This is the inaugural lecture given by Professor Gillian Youngs, Brighton university. No flashing gadgetry, just a thoughtful analysis of how digitalisation has shifted us towards horizontal modes of communication and away from top down vertical ones. What this means for the ways organisations have traditionally worked – Gillian talks about universities but we are, in the UK, currently confronted by some critical issues in our health service – is a change of focus that allows for more collaborative cross-border working. For an industrial and commercial ethos that favours boundaried, competitive, intellectual silos, this is likely to be difficult. For those that need to share and open up to their consumer communities, it may be their salvation.

And as for us, the individual users of networked worlds? We need to think beyond the screen about our data, who has it, what we want them to have, and how to manage it. Our world is massively digital and connected, and it’s just the beginning of the Internet of Everything.

http://www.brighton.ac.uk/eventsonline/wired_reality.php?PageId=802