Mark Jacot

Yesterday was one of those days that made me proud to work for the Open University. If you missed it last night, our new Chancellor – Martha Lane Fox delivered a fantastic Richard Dimbleby lecture on the power of the internet and what it has done and can do to transform society. I touched on what an enthusiastic and engaging speaker she is after her presentation at the OU as part of the MKI Smart Cities event recently and she certainly delivered a memorable address at this flagship lecture broadcast on BBC1. When you think that other people such as Bill Clinton, Rowan Williams, Sir Terry Pratchett, Prince Phillip, Prince Charles and Bill Gates have been asked to deliver this lecture, this shows how influential our new Chancellor is.

The content was also really interesting and thought provoking. She has launched a petition here that we should all be signing and supporting. Click on this link for the petition. You can get more of a flavour of doteveryone and a transcript of her speech here

In her address she touched on the power of the internet to transform lives – closer to home, the current form of the OU would not be possible without the internet. Not only did she mention the OU, but Richard Dimbleby also introduced her as our Chancellor. I hope our politicians listen to her – she speaks a lot of sense about how we can harness the power of technology in society.

Here is the link to the broadcast on iPlayer (or click on this iPlayer image at the top). You can also get a flavour of what she talked about by reading this article she wrote in The Guardian and also her blog.