When I started this blog in 2011, it was called Computing: The Science of Nearly Everything. That title reflected my disciplinary roots in computer science, but also a wider sense that computing was becoming central to almost every part of the world around us.
A few years later, as more of my work moved into education, digital transformation, data and public policy, the blog became Digital, Data & Policy. That title has served me well. It captured a significant phase of my academic, professional and civic work, and the growing importance of digital technologies and data in public services, education, infrastructure, governance and wider society. But over time, the questions I find myself returning to have become broader still.
Having started earlier this year as Professor of Digital Society and Policy at the University of Bristol, alongside my continuing role as Chief Scientific Adviser to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, it feels like the right moment to update the title of this blog again: to Digital Society & Policy.
This is not a move away from computing, data or digital policy; if anything, it reflects a deeper engagement with them. Digital technologies are no longer a discrete sectoral concern, nor simply a set of technical tools. They shape public institutions, education, culture, media, creative industries, economic growth, infrastructure, trust and social cohesion. Understanding their impact requires not only technical insight, but also a systems view: how technologies interact with people, organisations, incentives, evidence, regulation and public value.
That has increasingly been where my work sits: connecting academic evidence with public decision-making, thinking about responsible innovation and adoption, supporting better use of data, AI and digital technologies in government and civic institutions, and exploring and understanding what a good digital society should look like in practice.
The new title is therefore both a continuation and a broadening. The blog will still cover computing, data, digital policy, education, skills, AI, science advice and public institutions. But it will do so through a wider lens: digital society, systems change, evidence-informed policy, and the social, cultural and economic questions that follow from living in an increasingly digital world. For example: How do we ensure that digital technologies serve people, places and public value? How do we build institutions capable of governing and using them well? How do we connect research, policy and practice in ways that are rigorous, timely and useful?
These were, in many ways, the questions behind the blog when it began. They remain the questions I expect it to keep exploring — now under a title that better reflects the world they belong to.
Digital Society & Policy 