Bill Thompson is a Principal Engineer in BBC Research & Development working on ways the BBC can deliver its public service mission online as joint lead for the New Forms of Value research programme. A well-known technology journalist, Bill appeared regularly on Digital Planet on BBC World Service radio for over twenty years and writes for a range of publications. He is an Adjunct Professor at Southampton University.
Bill has been working in, on and around the Internet since 1984, and was Internet Ambassador for PIPEX, the UK’s first commercial ISP, and Head of New Media at Guardian Newspapers where he built the paper’s first website.
He is a former member of the boards of Writers’ Centre Norwich, Britten Sinfonia, and the Cambridge Film Trust. In 2016 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Arts by Anglia Ruskin University and from 2013-1206 he was a Visiting Professor at the Royal College of Arts. He manages the website Working for an MP (w4mp.org)
He is a Trustee of the Web Science Trust, and a member of the Advisory Boards of the Web Science Insitute and the Oxford Internet Institute.
The longer version
Bill has been working in, on and around the Internet since 1984 thinking, writing and speaking about the ways digital technologies are changing our world. He is well-known as a technology journalist, and combines that with a role as a Principal Engineer in BBC R&D, having formerly managed partnerships for the BBC’s Make It Digital initiative and worked as Head of Partnership Development in the BBC’s Archive Development Group, building relationships with museums, galleries and other institutions around ways to make archive material more accessible. He was a Visiting Professor at the Royal College of Art and is an Adjunct Professor at Southampton University.
Bill appears regularly on Digital Planet on BBC World Service radio and writes for a range of publications. He advises a range of arts and cultural organisations on their digital strategies. He was a member of the boards of Writers’ Centre Norwich and Britten Sinfonia and was for many years a trustee of the Cambridge Film Trust and of the Collections Trust. He built and manages the Working for an MP website.
During the 1990’s Bill 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.