wg on the Web...

Some recent stories

Since I began working in journalism in 1990, I have written for many publications (most of them defunct, whatever that says). I have contributed with varying degress of regularity to (links lead to archives on this or another page): Scientific American, the Guardian and Daily Telegraph newspapers, and Infosecurity Magazine, as well as New Scientist, and Computer Weekly. Currently (December 2019), you can find my weekly column net.wars here. I have also, for varying degrees of recently, written for New Scientist, TechPresident, Wired, Wired News, Salon, the BBC's Webwise section, the Times Higher Education Supplement, New Statesman, TheFeature.com, Smart Business (formerly PC/Computing), Mobile Business, the UK's Personal Computer World, PC Magazine UK, What PC?, PC Direct, and ComputerActive; for six months in 2000-2001 I did daily financial news covering the dot-com boom for a European new media finance site, Tornado Insider. If people remember one piece I've written, it is alt.scientology.war, which ran in Wired in 1995. My books have their own page.

I am founding editor, in 1987, of the UK's Skeptic magazine, which continues under the sterling editorship of Deborah Hyde. I write a column for it and also for The Philosophers' Magazine, and, as of December 2019, the monthly column, Letter to America for Skeptical Inquirer. I also write about tennis, primarily but not solely for Daily Tennis.

I have appeared on many TV and radio programs on both paranormal and Internet-related topics, including the BBC's Newsnight, BBC's The Big Questions, and Sky News. A couple of clips are on YouTube.

I am a long-standing member of the executive board of the Association of British Science Writers and the advisory council of the Open Rights Group. I am also a member of the steering committee for Computers, Freedom, and Privacy and a member of the advisory board for Trust in Digital Life. In 2011 I became a Fellow of The Center for Skeptical Inquiry. Previously, I served on the advisory council of Privacy International.

From its founding until the end of 2019 I was the in-house writer for the Research Institute for the Science of Cyber Security (RISCS). I do most of the book reviews for ZDNet UK, and write a fortnightly news digest for the Open Society Foundations Information Program; you can usually find the latest edition here. I also write columns for the UK's Skeptic magazine and The Philosopher's Magazine.

From 2013 to 2015, I contributed to Infosecurity Magazine, TechPresident, Scientific American, and provided academic groups such as the information security group at UCL and the Horizon group at Nottingham University with research portraits and write-ups of in-house events, as well drafting blog postings for Mydex. I have also given talks at Hewlett-Packard's research, the BBC's research group, eNACSO, and myriad local ORG groups.

In 2013: I won the Enigma Award for achievement in information security journalism. I wrote for Scientific American, the Guardian, Infosecurity Magazine, the EU's Horizon Magazine, TechPresident, and ZDNet, as well as my ongoing net.wars column. I also wrote features for/on behalf of UCL's Information Security Research Group, helped edit and write guides to online safety for teens and their parents, and gave a talk at Gikii. Occupational Hazards, the play I co-wrote with Megan van Wolkenten, was produced at the Just Kiddin Theatre near Ottawa, Ontario.

In 2011-2012 I wrote backgrounders and technical guides for NGOs including Access Now, Privacy International, and the Open Rights Group and did some research on algorithms and complexity for the Open Society Institute's Information Society Program. I also wrote regularly for Infosecurity magazine and had occasional pieces in SCientific American, the Guardian and Comment is Free, and New Scientist. Other regular work included interviews for The Inquirer/V3, book reviews for ZDNet UK, and columns for The Skeptic and The Philosopher's Magazine as well as my weekly net.wars column. Shortlisted for "Security Journalist of the Year" at the BT Security Journalism awards 2012.

In 2008-2010 I did some writing and research work for Kable, contributed irregularly to the Guardian's Comment is Free site, The Register, Infosecurity magazine, The H, the BBC's Web site, and have been a frequent contributor to Daily Tennis. Also published, in May 2010: Why Statues Weep: the Best of The Skeptic; there's a podcast with me and Simon Hoggart at the Bristol Festival of Ideas 2010 (and a writeup) about the book. I was nominated in three categories for the 2010 BT Infosecurity journalist of the year awards.

In 2006-2007 I blogged for Blindside; wrote the Mini Rough Guide to Designing Your Future (PDF, 5MB); and appeared occasionally as an expert commentator on Channel Five news.

You can read all this again in my professional bio, or you can read the twisted version in my personal bio.

What follows are (or, sadly, in many cases were) links to as much of my work as I can find on the Web. All dates are American format, and articles under each publication heading appear in reverse chronological order. If a publication has only a few entries, that doesn't necessarily mean I wrote only those few articles for it; it may simply mean those articles aren't on the Net.


From Computer Weekly:

From TechPresident:

From the Daily Telegraph:

(Note (5/14/04):  the Telegraph insists on registration before you can view all but the most recent articles, but there's no charge. All the pre-2000 articles seem to have been removed from the site; the URLs have been left in even though they don't work.

Starting Out pieces have their own page.

From Scientific American:

Recent articles should always be linked from my contributor's page. (Note that many of these articles are behind a paywall; the starred ones should be free to view.

From Infosecurity Magazine:

From New Statesman:

From the Independent:

From New Scientist:

(Note: I wrote a lot more than is linked here for the magazine between 1990 and about 2006, including many book reviews. Most of these I haven't found online.)

From the Times Higher Education Supplement

From The Register:

Note: any recent articles should be linked from my contributor's page.

From The Philosophers' Magazine:

From V3.co.uk:

From IT Expert Magazine:

From ZDNetUK:

(Note:: ZDNet UK book reviews have their own page)

From Chairman's Network:

From Reason magazine:

From Daily Tennis:

From Salon:

From Wired:

From Application Development Advisor (UK):

From Wired News:

(You can always get the full 2004-and-later list of articles I've done for Wired News here.)

From TheFeature.com

From Smart Business (formerly PC/Computing):

From IntellectualCapital.com

From PC Magazine (UK):

From FirstPersonGlobal.com:

From IT Week:

From PC Direct (UK):

From the Netizen:

From Personal Computer World (UK):

From Skeptical Inquirer:

From the Wall Street Journal Europe (Convergence):

From siliconalleyreporter

From Business Computer World

From What PC? and Software

From Networker (at USC)

From Demon Dispatches

Miscellanea

NB: Star indicates link is not available.
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