Ryan Lanham

Ryan Lanham = P2P advocate, futurist and theorist with interests in governance (panarchy and leaderless organizations), economics, medicine and learning environments.

Bio

"Born in 1963 in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. Educated at Johns Hopkins (B.A. 1985). Held various systems and programming positions (Harvard University, private contractor, etc.) until becoming Technical Director of Roger Schank's Institute for the Learning Sciences at Northwestern University, an AI/Learning Sciences lab. Worked for 2 years at IBM as a product designer and project leader. Major areas include smart home automation and power trading--both in the Utilities and Energy Services Unit. Later, became Director of Special and Strategic Projects at the Chicago Stock Exchange leading a project to automate the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Launched BlueSuit, Inc. and raised over $20 million in venture capital. The business eventually failed and the name was purchased by the current successful consulting firm. Returned to graduate school at Virginia Tech completing coursework and exams for both Public Administration and Planning, Globalization and Governance PhDs. Did not complete dissertation but worked extensively on research related to leaderless networks, organizational theory and p2p and related topics."

P2P Interests

• P2P theory particularly as it relates to forms of governance and governance-related interactions
• P2P learning and education environments
• P2P and nonprofits
• Leaderless organizations
• Constitutions and core principles of p2p
• Alternative currencies
• Diabetes and p2p medicine

Other Interests

• Community foundations, Community-based organizations, community development approaches
• New Urbanism
• OTEC Energy Models and Oceanography in general
• Keynesian economics particularly in areas related to monetary theory
• Contempory poetry and fiction
• History and future of higher education
• Leadership development (particularly in an emerging era of p2p)
• Transhumanism
• AI
• Scattering writings across cyberspace

Significant Influences and Mentoring Personalities

• Professor J. G. A. Pocock, Johns Hopkins
• Professor Stuart "Bill" Leslie, Johns Hopkins
• President (Emeritus) Milton Eisenhower, Johns Hopkins

• Professor Roger Schank, Northwestern University

• Professor Gary Wamsley, Virginia Tech
• Professor John Rohr, Virginia Tech
• Senior University Fellow Minnis Ridenour, Virginia Tech

More Information

Currently the Director of the Civil Service College, Cayman Islands Government, George Town, Cayman Islands.

Active on Delicious, Facebook and a range of other social network sites.

Married to Katherine Fox Lanham (1991)with two children, Fisher (b. 1997) and Elias (b. 2001).

Notable Beliefs and Arguments

P2P is its own economic theory.

Institutions are inconsistent in the long run with rapidly expanding p2p models. In the interim, they will melt.

The drying up of predictable long-term cash flows is destroying conventional monetary capitalism. P2P frameworks are the most likely successors.

Hoping to complete a Ph.D. when p2p degrees become feasible.