Rethinking food systems to tackle food waste
Food systems have reportedly been largely omitted from the Cop26 agenda, with critics asking: why isn’t food waste a priority? A few years ago, I worked with the leading UK charity organization fighting food waste, FareShare. The project was a study I co-authored, looking at how service innovations can contribute to the alleviation of food poverty. This would […]
Insights from helping to build Digital Jersey
Last month, I facilitated a two-day workshop helping to build Digital Jersey. The importance and priority placed on the digital future of Jersey were evident, in the high levels of participation and intense interactions that continued throughout the workshop. Over 150 people attended across the 2 days, providing a diverse set of views – representing the […]
Going to sleep at 10pm linked to lowered risk of heart disease
From a press release originally posted on the University of Exeter website. Articles about this study have appeared across the world, including: BBC Healthline Huffington Post i News The Independent The Guardian NBC News The Telegraph Radio 4 – The World Tonight – Listen from 41:50 © BBC © NBC News A new study has […]
From research to policy: Advocating for a better future
Originally posted on the University of Exeter’s Research and Innovation blog. Professor Mark Thompson looks at how he started working with policymakers, his work at INDEX, and the importance of being a passionate advocate for your research. Mark Thompson is the director of INDEX and a professor of Digital Economy. But these are only two […]
Six strategic plays for UK government IT initiatives and their implications for policy
Written by Mark Thompson and Will Venters, London School of Economics and Political Science. Originally posted on Computer Weekly magazine. The UK government needs to decide what being digital means – and there are a number of options to consider. Policymakers have to choose, if the benefits of transformation are to be achieved What is […]
Facebook and the Next Stage of the Digital Meta-morphosis
I have never liked being Alan Brown. It feels like such a boring name. Too easily forgotten or confused with so many others with the same identity. Apparently, I was going to be called Alex, but there was a change of mind at the last minute. But I am not sure that would have helped […]
Tough love: a story of stigmatization in crowdfunding communities
Why might an entrepreneur entering a new community be stigmatized? Last month, I had the pleasure of presenting a paper at Virtual Toronto, centred around the above question. In the paper, my co-authors and I adopt the perspective of “valuators”, influential actors in a community. This allowed us to develop a theory of strategic stigmatization. […]
The Inconvenient Truth about Digital Sustainability
One of the most revealing impacts of the pandemic has been the way many people have seized the opportunity to take stock of their way of life. For many of us, the shockwaves created by Covid have highlighted the fragile nature of so much that we take for granted. Consequently, we have used this period […]
Too Big to Fail
I remember the first time that I began to really understand the broad impact of the internet across all of our lives. Several years ago, I rang at the front door of a geeky friend of mine for a meeting we’d arranged. No answer. I kept trying with the same response. Eventually, I called him […]
Watercoolers: can we replace random daily contact?
Ahead of World Mental Health Day, here’s a piece I wrote for Forbes. As we move into hybrid work and the next normal, do we need to schedule our unscheduled encounters? How do we replace the daily contact we used to have with people in our offices, those glass palaces in which we used to spend so […]
