
Ann Macintosh

Ann Macintosh is Emeritus Professor of Digital Governance at the University of Leeds. 
Early life and education.
Macintosh has a bachelor's degree from University of St Andrews.
Career.
In 1999 Macintosh founded the International Teledemocracy Centre (ITC) at Edinburgh Napier University to support interdisciplinary research into eGovernment and eDemocracy. (The term Teledemocracy was not strongly associated with direct democracy at that time.)
Among other projects, from 1999, Macintosh led a collaboration between the ITC, The Scottish Parliament and BT Scotland to create an e-petitions system (e-petitioner). ITC later integrated this with the Parliament's Public Petitions Committee and the Parliament's website. This led to a number of projects, investigating the implementation of e-petitions systems, including continuing to work with the Scottish Parliament, working with the German Bundestag, and working with local authorities in England.
Macintosh led or collaborated in a series of research projects, at the ITC, both theoretical and applied, in the areas of eGovernment and eParticipation, until 2007. She also acted as a specialist advisor for the OECD, the Council for Europe and the Commonwealth Secretariat.
In 2002, Macintosh became the UK's first Professor of e-Governance.
In 2007, Macintosh moved to Leeds University to establish and co-direct the Centre for Digital Citizenship, with Stephen Coleman, in the Institute of Communications Studies (now School of Media and Communication). Macintosh's involvement in high-profile eParticipation collaborations continued at Leeds. Macintosh has also been working with Craven and Harrogate Districts Citizens Advice Bureau on digital access and Universal credit.
Macintosh instigated research into evaluating eParticipation, creating frameworks which reflected the importance of social, political and technical elements.
Macintosh co-founded the IFIP International Conference on eParticipation.
Honors and awards.
She has an honorary PhD from Örebro University (2009) for recognition of her work in eParticipation.