Last December, we gave you a tantalising glimpse of this year’s Spring Event, to be held at the Museum in Docklands, West India Quay, London on Friday 24 April . Here, Mike Ryan, the Institution’s Director General, introduces the speakers and their presentations in more detail.
We’re privileged this year to have a group of speakers with wide and disparate experience who are recognised as leaders in their respective fields. Below, I introduce each of them and their topic for the morning.
Peter Green FIAP
The Newspaper Business – Where to now?
Peter is a senior Fellow of the Institution and currently Technical Director of the Telegraph Newspaper Group. He has 25 years’ experience in the publishing industry; past assignments included positions as Operations Director of The International Herald Tribune and The European, and IT Manager for the Press Association. Innovations which Peter pioneered during his time at the Telegraph have since been copied by newspapers all over the world.
A recognized forward thinker within the industry, Peter is widely sought as a speaker and we shall be privileged to be able to hear him again at the Institution’s 2009 Spring Seminar. The Telegraph was one of the first major titles to make the move to Docklands, though since then both the technology and the business environment have been transformed by the rise of electronic publishing. Peter will review what has already happened, and how he sees the industry developing in the future. Peter’s remit as Operations Director spans the technical and the business aspects of publishing. Both the programmers and the business analysts amongst our members should find this a fascinating presentation.
Dominic Palmer-Brown
UEL – Designing Britain’s future in IT
Dominic is Associate Dean of Computing and Technology and Professor of Neural Computing at the University of East London. He studied Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Leeds. His postgraduate work took him to Plymouth, where he completed an MSc in Intelligent Systems and to Nottingham, for his PhD in Neural Networks. He has worked, in software and electronic engineering, at GEC Marconi, British Aerospace, Nottingham Trent University, Leeds Metropolitan University and the publishers Elsevier Science London, prior to his present post. His research work includes virtual learning environments, intelligent systems and, especially, neural networks, in which area he has published more than thirty papers in the last decade.
The School of Computing, Information Technology and Engineering at the University of East London was relocated to its award-winning Docklands campus in 2007 (see photo). Dominic will be addressing the effect this has had on teaching, student recruitment and interaction with industry. He will also discuss the university’s approach to student placements and employer engagement and describe the campus and its new facilities. He’ll end with a review of the research and knowledge exchange profile, particularly in the computing area.
Jim Goulding FIAP
TV news – from manual to automatic.
Jim first worked in broadcast television as a producer/director on News at Ten, but he moved from ITN to set up his own production company specializing in ‘long form’ documentaries, While still at ITN he was asked to go to New York to see how news was done in the US, and then apply this knowledge to News at 5.45 in the UK. This opened the door to work for all the other major TV companies, including the BBC, Thames TV and Channel 4, on a wide range of programming, from current affairs through to documentaries and entertainment. Jim has shot pop videos in Los Angeles, corporate and training films throughout Europe, and was privileged to have been in at the very beginning of Channel 4 TV. For the last 10 years he and his partner have run their own a totally independent film company, concentrating on broadcast documentary films. Their work has been shown in 28 countries and at film festivals world wide. In addition to editing the documentaries, Jim now has the expertise to take responsibility for all aspects of the production costs – scheduling, hiring actors, film crews, to ensure the production stays within budget..
This morning’s talk will survey the last thirty years in TV newsrooms – from colour reversal film that had to be returned to base and developed in the basement film lab, to the instant coverage of live events delivered by satellite or phone that we enjoy today. The old 10 x 8 black and white stills used to be sent from news agencies to large printers in the studio newsroom, where chattering teleprinters would burst into life every time a story came down the ‘wire’. Early cameras were operated by ‘humans’ and were so heavy that it took two people to lift them. Studios were run by crews of a dozen or more people. Video tape was 2 inches wide, and lifting a spool that ran for an hour could give you a hernia! Editing tape involved two machines that filled a large room. The choice was a simple cut – no dissolves.
30 years later whole feature films can be cut on desk top computers that are bought off the shelf, and even complete with software packages they don’t break the bank. News studios are run by crews of two or three. Even commercials are shot on the kind of cameras that can be bought in any high street, resulting in lower budgets, fewer staff and faster turn around.
Computer systems can now control the whole of a station’s news output. They have the capacity to instantly retrieve any story fed in by a local station and make that story available internationally. All this enables 24 hour TV news to be truly breaking news.
Ed Gibson
The Computing ‘Environment’: It’s more than Binary Code – It’s About Criminals!!
Ed Gibson’s primary role as Chief Security Adviser is to advise Microsoft’s customers, partners, and the public on how to best respond to the current security environment, and how to improve their security using Microsoft’s solutions and services. He is also the link between Microsoft and industry specialists, law enforcement, government and academia, facilitating the sharing of security knowledge between these bodies. Ed’s experience and knowledge was gained through a 20-year career as a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). During this period, he became a recognized expert in combating international money laundering, fraud, economic espionage and intellectual property theft. From 2000 – 2005 he was assigned to the American Embassy in London, serving as the FBI’s Assistant Legal Attaché in the UK and Ireland. During this period he was responsible for all the FBI’s hi-tech programmes to combat Internet extortion, blackmail, cyber terrorism and intellectual property theft Ed Gibson is a qualified Solicitor in England and Wales, and has completed a 2-year computing program at Oxford University. Since joining Microsoft UK, Ed has lectured widely on cyber-threats, internet crime, social networks, and e-business.
Despite the mutating threats of cyber attacks, online extortion, or spam, a well-structured information security strategy can safeguard your business and ensure that such risks are managed with commitment and understanding. It can also help to reassure your customers, who in the UK (for example) according to a recent study now fear internet crime more than burglary, mugging or car theft. Organized criminals will attempt to steal everything you hold dear by extortion, threats, intimidation – not in the bricks and mortar world but in the online world, Yet, because the internet is not territorially or jurisdictionally bound, our normal responses to ‘attack’ are not as effective. But there are solutions . . . and sometimes they are free. Ed Gibson will give you a peek inside his ‘cyber life’ during a 20-year career with the FBI and his recent 5 years as a Diplomat to the US Embassy in London. He will also explain why he was asked by Microsoft to be its Chief Security Advisor in the UK. The reasons may surprise you.
Tickets are available from the Office (0208 567 2118, email admin@iap.org.uk) at £80.00 for members, £150.00 for guests, (prices excluding VAT). Places are limited, so make your reservations as soon as possible!
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