Johnny Ryan (1980- ) grew up in Dublin, Ireland, and was educated at University College Dublin and at the University of Cambridge, where he was supervised for his PhD by MI5's official historian.
He consults for organisations to introduce "centrifugal thinking", helping them to adapt to the digital era. He is also a senior researcher at the IIEA, a think tank, where he leads work on the digital future.
He has written on digital issues in BusinessWeek, Ars Technica, NATO Review, and OpenDemocracy.
His first book was the most cited source in the European Commission's official impact assessment that decided against pursuing an EU-wide system of censorship.