What motivates me
What excites me about technology is seeing people do something worthwhile with it. I enjoy imagining what could be possible, putting ideas into practice and helping others feel able to use them. A connection, website or new tool becomes valuable through what people do with it.
I have taken enormous pleasure in photographing my own family and experiences. I bring that same feeling to recording village life and performances: creating something people can enjoy today and return to years later. Its meaning can deepen as children grow, places change and familiar moments become precious memories.
My community work is voluntary, bringing those interests together through projects I choose to give my time and expertise to. I am particularly drawn to helping communities that do not have the technical skills available to make these things happen themselves. That is where I feel I can make the greatest difference. I want to make useful information easy to reach, help people participate and create a record that grows more valuable with time. Then I can share the practical lessons and possibilities that may inspire others.
A history of innovation
Over the years, my voluntary projects have developed alongside one another, with my focus shifting as new needs and possibilities emerge. They combine technical exploration with the needs and interests of real communities.
Opening up school and village life through the web
From the Spaldwick School website in 2003 to the village website in 2008, I explored ways for people to see, share and take part in community life online.
Read more about the websites and early experiments
Following my development of a new website for Spaldwick School in 2003, I launched Spaldwick’s first village website (Spaldwick.com) in September 2008. Both grew alongside my telecommunications work, with ideas, photographs and technical experience passing between them.
The school’s Egg Cam let children and families follow chicks hatching outside school hours. Early village experiments included a webcam and online voting for the scarecrow competition. These were practical ways to make a website a place people could use and enjoy.
Read the story of the school and village websites. My Technology and Broadband page and publications list explain the wider technical background.
Bringing better broadband—and helping people use it
My broadband work has combined campaigning for better connections with personal help, clear explanations and support for people adopting them.
Read more about connectivity, partnership and adoption
Spaldwick’s progress included superfast broadband in 2014 and full fibre in July 2021. Jason Patel and I helped lead the community fibre partnership with Openreach. The Connecting Cambridgeshire case study describes that shared effort.
Installation was only part of the work. Conversations, demonstrations and practical help supported people as they took up broadband and found uses for it. This included work with older residents and the Welcome Club, described in the account of my 2014 Points of Light award.
My Increase Broadband Speed website extended that help beyond the village. The continuing lesson is that infrastructure needs worthwhile uses and people confident enough to embrace them.
Creating a photographic record of village life
Photographing people, events and changing places has built a record that serves the community now and helps preserve its story for the future.
Read more about photographs, events and local history
Village celebrations and everyday scenes can become valuable historical material. Returning to a place over time adds another dimension: my record of Manor Farm’s restoration brings photographs and video together to document change.
I care about the quality of the originals and how people can find and understand them. Names, dates, captions and connections to related accounts help turn photographs into a useful community resource.
My personal enjoyment of documenting family life is part of the motivation. Something familiar today may become irreplaceable to someone looking back years later.
Supporting Spotlight through photography and the web
My voluntary work for Spotlight Productions brings together photography and website development. Alongside creating a photographic record of productions for performers and families, I built a replacement for its ageing website.
Read more about the Spotlight website and photographic collection
Spotlight’s previous website had been compromised, was outdated and no longer worked properly. I created a new website, applying my technical skills to a practical need alongside my continuing photography.
The same photograph can mean different things to a performer, a parent and the organisation. Parents can look back at their children when they were younger; performers can revisit a production and the people with whom they shared it.
Taking the photographs is one part of creating that record. Organising and sharing them allows the collection to become useful to other people. My account of the Spotlight photographs describes an earlier milestone in that journey.
The current project: bringing Spaldwick’s digital life together
My ambition is to help build one of the strongest village websites of its kind: useful in everyday life, rich in local history and sustainable for the people who contribute to it. Spaldwick brings together the lessons of these earlier projects and provides a place to keep testing new possibilities.
A useful resource for the living community
I want the website, village news, digital noticeboard and other community channels to work together. Clear summaries, useful links and information feeds can help people find what matters without searching several places or repeatedly entering the same information.
A connected record of the village
The history work connects people, places and events with photographs, documents and the evidence behind the account. Recording today’s village life belongs alongside researching its older history. Readers should be able to get an overview quickly and explore the detail when they want it.
Richer photographs, easier access
I want to bring selected older RAW photographs into True HDR and develop the village’s photographic galleries. That sits alongside clear language, mobile-friendly pages and straightforward navigation, so richer material remains easy to explore. My photography work develops the methods behind that ambition.
Participation that can be sustained
I am exploring how AI and simpler publishing processes can help people contribute their knowledge without needing specialist IT skills. For a project sustained by volunteers, the time and confidence needed to contribute matter. The aim includes clear checking, manageable upkeep and less dependence on one person. As with broadband, people need both a reason to participate and support to get started.
As the work develops, I will share useful guides, examples and lessons from what I actually try. I hope they will help others see what their own communities could achieve and feel able to make a start.
Practical guides and community stories
Building Community Websites: Digital Noticeboards — the first guide in my Building Community Websites series explores how bringing information together can improve access and reinvigorate community websites.
Photographing for Posterity — why photographs of everyday life can become more valuable over time, and why preserving them matters.
One Million Views of Spotlight Photographs — how my voluntary photography and website work preserve memories and support future productions.
Recording the Transformation of Manor Farm in Spaldwick — a photographic record from 2006 to 2020 showing the value of documenting change as it happens.