During the recent G8 summit, David Cameron spoke candidly about the UK government's information economy strategy and its desire for the UK to have a strong position in the global race for technological innovation. It is also clear the government is becoming more committed to the adoption of cloud computing and delivering computing resources. The G-Cloud programme is an iterative programme of work to achieve this, which will deliver fundamental changes in the way the public sector procures and operates ICT. Furthermore, the government has invested £440m through the Technology Strategy Board (TSB), to raise the profile and relevance of cloud adoption and the importance of business growth to the wider political and business agenda.
Read more: ICT complexity is hindering UK business innovation
This warning comes from the Society of IT Management in its latest briefing The digital agenda: what it means for Socitm’s members.
ICT professionals should be positioning themselves as leaders in promoting digital services, says Socitm If they do not, the risk is much greater that others will decide the future direction of ICT in their organisation.
Read more: GB: IT Professionals warned about Danger of Neglecting the Digital Agenda
Anne-Marie Imafidon describes herself as "one of those people who asks 'why?' a lot" – and it has served her well. At the age of 10 for instance, Imafidon was asking why one web page looked different from another. The answer was the HTML code behind it, which she learned to use and then built her own pages. She did her maths and IT GCSEs that year. By 15, she was at Oxford. Yet one question she didn't ask was why there were so few girls. "I was one of three girls in a class of 70 reading maths and computer science at Oxford. There's not that many of us around. It never really bothered me."
Read more: GB: Six ideas to get more women involved in the tech sector
This year's A-Level Computing and ICT results make grim reading for anyone worried about the UK's future as a technology-powered economy.
After a decade of decline, a mere 3,758 people sat the Computing A-Level — a drop of 1.3 percent on the previous year, accounting for just 0.4 percent of all A-Levels.
Read more: GB: Can tomorrow's skills crisis be averted? Students continue to shun tech A-Levels
From this month, the hospice will offer extra support to more than 30 care homes across Craven and Airedale.
A senior doctor or specialist nurse from the Oxenhope Sue Ryder centre will be available weekdays for telemedicine consultations with care home staff.
Read more: GB: Yorkshire: Manorlands hospice telemedicine service will be offered to more patients