T3 - Tech 100

Frontline news hound in Silicon Valley

Based in California’s web 2.0 lovenest Silicon Valley, Shiels is at the frontline of all things tech, bringing her UK audience news the latest news on her neighbours Google, Apple, Facebook and Twitter.

“When someone thinks about technology launches they think hardware but I believe the technology that has really come into its own over the last year are social networks. They have staked a claim as a serious communications tool; not just for friends and colleagues but for nations and oppressed people the world over,” Shiels told us.

Even the BBC is not immune to challenges over biased behaviour: “When it comes to some of my most read stories, put the name Apple, Google or Microsoft on it and the hits are massive. So too as the complaints as we deal with readers accusing us of favouring/dissing one company over the other”.

“One recent story that had really hit the more read and shared section had celebrity, death, the internet and the hobbling of the mighty Google all rolled into one. I am sure you will have guessed it, but it was how Michael Jackson's untimely death knocked the internet off course. That is one of the fun parts of my job. Seeing how real life events are shaped by and shape technology.”