About
WandrenPD is written by Ali Fisher
Strategic Communication ¦ Data Science ¦ Counter-Terrorism ¦ Child Protection
Ali Fisher is an advisor, strategist and author who delivers strategic insight into complex information ecosystems, often containing extreme or illegal content.
Director of Human Cognition and previously Principal Data Scientist at VORTEX, University of Vienna.
In these roles Ali uses innovative approaches, network analysis, and big data to help a range of organisations track and counter the behavior of extremists online. As part of this work Ali created BlackLight, the cloud-based system that provides strategic insight into the spread of extremist digital content.
During his career Ali has worked in governmental and commercial sectors focused on achieving and measuring influence. The analysis of factors which help organisations build or disrupt networks of influence and impact the flow of information through a community, has been used across a diverse range of fields including Strategic Communication, Counter Terrorism and Child Protection.
Ali previously directed Mappa Mundi Consulting and the cultural relations think-tank, Counterpoint. He worked as Associate Director of Digital Media Research at Intermedia, and has been a lecturer in International Relations at Exeter University. Ali received his Ph.D. at the University of Birmingham.
His books include Collaborative Public Diplomacy (2012), The Connective Mindshift (2013), and Trails of Engagement(2010),
Fisher’s 2015-2017 CPD Research Fellowship project was titled, Netwar in Cyberia: Decoding the Media Mujahedeen and the Jihadist Swarmcast
As Director of MappaMundi Consulting, Ali Fisher is an independent public diplomacy strategist and researcher. He specialises in providing insight to enhance organizational strategy and evaluation through network analysis. He regularly advises governments, charities, companies, and NGO on best practice for online engagement, collaboration and network building.
Ali edited Trials of Engagement; The Future of US Public Diplomacy (Brill, Fall 2010) with Professor Scott Lucas and recently wrote a chapter on the use of social media following the Iranian election in Yahya R. Kamalipour, Media, Power, and Politics in the Digital Age;The 2009 Presidential Election Uprising in Iran (Rowman & Littlefield, November, 2010)
He is honorary research fellow in the School of Clinical and Experimental Medicine at the University of Birmingham where he also completed his PhD in the Department of American Studies.