Richard Harris

December 05, 2008

Categories: Richard Harris People

Richard is the principal of Two Worlds, with an early background in Behavioural Ecology and Computer Science followed by more than twenty years experience as a visionary, strategy and technology consultant, writer and architect and developer of online and interactive services. He is a serial entrepreneur and co-founded The Digital Village (later h2g2), with the author Douglas Adams and others from the media, technology and financial sectors and was its CTO and Research Director. TDV's products included the Codie award-winning interactive game Starship Titanic and for the online Hitch-hiker’s guide to the Galaxy, one of the UK’s most successful knowledge-based online communities, in both its web-based and mobile delivery formats. h2g2 is now part of the BBC, where its technology architecture underpins the BBC’s online communities.

Historical models of media creation, delivery and experience are breaking down and being remade in a dizzying variety of combinations, as the convergence of broadcast, online and physical media meets the referral, distribution and value models of a completely online, socially networked world. Richard helps Two Worlds' clients to plot a path through this maze of possibilities, identifying and defining the business models, technology architectures and service environments that create viable, flexible and scaleable businesses.

Richard has a history of combining his business, creative and technical experience to create successful, innovative and award-winning products and online services for corporate environments, in consumer entertainment and in public social networks. He works with other entrepreneurs, think tanks and strategic consultancies in the area of disruptive thinking and organisational transformation, bringing to bear his particular focus on combining innovative thought models with ubiquitous technologies.

Richard helped instigate and develop the first major online presence for Comic Relief’s Red Nose Day in 1999 (which took £500,000 in online donations) and was one of the organisers of the second of the seminal Digital Biota conferences on emergence, artificial life and social organisation. He developed the Ubiquity model of identity, trust, value and interaction in connected communities – Two Worlds is now turning that model into a tool for the rapid development of integrated online content and collaboration services. In Rwanda, DR Congo and Uganda, Richard has created technology and media services and training for the conservation of the endangered Mountain Gorilla population. For the EU, Richard has consulted on Research programmes in Emotional Computing, Ubiquitous Systems and Information Ecologies. He has also developed an intelligent news aggregator, whose first beta application is in the news element of the BlueGlo.be Climate Change awareness site.

Most recently, RIchard has been working with Russia's leading film and television distributor to design a integrated media distribution service that addresses the very specific needs and demands of the Russian market and to build the technology and service relationships needed to deliver the initial service.

Since late 2007, he has worked with BIOSS, the global management consultancy, designing the overall knowledge architecture, business intelligence and service extension models that will help position and support BIOSS as it extends and enhances its unique intellectual capital in organisational and personal flow.

In March 2008, he submitted his ideas on the future of media delivery and interaction to the BBC's 2008 Innovation Labs competition. This emerged as winner of the Labs and has evolved into SlipStream, an architecture for Social Media. SlipStream facilitates the integration, delivery and sharing of broadcast and online programming with social network services. SlipStream was presented at IBC 2008, with the BBC now funding prototype development.

Richard has consulted to major corporations, government agencies and NGOs, with clients as diverse as BUR/Cascade (Russia), BIOSS International (global), Urban Learning Space, SAS, Apple Computer, Intel, AT&T Labs, The International Futures Forum, Comic Relief, The Royal Opera House,The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, Scottish Enterprise, the EU Framework V research programme, the UK Government, Mondex, NatWest bank and Sainsbury's, as well as being founder or co-founder of several start-up companies and other collaborative ventures.

Richard is also a an award-winning photographer and writer, traveller and conservationist. He is a qualified advanced motorcycling instructor, a keen cyclist and a very former ski racer. He is an amateur Egyptologist and is jointly owned by several Maine Coon cats. He and his partner are currently renovating their 200-year-old farmhouse in the Scottish Highlands, working to combine (hopefully without too much loss of hair) the conservation of a historic building with the creation of a modern, inspirational and energy-efficient home.

If you are a member of LinkedIn, view his full profile here.

Posted by Richard
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