John Naughton

John Naughton (born 18 July 1946 in Ireland) is an Irish academic, journalist and author. He is a Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities at Cambridge University, Director of the Press Fellowship Programme at Wolfson College, Cambridge, Emeritus Professor of the Public Understanding of Technology at the British Open University, Adjunct Professor at University College, Cork and the Technology columnist of the London Observer newspaper.

John Naughton was born in 1946 in Ballina, Co Mayo, Naughton is an Irish citizen who was educated at University College, Cork and at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, UK. He now lives and works in Cambridge.

Starting as an electrical engineer who worked in systems modelling and analysis, Naughton subsequently developed an interest in the public understanding of technology and—later—in the social, political and cultural impact of internet technology.

Naughton joined the Open University as a Lecturer in Systems in 1972. He has made contributions (see e.g.), to the understanding and application of Soft Systems Analysis developed by Peter Checkland at Lancaster University.

In addition to his work in systems analysis Naughton also made significant contributions to the public understanding of technology, initially as co-designer (with Professor Nigel Cross) of two incarnations of the University's Technology Foundation Course (T101 & T102) which, over its lifetime, introduced over 50,000 students to technological ideas. In the 1980s he was a key member of the team that introduced the use of personal computers into the University's teaching and learning system. In the 1990s with colleagues Martin Weller and Garry Alexander Naughton created the University's first major online course (You, your computer and the Net) which attracted 12,000 students per presentation in its early days and marked the beginning of the University's rise as a major provider of online education. (It now has approximately 250,000 online students.)

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