About us

Authors

The BIG POTATOES manifesto is researched and authored by:

Dr Norman Lewis

Norman LewisDr Norman Lewis is the Chief Innovation Officer and a Managing Partner of the pioneering European-based Enterprise2.0 innovations group, Open-Knowledge. Until recently he was Chief Strategy Officer of Wireless Grids Corporation, USA. Prior to joining WGC he was the Director of Technology Research for Orange UK, formerly the Home Division of France Telecom where he led a highly successful innovation team. He is recognised as an expert on future consumer behaviours and has written extensively about innovation, young people and social media, privacy and the future of communications. Until recently he was an Executive Board member of the MIT Communications Futures Programme and the Chairman of the International Telecommunications Union’s TELECOM Forum Programme Committee. He writes at Futures-Diagnosis.

Nico Macdonald

Nico MacdonaldNico Macdonald is a writer, researcher and consultant interested in the social context of design, technology and innovation. His clients include the BBC and BT plc. Publications for which he writes include BBC News Online, the RSA Journal and The Register, and he is author of What is Web Design?. He chairs the Media Futures Conference and programmes the Innovation Forum and the Innovation Reading Circle. He is a Fellow of the RSA. See spy.co.uk.

Alan Patrick

Alan PatrickAlan Patrick co-founded Broadsight after a career both consulting to, and working at, senior level for leading global multimedia companies such as the BBC, BT plc (OpenWorld and Ignite), AOL Time Warner, ntl and UPC. He has worked in the US, Europe, South Africa and the Far East. Broadsight specialises in providing strategic and system design consultancy for clients working with cutting edge digital broadband media, much of it real time and video. Prior to setting up Broadsight, Alan held positions as VP Corporate Development for Globix Corporation in New York, Head of Internet Business Development atBT plc, and consulted widely on multimedia to a number of major TV and cable companies in his consulting career at McKinsey and PriceWaterhouseCoopers. He was involved in the design of broadband networks in the early days of their inception and has written several articles on the impact of lean operations on digital supply chains. He writes at Broadstuff.

Martyn Perks

Martyn PerksMartyn Perks is the founder of Thinking Apart. Originally trained as a designer, he has 15 years of experience in understanding business problems. He is an expert in applying strategy, technology and marketing solutions for numerous start-ups, large-scale organisations and many small niche businesses. Martyn is a regular writer and speaker on design, innovation and technology, and this gives his consulting work added perspective. He writes for The Big Issue, spiked, New Media Age and Blueprint, and contributes a regular Digital Thought Leader column to NetImperative.com. He co-authored Winners and Losers in a Troubled Economy: How to Engage Customers Online to Gain Competitive Advantage (cScape Ltd, 2008). He has organised and participated in numerous debates with many of the best speakers in the field of design, innovation and technology including ‘A Brave New World: Are the emerging economies the new technological innovators?’ at the Battle of Ideas festival 2008.

Mitchell Sava

Mitchell SavaMitchell Sava is the Chief Executive of polyWonk, a firm providing software and services for collaboration and innovation in public policy. Previously, Mitchell was the Sr. Advisor to NESTA, a UK innovation agency, and continues to serve as an innovation and entrepreneur policy advisor to agencies across the the UK and Europe. In the US, he spent eight years as a strategist with Deloitte, where he launched the Innovation Well, the first innovation programme at a global consultancy. In 2001, he spun OnRamp, a business accelerator serving start-ups and spin-outs of Fortune 500 firms. He served as a research fellow at the Center for Technology Assessment and Policy. Mitchell holds an MPA in innovation from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, an MSc in Technology Policy and Management, and a BSc in Computer Science. He is a member of the Institute of Directors and a Fellow of the RSA, where he leads its Glory of Failure project. He is also a founding director of OpenGov and Entre, a UK trade body for innovative entrepreneurs. See mitchsava.com.

James Woudhuysen

James WoudhuysenJames Woudhuysen is a physics graduate; Professor of Forecasting and Innovation at De Montfort University, Leicester; member of the board of the Housing Forum. He writes for spiked; broadcasts for You and Yours (BBC Radio 4). Helped install Britain’s first computer-controlled car park, 1968; wrote about chemical weapons for The Economist, 1978; word processor instruction manual, 1983; multi-client study, e-commerce, 1988; proposal for Internet TV, 1993. Co-author, Why is construction so backward? (Wiley, 2004) and Energise! A future for energy innovation (Beautiful Books, 2009). See Woudhuysen.com.

Collaborators

Heath Kane of Kane + Associates developed the BIG POTATOES brand and identity. This site design is based on the Basic Maths theme for WordPress, designed by Khoi Vinh and Allan Cole.

Salim Virani provided advice on online publishing technologies and digital marketing

Steven Toews of S5 Media provides WordPress publishing consultancy