Phil Archer, Short bio

My short bio, suitable for use in speaker profiles, EU project proposals etc.

A close-cropped picture of Phil Archer in front of a supermarket soft drinks fridge
This is the avatar I usually use. Click for a higher resolution version

Phil Archer joined GS1 - the standards body behind the barcode - in July 2017 to bring an in-depth knowledge of the Web to the world of supply chains for retail, healthcare and more. Early projects include Mobile Ready Hero Images (product images optimised for display on small screens to users with zero attention span), expanding GS1's extension to the schema.org vocbaulary, and most fundamentally, GS1 Digital Link. That's the standard that embeds GS1 identifiers within Web URIs, making products first class citizens of the Web. These projects and more draw on his long experience at W3C, the industry standards body for the World Wide Web. While there, Phil coordinated W3C's work in the Semantic Web and related technologies. The role at GS1 is therefore an application of work done previously at W3C, making product data more accessible and maximising its potential for brand owners, manufacturers, retailers and consumers.

Notable previous projects include several best practice guidelines including Mobile Web Best Practices, Data on the Web Best Practices and its more specialised cousin, Spatial Data on the Web Best Practices. His key themes are interoperability through common terminology and URI persistence.

As well as work at GS1 and W3C, his career has encompassed online safety, broadcasting, teaching, linked data publishing, copy writing, and, perhaps incongruously, countryside conservation. The common thread throughout has been a knack for communication, particularly conveying complex technical ideas to a more general audience.