Collins is the former Executive Editor of Computer Weekly and holder of 26 awards for journalism who has reported since the 1980s on what can be learned from IT-related failures. He has been questioned by several Parliamentary committees and quoted in their reports. He believes that posterity can learn more from failure than success. 

 

He has been at the forefront of investigative journalism in the IT sector for the past two decades. He has alerted us to the FADEC software problems implicated in the 1994 Mull of Kintyre Chinook crash, the ongoing failings of the ?12.7 billion NHS NpfIT programme, and countless other examples of public and private sector IT initiatives that have not worked out as desired.

Tony is probably the single most influential journalist in the arena of Professional IT in the UK, and has uncovered and broken many stories which would otherwise have been unreported or covered up. The scrutiny he has brought to the world of government and corporate IT has undoubtedly raised standards within the IT profession and has stimulated mass-media reporting and parliamentary investigation into the underexposed back office IT functions of government and business that affect the majority of citizens in the UK. His Computer Weekly IT Projects blog can be viewed at http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/tony_collins/

 

Tony is visiting the Isle of Man as one of the primary speakers at the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association conference on the theme of "Technology and Democracy", where he will be addressing  delegates from the parliaments of the UK, Isle of Man and many of the other Island members of the Commonwealth. We are very grateful to have captured some of his time to speak to the Isle of Man BCS whilst he's here.