Tom Coates is a technologist and writer focused on the shape of the web to come and building products that thrive within it. He's worked for many large technology companies including Time Out, the BBC and Yahoo! where he was Head of Product for the new product incubator Brickhouse.

Most recently he created the location sharing service Fire Eagle and defined Yahoo!'s User Location Strategy. He's spoken at many national and international conferences about social software, the web of data, location and future media services. Now independent, he helps new product development as a consultant and start-up advisor. He writes—occasionally—at plasticbag.org.