Pat is a Researcher at OdinLab, School of Systems Engineering, University of Reading.

His particular fields of interest include eConsciousness, collaboration, community, ontology, folksonomy, investigating tool use, semantic web, eLearning, emerging technology, new media, ‘social justice’, digital divide, inclusion, digital identity, games.

He adds "Though not in the right age-bracket, I would consider myself a digital native". 

Pat's Top 10 Tools as at 11 September 2008

1. Scholar.google.com – provides a quick way to perform a surface search of academic literature, and assess peer validation of resources.

2. Skype – provides mixed synchronous and asynchronous communications, along with file transfer

3. Facebook – provides easy communication with students and colleagues, and private communication in groups

4. Del.icio.us – mainly as a write-only resource, highlighting resources for others

5. citeULike – useful for maintaining and discovering bibliographical resources

6. Drupal – use for blog, other bibliography, and writing papers/book chapters

7. Elgg – blog, private communications, group forums

8. Twitter – keeping in touch

9. Diigo – annotating resources communally

10. Clipmarks – sharing best bits of web resources, auto-linking to delicious