Ernest J. Wilson III
Member
Ernest J. Wilson III is the longest serving member of the current CPB Board, first appointed by President Bill Clinton in September 2000 and re-appointed by President George W. Bush in November 2004. He chairs the Board's 'New Media' Committee, and previously helped launch and chair its 'Public Awareness' Committee.
Dr. Wilson holds the Walter H. Annenberg Chair in Communication, and serves as Dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. He was educated at Harvard College and the University of California, Berkeley.
Wilson has extensive experience in communications and communications policy. He has served in senior positions in the White House, the U.S. Information Agency, the private sector and the academy. On the National Security Council his portfolio included reforms of VOA, Radio Free Europe and other broadcast services. In 1994 he helped create and was Deputy Director of the Global Information Infrastructure Commission, a private-public partnership led by senior corporate executives from around the world. He also served as Director of Policy and Planning at the USIA. He has been a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Pacific Council on International Policy where he is conducting a study of "Google's Foreign Policy."
A widely published author, his current book project is "Sustainable Innovation in the Digital Age," which includes patterns of innovation in public service media. Wilson is the author most recently of The Information Revolution and Developing Countries (MIT), and co-editor of Negotiating the Net in Africa: the Politics of Internet Diffusion in Africa (Lynne Rienner); Governing Global Electronic Networks; and National Information Infrastructure Initiatives (both MIT). He is Founding Editor-in-Chief of the journal Information Technologies and International Development, and co-edits the MIT Press series "Information Revolution and World Power." His essay "Hard Power, Soft Power, Smart Power" appears in The Annals (2008).
Dr. Wilson has been a frequent consultant on IT to the World Bank, the UN, USAID, private firms, and has advised governments in Nigeria, the Peoples Republic of China, and South Africa on communications matters. A Fellow of the Center for Global Communications (Japan), he has lectured in France, India, Germany, Malaysia, and the UK. He is a member of the Carnegie-Knight Commission on Journalism. He has appeared on or written for the New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Market Place, ABC, CNN, CNN International, Radio Canada, TPMCafe, and other media.
Professor Wilson previously taught at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Michigan, and University of Maryland, where he was director of the Center for International Development and Conflict Management. He is married to Francille Rusan Wilson, Ph.D, and the father of two sons.
Statements
Testimony before Congress
November 18, 2004