Post Cambridge

So began a "transitional" phase - one which I'd originally hoped would be only a year, but has stretched to six, before returning to academia! I'm currently a partner in Mediation Technology, a consultancy in its seventh year specialising in the development and application of digital media, and am also a director on the board of mTank, a cooperative partnership of several companies (formed to develop cutting edge mobile telecoms applications) of which Mediation Technology is one of the partner companies. I run the research side of Mediation Technology: effectively on a good day, this may mean I can be found in the West Room of Cambridge University Library muttering darkly over some obscure technical journal, or scratching for some facts and figures to support a client's nebulous ideas. Occasionally, I even get time for my own research interests (I'm working on an MSc).

But far more often it's a case of being in front of a computer screen at two a.m. either carrying out more research, or searching for inspiration for an image for presentations, making a silk purse out of yet another sow's ear on the scanner... I also create and manage websites for both my own company and its clients.
   

However, some of it is fun... even though sometimes I can be heard darkly muttering about 'returning to academia' on a weekly basic, I suspect no-one believes me.

I'm proud of the fact that Mediation Technology 's committed to a percentage of the company's time being given voluntarily in community projects. This has involved participating in the Cambridge Online City, researching renewable resources for technology projects in the developing world, and I'm also committed to sharing my computing skills with women who want to escape domestic slavery ...This last item is a personal agenda rather than one held by the business, as I see Photoshop as being an essential basic computer skill to teach a mother who'd like to return to the job market but whose creative and artistic skills far outweigh her present educational qualifications. I've set up Internet skill sharing sessions for local women ... details of which are on my company's website, Mediation Technology

I also create websites, or speak about the social advantages of being online or the methodology for constructing caring e-communities, without charge for any noncommercial organisation whose aims and ideals fit with mine.... as I sat in snow in a traffic jam on the motorway into Huddersfield on my way to a conference for International Women's Day one year, with only an inadequate heater between myself and frostbite, I did wonder if insanity's actually my main driving force.... However, check out the IWD version of The Light at the End of the Tunnel Kit before you make too hasty a judgment on that!
 

The rest of my cv's in the winding pathways of Mediation Technology's website!

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