I am a lecturer in information systems at Judge Business School, Cambridge, and Strategy Director for London-based service innovator Methods. I am also a Board Member of Intellect, the UK’s technology trade association, and advise the UK Cabinet Office on issues relating to IT procurement.
This site brings together some of my thinking, research and activities in several interrelated areas that explore notions of Openness and emergence. I am interested in approaches that see the world in terms of unfolding processes, rather than things, and in the major ethical, political, economic and design implications of such a view for organisational activity of all kinds. I have no political affiliation, and my loyalty is rather towards honest, open debate whose goals are integrity rather than correctness.
I will use this site as a place to collect together materials, thoughts, and events as they happen in what is turning out to be a fascinating journey.
Although the current interest in public service redesign means that the Open Public Services page here may appear busier, this belies the importance with which I view the development of underlying theory – well as the need to ensure that Openness is deployed in the service of a fairer, more sustainable world. These concerns are reflected in the Research and Open Development pages. Finally, the Methods page keeps track of my work with some very talented people in our groundbreaking work to deploy Open thinking in the UK public sector.
The opportunity to develop and refine theory that has a real impact on the organisational world is very exciting, and I hope that some of this excitement comes across on these pages.
Mark Thompson (m.thompson@jbs.cam.ac.uk)
Mark Thompson 