I am the founder and Chief Executive of ruralnet|uk and its trading subsidiary RNUK Ltd. ruralnet|uk is a rural regeneration charity. We are a team of 19 people with particular expertise in networking and collaboration. We work to support and add value to the work of local community workers and the local organisations who support them. We run networking events and deliver support services online. Our biggest event is our annual conference and exhibition. The is peripatetic and is usually run in partnership with a Regional development Agency. Our online services include 'Experts Online' and a daily regeneration news service: xPRESS Digest. I have degrees from Reading and Edinburgh Universities. The first 12 years of my working life were spent on the British Aid Programme. During this time I lived and worked in Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, Egypt and Zambia. I returned to the UK in 1991 to set up one of the UK's first Telecottages. I then moved on to run European-funded 'telematics' research programmes looking at how ICT could support rural development. This experience was then deployed to establish online services including: InfoRurale (http://www.inforurale.org.uk); ruralnet|online (http://www.ruralnet.org.uk); Experts Online (http://www.expertsonline.org.uk); xPRESS Digest (http://www.xpressdigest.org.uk); and others. I recently led a group that developed a response to a government tender online and in the open - the open innovation Exchange - http://www.innovationexchange.org.uk. This was nominated and reached the finals of the 2007 New Statesman New Media Awards. In 2006 I was 'highly commended' (came second!) in the BIA's Social Entrepreneur of the Year. I am a Fellow of the RSA and member of the British Computer Society and British Society of Animal Science. I enjoy cycling and writing about it (http://blog.gpscycle.com). I also enjoy experimenting with new online technologies and gadgets! I am married to Jane and we have three grown-up children. We live in a self-built house which is still nearly finished!

http://www.ruralnet.org.uk/~s.berry/