Bill Thompson (technology writer)
William George Thompson is an English technology writer, best known for his weekly column in the Technology section of BBC News Online and his appearances on Digital Planet, a radio show on the BBC World Service. He is also an Honorary Senior Visiting Fellow at City University London's Journalism Department. and writes for BBC Webwise.
Born in Jarrow, County Durham, Thompson grew up in Corby, Northamptonshire. He graduated from Cambridge University in philosophy and with a diploma in computing in 1984 and worked at Acorn Computers. He was a correspondent for the technology programme The Big Byte on BBC Radio. He began to write for The Guardian in 1990, and in 1994 went to work there, setting up the paper's website. He left in 1996 to work as a freelance writer and consultant. In November 2009 he took on a role as head of partnership development for Archive Development projects at the BBC, working with Tony Ageh, the then Controller of Archive Development at the BBC.
Thompson is a trustee of the Britten Sinfonia, and a board member of the Writers' Centre Norwich. In 2010, he was nominated for the Prudential Arts and Business Board Member of the year award. In October 2016, Anglia Ruskin University announced that it would award Thompson an Honorary Doctor of Arts degree, in a ceremony on the 11th of that month.
He has a daughter and a son called Max.
