THOMAS B. RILEY

President,
Riley Information Services Inc.
Ottawa, Canada

Visiting Professor,
Law and Technology,
University of Glasgow,
Scotland

Chief Executive
Commonwealth Centre for Electronic Governance
London, UK



Mr. Riley was born in London, England on May 20, 1941 and came to Canada in 1947. He received his elementary and high school education in Ottawa, Toronto and Hull, Quebec. He graduated from the University of Ottawa with an Honours Degree in English Literature in 1968 receiving the Governor-General's Silver medal for excellence. He did post-graduate work at the University of Toronto.

After university he lived for five years in British Columbia working in the advertising and music industry. In 1973 he began his career revolving around freedom of information and privacy issues.

During the seventies he was a founding member of many groups, federally and provincially, that came together to lobby for information laws. He extended his work internationally when he became the Executive Secretary of the International Freedom of Information Institute, in London, UK from 1978 - 1983. He developed an international expertise in both freedom of information and data protection and privacy laws. He wrote extensively on the subject, advised governments, politicians and lobby groups from around the world on the ongoing issues. In this way he played an intimate part in the development of laws in many jurisdictions. In that time period he co-authored, Freedom of Information in the Information Age, published by Frank Cass and Co. in the United Kingdom.

In 1983 he started his own company, Riley Information Services Inc., which has specialized in information laws, information management and the impact of IT on Government. The company has provided a wide range of consulting and research services, as well as starting a series of annual conferences and seminars in Canada on these issues.

He is the co-author of Privacy in the Information Age: A Handbook for Government and Industry Professionals, published by Government Technology Press in 1996 and a contributor to Regulating the New Media, Oxford University Press, July, 1998.

Since 1993 he has conducted an international comparative study on the impact of information technology on government. This has been done by on-site interviews and research in North America, Europe and the Far East. The reports, entitled, Living in the Electronic Village: The Impact of Information Technology in a Changing World, have been co-sponsored by a number of public and private sector organizations. Phases I, II, III and IV of the Report were published in March, 1995, July, 1996, July, 1997, July, 1998.

His paper on Knowledge Management: An Evolving Discipline was published by the National Research Council of Canada, CISTI, in March, 2000. He has also written papers on the Knowledge Economy and Information Rights in our New Environments. These and further publications by Mr. Riley can be found at http://www.rileyis.com
At this web site can also be found the Riley Report, a free online column for those who wish to subscribe.

He is the author of Electronic Governance and Electronic Democracy: Living and Working in the Wired World, a book published by the Commonwealth Secretariat, London, in August, 2001. It can be ordered at: http://www.styluspub.com/books/book5130.html

Throughout his twenty-eight years as an access, privacy and information technology professional, Mr. Riley has written numerous articles and opinion pieces published around the world, as well as specialized reports for public and private sector clients alike. He is in constant demand as a speaker in Canada and internationally. In the mid-1990s Mr. Riley worked with the Hong Kong government in developing their Code on Access to Information. He also took part in discussions in 1995 and 1996 on the development of South Africa's freedom of information and data protection law. He has worked on delivering workshops and seminars on information issues, knowledge management, information technology, e-governance and e-democracy in many jurisdictions around the world, some of which include Hungary, Kenya, Ghana and Malaysia.

Mr. Riley has been a visiting Professor of Law and Technology, University of Glasgow, Scotland since 1995. He was the Chair of Canada's Coalition for Public Information from March 1999 to March 2000 and a volunteer with other groups in Canada. He was a Board member of SCOAP, a federal organization comprised of information technology professionals in the public and private sector in Canada, from 1998 to July, 2000. He is on the board of various publications and other public interest groups, including the National Privacy Coalition, of which he is the Vice-Chair.

In June 1999 he was honored with the Lifetime Achievement award for Information Rights by British Columbia's Freedom of Information and Privacy Association.

He is the co-Founder, Chair of the Board and Chief Executive of the Commonwealth Centre for Electronic Governance (CCEG), a think-tank set up under a Commonwealth Secretariat program in London, UK. He continues to run his company Riley Information Services Inc. in Ottawa as well as the Commonwealth Centre for Electronic Governance.

Mr. Riley is married with three children and three grandchildren and is also the author of a fiction novel, published in October 2001 by Publish America in Maryland, USA, and a book of short stories to be published mid-2002. He also writes poetry.

Contact Information

Thomas B. Riley
85 Bronson Ave,
Suite PH01 
Ottawa. ON 
Canada
K1R 6G7 

Phone: 1-613-237-8828
Fax:     1-613-237-7888
Email: RTRiley6@cs.com
URL: http://www.rileyis.com