All our Software Engineers are encouraged to get involved in horizon scanning (that's research that makes sure we're aware of developments in various technology areas, and the risks this might involve for our clients). But we do also recognise that some topics are really key - and will benefit from having a central point of contact.
As one of those points of contact, I co-ordinate Horizon Scanning and research within my technology area, and regularly report on any new developments and 'goings on'. I gather the information from all sorts of sources - there's stuff that's in the public domain on the internet or in trade publications, then there's information from other companies or government departments as well as tradeshows and conferences. I make sure I keep a keen eye out for relevant seminars and conferences that it might be useful for me or a colleague to go along to.
So a typical day might include catching up with my favourite online technology media websites and RSS feeds and then following up one or two interesting items with an internal blog post or email to someone who's working on a project that might be impacted by what I've found out. This will happen alongside my other duties as a Senior Development Engineer.
At other times I might be undertaking research myself or overseeing the research of others as we investigate a specific technology in more detail. It's vital to understand all the ramifications of using a new piece of technology before it becomes part of a critical development project. After doing the research, I might create a short peer-reviewed report, possibly followed by an informal lunchtime presentation to colleagues. At times we might also be called upon to present our findings to customers or other government departments.
It's a key part of the role of our technologists to act as the point of contact for their technology area. We're all actively involved in disseminating information from elsewhere, at the same time as encouraging our development engineers to undertake research and horizon scanning in order to maintain their technical currency.
Recent areas we've investigated include future internet technologies (and not-so-future- but-still-not-quite-here technologies such as IPv6), the latest wireless standards, issues around the proliferation of computing devices and the latest trends in information and network security protection.