Blog

The Digital Revolution is Powered By Software – For Good and Bad

I don’t really hold with conspiracy theories. Much more often than not you’ll find that underneath the surface is a large slice of misinformation, serendipity, and incompetence. So I was not surprised to read this article from Wired on the situation at Huawei: https://www.wired.com/story/huawei-threat-isnt-backdoors-its-bugs/ From my experience of many years working in software development and […]

AI and the Shifting Boundaries between Computing and the Humanities

Some time ago I reported on a new $1B investment at MIT to create the new Schwartzman Centre for Computing using a gift of $350M from Blackstone founder Stephen Schwartzman. MIT recently held a celebration and began outlining the main focus for this center (not without some controversy). The main aim of this massive investment […]

How to set up and run your own digital company for less than £50 a year!

I was chatting in the local pub with some friends the other night, and the conversation turned to the question of why we now have so many energetic young entrepreneurs setting up their own companies. Various views on this topic were exchanged (and beers consumed!). When I proudly boasted “ well, one of the obvious […]

Digital Transformation and the Digital Generation

As the parent of teenage boys, I am acutely aware that the millennial generation are growing up very differently to previous generations. Digital technology is not simply another tool they use to access information, it is the primary lens through which they see the world. More and more they see themselves connected and interconnected by […]

This is Not Me….and I Didn’t Say That!

These days I frequently think about the old adage that “life is a journey from certainty to doubt”. It has hit me particularly hard with a combination of different news items this week. We all know that you can’t believe all you read on line.  It is also clear that knowing who you are dealing […]

The Topol Report: An Essential View into the Human Side of Digital Transformation

Ask any organization about the most important asset for their business success, and the most popular answer by a long way will be “our people”. While so many factors are essential ingredients within the overall collection of activities that build and sustain a business, all companies seek to develop motivated individuals in well-organized teams with […]

Personal Data: The end of the beginning

I am coming to this story rather late (almost 7 years late, to be precise). But it is fascinating to read Stephen Wolfram’s blog post on “The Personal Analytics of My Life” as a description of both “the quantified self” and as “autoethnography”. I highly recommend you take a look. https://blog.stephenwolfram.com/2012/03/the-personal-analytics-of-my-life/ Knowing something about how […]

I am a Startup

In a recent update to the executive management team in my organization, I was asked to brief them on my group’s activities and plans. We are a new team explicitly established to drive innovative offerings while working within a longstanding organization with a turnover of over £300M and more than 2000 employees (in this case, […]