Festival Day

Bill Thompson has been working in, on and around the Internet since 1984, thinking, writing and speaking about the ways digital technologies are changing our world and how the network can be a force for good. During the 1990's he was Internet Ambassador for PIPEX, the UK's first commercial ISP where he developed websites for Comic Relief, the Edinburgh Fringe and Anne Campbell MP, before moving to Guardian Newspapers as head of new media. He established the paper's first website in 1994 and was responsible for many online projects including Eurosoccer.com in 1996.

He leads Future Value Research in BBC Research & Development. He is also well-known as a technology journalist and advisor to arts and cultural organisations on matters related to digital technologies. From January 2001 to April 2023 he was the regular studio expert on the BBC World Service technology programme Digital Planet (aka Go Digital and Click) and still appears on air as an independent commentator. He is an Adjunct Professor at Southampton University and member of the board of the Web Science Trust. He is also the editor and CTO of the website w4mp.org, offering advice and support to staff working for MPs.

Lisa Kinch is a PhD Student at Lancaster University, where she is researching the history of post-war telephone exchange buildings and the relationships between ‘official’ architecture, technology and the state. Her research is funded by the NWCDTP/AHRC and carried out in collaboration with BT Archives and Historic England. Lisa previously studied at the Manchester School of Architecture, where she now tutors part-time. She is an ARB-registered architect and urban designer with experience in masterplanning, commercial and residential design. She has worked on projects ranging from offices, apartments and standard house types to film studios and tree houses.

Matthew Venn is a science & technology communicator and electronic engineer. He has been involved with open source silicon for the last 3 years and has sent 20 chips for manufacture. He has helped over 600 people learn the design tools, with 300 people taking part in manufacturable designs. https://zerotoasiccourse.com/

Rachel Coldicutt is an expert on the social impact of new and emerging technologies, and executive director of research consultancy Careful Industries and its sister social enterprise Promising Trouble.

She was previously founding CEO of responsible technology think tank Doteveryone where she led influential and ground-breaking research into how technology is changing society and developed practical tools for responsible innovation. Prior to that, she spent almost 20 years working at the cutting edge of new technology for companies including the BBC, Microsoft, BT, and Channel 4, and was a pioneer in the digital art world. Rachel is an advisor, board member and trustee for a number of companies and charities and a member of the Ofcom Content Board. In 2019, Rachel was awarded an OBE in the New Year’s Honours for services for the digital society.

She is currently writing a book about careful innovation.

Ed Rogers has spent fifteen years developing refreshable Braille displays. His not-for-profit company, Bristol Braille Technology, successfully bought the world's first affordable multiline Braille display to market in 2019 with the Canute 360. Since 2022 they have been exploring what it means for blind computer scientists to have access to spacial displays just like their sighted colleague.

Sarah Angliss is a composer, electronic artist and robotic instrument maker whose music explores the sonorities of voices and ancient instruments, revealing and augmenting them with her distinctive electronic techniques. Composing for film, theatre and the live concert stage, Sarah draws on her lifelong interest in European folklore, cybernetics and esoteric sound culture. She’s been published by The Smithsonian Scholarly Press, Science Museum, The Wire, The Guardian and various peer-reviewed journals, and has created documentaries on sound and music for BBC Radio. A board member of the Daphne Oram Trust, Sarah was invited in 2016 to write a short biography of Oram to accompany the reprint of Oram’s treatise on sound. In 2021 she received an Ivor Novello Award (the Visionary Award) for her body of work.

Martin Campbell-Kelly is emeritus professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Warwick, where he specialises in the history of computing. His books include "Computer: A History of the Information Machine," 3rd edition (co-authored with William Aspray, Nathan Ensmenger, and Jeff Yost), "From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog: A History of the Software Industry," and "ICL: A Business and Technical History." He is editor of the Collected Works of Charles Babbage. Professor Campbell-Kelly is a Fellow of the British Computer Society and a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales. He is a member of the ACM History Committee, a committee member of the BCS Computer Conservation Society, and a trustee of the National Museum of Computing. He is a member of the editorial boards of the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, the International Journal for the History of Engineering and Technology, and the Springer Series in the History of Computing.

Shortwave Collective is an international group of 10 people interested in feminist practices and the radio spectrum. Formed in 2020, we work in a DIY way and bring an inclusive approach to our radio learning and creating, aiming to share our knowledge with others through creative practice. Our current members live in northern, central, and southern Europe, the west coast of the USA, and the Middle East. Thus, our practice consists of a great deal of online exchange of knowledge and research as well as hands on performances, workshops, and collective compositions.

Shortwave Collective members are Alyssa Moxley (France), Georgia Muenster (England), Sally A. Applin (USA), Kate Donovan (Germany), Maria Papadomanolaki (Greece), Brigitte Hart (England), Lisa Hall (England), Hannah Kemp-Welch (England), Karen Werner (Norway) and Meira Asher (Israel).

Chris Burton is an IBM Quantum ambassador and certified Qiskit Developer. He is currently completing his thesis on Quantum Machine Learning (QML) and is always open to chatting quantum computing enthusiasts.

Théo Reignier is a Cloud Engineer at IBM. His role is to deploy MVPs to quickly demonstrate IBM technologies to the client, as a pre-sale offering. He mainly focuses on the programming and data science aspects of the projects.

Théo is also an IBM Quantum Ambassador and certified Qiskit Developer. This role consists of being the first point of contact for IBM Quantum engagements, responsible for introducing Quantum as a concept to clients in a consumable way.

Dr Sally Rodgers is a lecturer in both music, and music business practice. She’s an Internationally renowned DJ and producer, and one half of electronic music originators A Man Called Adam. Her career spans over 3 decades of music making and she writes music, poetry and prose as well as manages the AMCA catalogue and releasing label, Other Records. She studied poetry under Don Paterson, Kathleen Jaimie and Robert Crawford at the University of St Andrews and her doctoral research considered the historical impact of recording technologies on lyric form.

Dr Laura James is an engineering leader who builds practical and innovative internet tech systems and organisations in diverse contexts. She is Engineering Director at Overstory, and a co-founding trustee at CoFarm.co and board chair at Now Play This.

Recent roles include CTO at the OPEN (supporting progressive campaigns around the world), Head of Delivery at lowRISC (open source silicon), and Technology Principal at Doteveryone (the responsible technology think tank). Previously Laura was CEO of Open Knowledge, and co-founded Cambridge Makespace. She has worked in technical leadership roles at humanitarian manufacturing NGO Field Ready, conversational AI startup True Knowledge/Evi (which became Alexa), and pioneering connected home startup AlertMe. Laura holds MEng and PhD degrees from the University of Cambridge, and is a Chartered Engineer.