We tech insiders must stand up and be counted

THE LAST TIME I checked my calendar, it was 2017. Before we know it, we’ll have reached the end of the second decade of the 21st century, a century that will be defined by technology. Our industry will have generated countless jobs, contributed zillions to the UK economy, and created the backbone for business. Yet, what role will technology have in the election of our next parliament? Zero. As an industry we’re bystanders, and that’s ridiculous.

We still live in a world where our political leaders can declare themselves ignorant when it comes to technology, with a self-deprecating laugh, and get away with it. They don’t say, “Oh, the economy. I don’t really get it, but my grandson does.” Sure, they’ll dole out platitudes about the importance of the tech industry – they’ve seen the figures in a nicely laid-out graph – but because technology doesn’t have the same physicality as mining, shipbuilding and retail, or the heritage of media, law and finance, I get the strong impression that, to them, it’s an amorphous blob. It’s something that happens over there, that smart young people do. Something to do with silicon roundabouts.

And that’s a problem. As an industry, we need to make our voice heard. If there are billions of pounds of investment to be made in infrastructure, then we must have as loud a voice as the lobbyists whispering about high-speed train lines, super-airports and US-style highways. Instead, at best we sit on the periphery, too timid to make a fuss.

Our lack of a voice, of any depth of understanding of what the heck we do within the Westminster bubble, is also a problem for the country as a whole. Technology has revolutionised the way the UK works in the past 50 years, and it’s done so despite the British government.

This leads to a view that we techies don’t need any external help, that we don’t need to sully ourselves in the murky world of politics, but look how powerful it is when governments do get involved. Think DARPA and the internet; think CERN and the World Wide Web. Would we be where we are today if someone, somewhere, hadn’t persuaded a man in a grey suit to make the long-term investment to kick things off?

In truth, the US is much better at this than we are. Trump wasted no time in assembling the great leaders of the American tech industry once elected, making promises that he would provide support for them.

In contrast, we have the very real prospect of cutting our own oxygen supply. The UK tech industry relies on both British and non-British brains to create the code that powers the products we love, and if that isn’t made clear to Theresa May – assuming she retains power – then we’re in trouble. Likewise if all the big infrastructure investments of the coming decades are for train lines and airports, with technology left to pick up the scraps.

Putting this all in black and white reminds me of an old joke. “How can you spot the extrovert IT guy? He looks at your shoes.” My worry is that the joke still has a ring of truth, as too many of us stay in the shadows. We need to stop hiding our collective genius from people, stop being ashamed of working in technology, and start taking pride not just in what we’ve already achieved – but what we will achieve in the next amazing 50 years.

Tim Danton

Editor-in-chief