The representation of the Industrial Revolution in the 2012 Olympic Games as a disruptive and traumatic event reflects the way in which we envisage the changes currently associated with digital and network technologies. However, many of the key figures of nineteenth-century industrialisation, such as Brunel, saw transformation as a more piecemeal and gradualist process. It will be suggested that we need to take a similar approach in thinking about the development and deployment of digital methods in the academic community.
