Hullo

Derelict blog over at Scunnered

May 2008 - August 2008
Worked on the social media side of Channel 4's Disarming Britain project:

March 2007 - March 2008
Director of Citizen Media with Getty Images - which basically meant running Scoopt under Getty ownership. As a one-man band.

July 2005 - March 2007

I founded and ran Scoopt with my wife, Jill. Scoopt was the world’s first citizen journalism picture agency. We made it easy for anybody who takes a newsworthy picture with a camera or cameraphone to sell it to the worldwide media and get paid like a professional.

Scoopt was a cool, disruptive business. One of the best bits was getting a Scoopt web page and link embedded in millions of Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot cameraphones

We sold the business to Getty Images in March 2007.

1997 - 2005
I was a freelance technology journalist and author. Happy days, by and large. I wrote for newspapers and magazines, generally debunking tech for a consumer audience. During this period I wrote 14 (roughly - I lost count, to be honest) books for Haynes Publishing. I collaborated with Gary Marshall on several of the later titles.

1985-1997
Different career path altogether, in the fashion world. I started and busted a business called Charlatan Clothing Design in, I think, 1986-7, and thereafter did the greasy pole thing as a production director with some clothing companies. I had to leave Scotland for London because a couple of heavies to whom the business owed money wanted to break my legs. Most of this I prefer to forget. In 1997, my first son Euan was one year old and I realised that I’d hardly spent any time with him. It was time for a change - time to become self-employed and change direction completely. So I became a tech hack. As you do.

1981 - 1985
Glasgow University. Joint honours degree in English Literature and Philosophy. Not exactly vocational.