BCS members’ expertise and experience are vital to our work with policy makers, industry and the media.
Contributing to BCS’ influence is an important reason for joining the professional body for the IT industry. By helping us make a positive, visible impact on the big issues, members also build their own professional standing.
Priorities for impact
We focus our work across four key themes; Professionalism and Ethics; Green IT and Net Zero; the Digital Divide; Diversity and Inclusion. Under that framework are a large, growing number of topics from cyber security to AI to digital health, to online safety where we also need expert input from BCS members.
Routes to connect
Our community’s policy analysis, insight and research make BCS relevant to government departments like DCMS, to industry partners like Boots and to technology analysts across the media.
Here’s how members can get involved in growing our reputation for making IT good for society:
The BCS Community is accessible to all BCS members; it’s the online hub for sharing your ideas, debating the big issues and for getting involved with our engagement work. We’ll be asking for help with open consultations, requesting reviews of policy positions in formation, updating info on our drop-in ‘Policy Jams’, publishing background briefings, launching surveys, and posting requests from media.
We provide members with balanced background briefings on breaking issues such as the Online Safety Bill, policy or manifesto announcements. They’re created as webpages so members can share, comment and start debate through their own networks.
Contact policyhub@bcs.uk with suggestions and for more information.
Members can contribute to and review BCS’ corporate responses to open government policy consultations. They can also help with pro-active position papers being created by the policy team. These are provided in real time on the BCS Community platform, as well as via engagement with relevant Specialist Groups and shared at our monthly Policy Jams. We also reach out to individual members whose expertise is established.
The government acknowledged BCS’ contribution as it launched the National AI Strategy in late September 2021. The strategy emphasises a ten-year plan to promote ethical principles in AI, one of BCS' key policy asks.
It followed the publication of a BCS briefing, Priorities for a National AI Strategy, created in collaboration with BCS' members, including those in the Society Board.
Our members’ work and experiences ‘in the field’ will continue to inform and support Government strategies that rely on tech and computing.
Contact policyhub@bcs.uk with suggestions and for more information.
Discovering, developing and promoting subject experts across BCS specialist groups and our Fellowship is a key part of our external relations work.
Recently BCS members with specialisms in areas like Green IT, Law, Software Testing, Consultancy and Gaming have all made an impact across our PR and engagement work; for example Adam Leon Smith FBCS featured in The Guardian and many other outlets, commenting in the 2021 Facebook / Instagram / WhatsApp outage.
New topics of relevance emerge all the time, for example the Metaverse, Quantum Computing, Cryptocurrency, Web 3.0 - and there are many established areas where our impact can increase.
So, we’re always looking to grow the group of experts within our community who can give balanced and informed opinions, rapidly and with confidence - supported at all times by the media relations team.
Please contact news@bcs.uk if you feel you could become part of our PR and media work in across your areas of expertise.
Policy Jams (sign up details here) are monthly, informal drop-in discussions open to all members. The Policy and PR teams (and guest speakers) will share a short update on the current tech scene and then update on any work, such as consultations, where members’ insight can help. We close with an open-floor session where members make suggestions or ask questions about our external engagement.
Surveys of our membership on pressing issues in the industry such as the role of Huawei in UK 5G, the proposed sale of ARM to NVIDIA, Green IT priorities for COP26 or social media and online safety, often make national headlines. Taking part in these makes a huge difference to our impact and collective voice as the professional body for the IT industry.
We are also building our reputation for providing data-driven research and insight on a range of issues, such as our analysis of ONS data on the IT workforce to gauge progression in diversity in tech.
Contact policyhub@bcs.uk with suggestions and for more information.
Opinion pieces by our members are regularly published in ITNOW magazine, on our website and shared through social channels. If you would like to work with our editorial team to write a well-argued thought leadership piece on a current issue in our profession, please get in touch with ideas via editor@bcs.org.
Members can also feature in our webinars such as The Awkward Conversation addressing diversity in the profession and at events such as Insights alongside keynote speakers like Vint Cerf.
Our podcast series (available on Spotify) brings together experts across all our key topics. For example Women in Tech: Reverse Mentoring, featuring Andrea Palmer, Chair of BCS Women. Again, please get in touch via editor@bcs.org.
Our Fellows Technical Advisory Group (F-TAG) was created in 2021 to provide BCS members and the wider profession with original insight on emerging technologies and techniques. Fellows from various backgrounds explain the opportunities and challenges, what they mean for the digital industries, and the competitiveness of 'UK Plc'.
The group’s first four pieces have now been published through MyBCS (login required).
Please see the webpage for full details and applications to join. Contact F-TAG Chair, Rashik Parmar FBCS (IBM Fellow and Vice President Technology - Europe) through ftag@bcs.uk.
Ask us anything!
Please email us with any thoughts, ideas or questions about our external engagement, communication or content at policyhub@bcs.uk.
Do share this page with anyone thinking about joining BCS and who is interesting adding their voice to our impact.
