10 01732 759725 A glimpse of the future? The Natural History Museum has partnered with Microsoft and SAOLA Studio in a new immersive, mixed reality experience that transports visitors wearing Microsoft HoloLens 2 mixed reality headsets 100 years into the future to see how the natural world has responded to the actions we take today. Visions of Nature, part of the Museum’s advocacy program, Fixing Our Broken Planet, imagines how species might adapt to the threats they face in the 21st century, in a range of environments from the Scottish Highlands to the Great Green Wall in Africa’s Sahel region. Species chosen from the Museum’s 80 million physical specimens, including a cuttlefish, Darwin’s frog and coconut crab, come to life as interactive holographic animations, while a built-in scientific copilot, Hope, describes their development from 2025 to 2125. Natural History Museum Director of Public Programmes Dr Alex Burch said: “Visions of Nature is an incredibly exciting, immersive experience – and the first offering of its kind for the Museum. It presses fast-forward so visitors can see how nature has responded, for better and for worse, to the aftermath of centuries of human industrial activity as well as to the interventions we have introduced to remedy our unsustainable activity.” Tickets are available now at nhm.ac.uk/visionsofnature … Their next job was in cyber…if only Cybersecurity is now the fastest growing tech occupation in the UK, with the number of people in cyber roles more than doubling (up 128%) between 2021 and 2024, according to Their next job was in cyber, the latest cybersecurity careers report from Socura. Despite this growth, Andy Kays, CEO of the UK-based cybersecurity services provider, warns that there are still not enough cybersecurity professionals to tackle the growing threat to UK businesses, with only one security pro for every 86 companies. He said: “Cybersecurity may be the fastest growing IT occupation in the UK but the skills shortage in the industry remains a concern. Many businesses simply do not have the specialists they need to defend against cyber attacks. To fix this problem at a national level, we need more initiatives like the NCSC-backed Academic Centres of Excellence and ways to reach even younger people so that they can discover technology in schools. For organisations struggling to recruit cybersecurity experts, finding a trusted managed services partner to bolster capabilities and ease the load remains vital to bridging the gap.” The report also highlights the need to encourage more women to pursue a career in cybersecurity. While there are 4,600 more women in cybersecurity roles today than there were in 2021, their percentage of the total cybersecurity workforce has gone down to 17%, from 24% three years ago. … Credit where credit is due Managed service provider Node4 is helping Ofsted champion the work of its 2,000 employees with the creation of a bespoke, informal, social mediastyle platform where staff can publicly acknowledge and celebrate the outstanding work of colleagues. The so called ‘wonderwall’ sits within Ofsted’s Microsoft Sharepoint intranet, which Node4 recently upgraded as part of a more than 10-year relationship with the education standards body. Athene Sherwood, Ofsted Deputy Head of Internal Communications, said: “We could have opted for an out-of-thebox solution, but we wanted something bespoke to our needs. The end result is just what we wanted. It’s colourful and engaging – and contributors can personalise their praise for colleagues for all to see. Because it runs on SharePoint through our intranet, there were no steep learning curves, meaning we could manage it largely in-house from day one.” Within the first three months of the wonderwall going live, Ofsted staff submitted more than 350 tributes to colleagues. https://www.gov.uk/government/ organisations/ofsted … Rugged Android Handheld Group, a manufacturer of rugged handhelds, tablets and customised mobile devices, has launched a rugged Android handheld with enhanced durability, a high‑performance Qualcomm Snapdragon 6490 Processor for demanding applications and 5G connectivity for fast data transmission and low latency. In addition to IP65 and IP68 ratings, MIL-STD-810H certification and 1.8-metre drop resistance, the compact, powerful Nautiz X21 comes with cutomisable buttons TECHNOLOGY NEWS UK plc misses out on £111 million tech boost If all British-based firms had increased their digital technology usage in 2021, the economy could have enjoyed a £111 billion boost in turnover by 2023, creating 676,000 new jobs, including over 313,000 in small and medium-sized companies. So say Virgin Media O2 Business and Cebr in their new report The economic and social benefits of digitalisation. According to their analysis, digital leaders – organisations that are actively investing in digital solutions and have a strong digital culture – achieved 12% turnover growth in the period, compared to just 5% for the 75% of UK organisations that have not significantly increased their digital usage since 2021. On average, they also had more than double the productivity growth. These gains contributed to an 8% rise in Gross Value Added (GVA) for digital leaders, versus zero growth for ‘digital followers’. In addition, 81% of organisations that have a strong digital culture and embrace tools to boost performance feel their workforce is well-prepared for the future, compared to 43% of those with weaker digital cultures. So what makes a digital leader? According to the report, it is not enough just to invest in digital tools; you also need to create a strong digital culture and integrate those tools to into working practices and processes to support collaboration and knowledge-sharing. Jo Bertram, Managing Director of Virgin Media O2 Business, said: “There’s a £111bn boost to the UK economy to be unlocked for those organisations that build strong digital cultures, where technology underpins the way people connect and collaborate with colleagues and customers to drive business outcomes.” www.virginmediao2business.co.uk/digital-culture/ Jo Bertram
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