Melissa Graves, Frank Emerson, and Pat Hendrix discuss the history of Open Source Intelligence (OSINT), how publicly available information (PAI) is being analyzed by students in the Department of Intelligence and Security Studies at The Citadel, and The Citadel’s which will be...
info_outline #197 Maksym Tereshchenko on How the Russia-Ukraine War Sparked a New Era in Risk Management and Cognitive SecurityThe Cognitive Crucible
The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association. During this episode, Maksym Tereshchenko of discusses his firm’s AI platform and how it is being used within the informational dimension of the Russia-Ukraine War. Recording Date: 19 July 2024 Research Question: Maksym Tereshchenko suggests as interested student examine: How can we accurately...
info_outline #196 Dave Troy on Threats to DemocracyThe Cognitive Crucible
The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association. During this episode, Dave Troy discusses threats to democracy. The related problems of disinformation, misinformation, and radicalization have been popularly misunderstood as technology or fact-checking problems, but this ignores the mechanism of action, which is the reconfiguration of social capital....
info_outline #195 Michael Zequeira on the Effects of Social Media on Military RecruitingThe Cognitive Crucible
The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association. During this episode, US Army Major Michael Zequeira discusses his Army Command and General Staff research entitled: the Effects of Social Media on Military Recruiting. More and more Americans receive information from social media. This work looks at the effects of social media’s rise on U.S. Army...
info_outline #194 Mike Hall on the Moral Imperative of Our TimeThe Cognitive Crucible
The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association. During this episode, Dr. Wayne “Mike” Hall discusses his latest capstone book: the Moral Imperative of Our Time-Purposeful Intellectual Growth. According to Mike, America’s intellect is sharply declining; he implores national security leaders to address this problem immediately by: 1) improving...
info_outline #193 Hatteras Hoops on Human Domain SecurityThe Cognitive Crucible
The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association. During this episode, Hatteras Hoops discusses business and national security considerations related to Human Domain Security. Current concepts around insider threat, insider risk, insider trust, insider fraud, critical people protection, personnel security and counterintelligence are broadly considered...
info_outlineThe Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association.
During this episode, Ben Kessler discusses Meltwater’s methodology and models for Owned, Earned, Organic (OEO) measurement of activities within the information environment.
Research Question: Ben Kessler suggests an interested student ask the question: Where is the diaspora of opinion and content going as we mature as a digital society from centralized “town squares” to “closed door” networks?
Resources:
- Cognitive Crucible Podcast Episodes Mentioned
- Meltwater
- Carpe Datum
- Cambridge Disinformation Summit
- UK RESIST 2 Framework
- World Economic Forum
Link to full show notes and resources
Guest Bio:
Ben Kessler is the Head of Enterprise Strategy & Public Sector at Meltwater. He brings 11+ years of experience in the application and adoption of data and insights from the Information Environment. Ben has supported Civilian, DoD, IC, and Joint Forces / Coalitions in leveraging Meltwater's world-leading media intelligence suite to enable contextualized mission decisions - from risk assessments to strategic communications, public affairs, mis/dis/malinformation, narrative analysis, and real-time critical workflows. Over the past decade, Ben has seen first-hand the evolution of the Media Intelligence space to a critical decision making capability with direct impact to senior leadership.
Meltwater’s goal is to harness PAI to deliver a unique capability measuring the impact of narratives, missions, audience cohorts, campaigns, and/or outbound efforts. We provide access to the world’s largest corpus of PAI data across the global information environment, tracking over 300,000+ news sources (including online, print, broadcast, and podcasts), and over 300 million social media data points including Reddit, Meta (Facebook + Instagram), Twitter/X, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitch, Forums, Deep Web, Message Boards, Comments, Review Sites, and blogs.
Meltwater’s datalake spans Western and non-Western platforms, in over 100+ languages including character-based languages, and local in-market content. We process approx. 1.5B documents / day, each enriched with over 170+ AI and LLM powered metadata points for sophisticated analysis, detection algorithms, alerting workflows, network visualizations, and more. Meltwater has a commercial in-market presence in over 120+ countries that drives local requirements to support a global customer base.
About: 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 [email protected].
Or, 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.