Set off on a scientific track, culminating in a less than satisfactory PhD in organic sulphur chemistry.

11 years in educational publishing, producing books which helped school students get to where they wanted to go - and made a small start-up become the biggest and best educational publisher in Scottland. Lots of practical IT involvement along the way.

Time to change when I was 40: 6 months travelling in India and Indonesia. Then back to educational publishing for a few years. Eventually commuting and fatigue made me want out.

So I started an MSc that was a taster of different IT areas in 2011. Along the way, I discovered that social informatics - how computing affects society - ticked my boxes. It links pure geekiness to my interests in society - what's not to like? Having completed the MSc, I'm an associate researcher at Edinburgh Napier's Centre for Social Informatics, focussing on hyperlocal democracy.

The future - as ever - is unwritten: watch this space!