In my early career, I worked for multinationals in the technology sector. I gradually moved away from the world of finance to that of strategy and organisational change.

In 2000 I set up my boutique practice StrategyWorks to work alongside people with an interest in technology and change. My clients have typically been CEOs, CIOs, Governments, startups and NGOs.

My interest in social media dates back to around 2002, eventually crystallising into a PhD in Internet Computing from the University of Hull. These days I have my feet planted somewhere between pragmatism and the social sciences. I'm investigating the potential of the Blockchain for education and immersed in EdTech. I develop strategies for startups, work on national education policies on lifelong learning and digital education and investigate social media empowerment. I'm the Director of the 3CL Foundation.

The promise of the social web is that it provides us with an unprecedented opportunity to renegotiate some of the hegemonic relationships we take for granted in our daily lives. Yet the Internet is under threat from a toxic cocktail of social surveillance, fake news and the echo-chambers fueled by the algorithm of our social media of choice. And now we are starting to grapple with the blockchain in the hope that it can both disintermediate and empower. And wondering if we can put our trust in the trustless.

Alvin Toffler nailed it when he wrote: "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn."

We are now all co-learners.