The British Library’s new researcher-in-residence will use both her media and academic expertise, writes Hannah Fearn

With an enviable career as a television presenter and popular technology pundit, entry into the academy seemed an unlikely path for Aleks Krotoski.

But a year after completing a PhD at the University of Surrey, she has found the ideal post, which allows her to do work with “academic rigour” and to make the most of her ability to inspire non-specialist audiences about the potential of emerging technologies.

Dr Krotoski was this week unveiled as researcher-in-residence for the British Library’s forthcoming exhibition Growing Knowledge: The Evolution of Research.

The exhibition, held in partnership with Times Higher Education, will showcase current and future technologies that could revolutionise the conduct of research the world over. The British Library’s partners include technology companies such as Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard, and institutions such as Brown University in the US. Input will also be sought from other leading libraries such as the New York Public Library and Columbia University’s library.

• Read full story
• Read about ‘Growing Knowledge: The Evolution of Research‘, which runs from 12th October 2010 to 16th July 2011
• Follow @aleksk on Twitter

The voice of the Iranian people, heard via social networking.

“Twenty years on from the invention of the World Wide Web, Dr Aleks Krotoski looks at how it is reshaping almost every aspect of our lives. Joined by some of the Web’s biggest names – including the founders of Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft, and the web’s inventor – she explores how far the Web has lived up to its early promise.

Here, Aleks charts how the Web is forging a new brand of politics, both in democracies and authoritarian regimes.

With contributions from Al Gore, Martha Lane Fox, Stephen Fry and Bill Gates, Aleks explores how interactive, unmediated sites like Twitter and YouTube have encouraged direct action and politicised young people in unprecedented numbers.

Yet, at the same time, the Web’s openness enables hardline states to spy and censor, and extremists to threaten with networks of hate and crippling cyber attacks.”

Available online until late 27th February.

Having listened to Dame Professor Wendy Hall (She is a Founding Director, along with Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Professor Nigel Shadbolt and Daniel J. Weitzner, of the Web Science Research Initiative) at the LLAS conference yesterday, and her tales of conferences with Tim Berners-Lee and others, particularly fascinating. I’m still watching it, looking forward to the rest of the series, and wondering if it’s going to be available in any format after i-player’s 7 days are up!

“Twenty years on from the invention of the World Wide Web, Dr Aleks Krotoski looks at how it is reshaping almost every aspect of our lives. Joined by some of the web’s biggest names – including the founders of Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft, and the web’s inventor – she explores how far the web has lived up to its early promise.

In the first in this four-part series, Aleks charts the extraordinary rise of blogs, Wikipedia and YouTube, and traces an ongoing clash between the freedom the technology offers us, and our innate human desire to control and profit.”

Visit “The Virtual Revolution” website.