Ernest Wilson III

Ernest
J.
Wilson III

Professor of Communication and Political Science
Former USC Annenberg Dean; Founder of the Center for Third Space Thinking
Center for Third Space Thinking Founder and Director Ernest J. Wilson III has worked at the intersection of communication and public policy for more than 30 years.
Ernest Wilson III
Center for Third Space Thinking Founder and Director Ernest J. Wilson III has worked at the intersection of communication and public policy for more than 30 years.
Expertise: 
Entrepreneurship, Global, Politics, Technology and Innovation
Center Affiliation: 

Ernest
J.
Wilson III

Professor of Communication and Political Science
Former USC Annenberg Dean; Founder of the Center for Third Space Thinking

Tabs

Ernest J. Wilson III is the founder and director of the USC Center for Third Space Thinking, which is devoted to research, teaching and executive education on soft skills in the digital age. Through the Center for Third Space Thinking, Wilson’s most recent research focuses on critical workforce competencies and talent and skills development in the 21st Century.

Wilson’s experience at the intersection of communication and public policy spans the private and public sectors.

He is a faculty fellow at the Center on Public Diplomacy, a member of the board of the Pacific Council on International Policy and the National Academies’ Computer Science and Telecommunications Board, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was on the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (2000–2010), the last year as chairman. He has served as a consultant to international agencies such as the World Bank and the United Nations, worked on the White House National Security Council, was director of the International Programs and Resources on the National Security Council at the White House (1993–94) and the Policy and Planning Unit, Office of the Director, U.S. Information Agency (1994). He has advised President Obama’s transition team on matters of communication technology and public diplomacy, and has led research centers and academic departments at premier institutions of higher education. He is a member of the Carnegie-Knight Commission on the Future of Journalism Education and The National Academies Board on Research Data and Information. He was also deputy director of the Global Information Infrastructure Commission (1994–1995).

Formerly a professor and senior research scholar at the University of Maryland, College Park, Wilson was director of that university’s Center for International Development and Conflict Management (1995–2002). He previously served on the faculties of the University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania.

Awards and honors:

International Studies Association Distinguished Scholar (2009)
Twenty-Five Year Achievement Award, Public Policy and International Affairs Program (2005)
Professor-in-Residence and W.E.B. DuBois Lecture (1998)
Fellow Center for Global Communications (1997-present)
International Affairs Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations (1985-1986)

Articles

Are Poor Countries Losing the Information Revolution? (2000, infoDev).

Books

Governing Global Electronic Networks (2008, MIT Press).

Negotiating the Net: The Politics of Internet Diffusion in Africa (2003, MIT Press).

The Information Revolution and Developing Countries (2003, MIT Press).

Diversity and U.S. Foreign Policy (2004, Routledge Press).

Globalization Information Technology, and Conflict in the Second and Third Worlds, A Critical Review of Literature (1998, Project on World Security, Rockefeller Brothers Foundation).

Global Information Revolution and Africa (1997, CIDCM Working Paper).

The United States and Africa: Toward A New Relationship (1997, the Center for International Development and Conflict Management).

Courses

PUBD 522: Hard Power, Soft Power and Smart Power