Earl Mardle

In a Networked World, There Really Is No-one In Charge

Earl Mardle is an independent consultant who has been described by one client as a “Global Thinker” with a strong focus on the ethical issues raised by Globalisation.

From a background of over 20 years as a current affairs broadcaster he moved to Community Access Radio and in 1996 founded and then managed the 2020 Communications Trust for the City of Wellington NZ.

Most of his work in the last decade has been focused on providing access to information technologies to underserved or specifically excluded communities.

He taught eCommerce at a variety of educational institutions in Sydney Australia and has recently finished work as the Information Manager, Project Support and Chair of the Jury for the Stockholm Challenge Award.

As an Education Category Juror and Co-ordinator for the Global Bangemann Challenge and Stockholm Challenge, and editor of 4 Challenge Finalists publications he is extremely well informed on the wide diversity of applications for ICT in contexts from the largest cities to the smallest off-grid villages.

He has been involved in organisations seeking to build online communities including the Development Gateway and the World Bank, Technology Empowerment Network and the management of the Stockholm Challenge Award.

He is currently the Chair of the 2020 Communications Trust and edits the Groupings Blog for the Webguide Partnership

His focus on the Internet as an information management tool has led him to work with RSS Aggregator Awasu and Qumana (a document editor and blog posting tool) to improve and extend the functionality and ease of use of both packages.

He publishes his thoughts on a range of information and networked environment concepts at his blog A Networked World which he also uses to experiment with new IM tools.

I am currently the Chair of the