The ThreadPoint Institute for Infrastructure Literacy
Understanding the systems shaping modern life
The ThreadPoint Institute for Infrastructure Literacy is the research, writing and public inquiry arm of ThreadPoint, created to examine how children, communities and public institutions understand the physical systems behind digital life.
We explore the infrastructure that sits beneath everyday technology: data centres, cloud computing, AI, networks, connectivity and the people, places and systems that make digital life possible.
As digital systems become increasingly embedded into education, healthcare, work, creativity, public services and daily communication, infrastructure literacy is becoming a social and educational challenge, not just a technical one.
Most people use the internet every day without understanding where it lives, what it depends on, or how it shapes the places around them.
We exist to help bridge that gap.
The Institute is led by Willow Williams, a digital infrastructure specialist, Churchill Fellow, founder of ThreadPoint and author of Where the Internet Goes to Sleep, one of the first children’s books of its kind introducing data centres and digital infrastructure to young learners.
Willow’s 2026 Churchill Fellowship field research explores how communities, councils, schools and infrastructure providers engage around data centre development, with a particular focus on what the UK can learn from international models across the USA, UAE, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark.
Fellowship findings, reports and research outputs will be published through the Institute.
Our Research Focus
Our current research focus includes public understanding of cloud, AI and digital infrastructure; community engagement around data centre and digital infrastructure development; the role of schools, libraries and local authorities in infrastructure literacy; pathways for girls, state school pupils and underrepresented young people into digital infrastructure careers; and practical tools that help communities, councils and infrastructure providers build trust earlier.
Through this work, the Institute explores how complex digital systems can be made more visible, understandable and accessible to the people and places they affect.
Fellowship findings, reports and research outputs will be published through the Institute.
Why Infrastructure Literacy?
Infrastructure literacy should become part of how society understands the modern world.
It belongs in conversations about computing education, AI readiness, digital inclusion, planning, public trust and future skills. Not as an add-on, but as a foundation.
Children are growing up in a world shaped by systems they are rarely taught to understand: data centres, cloud computing, AI, networks, energy systems, connectivity and the built infrastructure that makes digital life possible.
Communities are also being asked to live alongside, approve, trust and adapt to infrastructure they may not fully see or understand.
If we want young people and communities to participate meaningfully in the future, they need more than digital skills. They need to understand the systems behind the screen.
This matters especially for girls, state school pupils, young people of colour, neurodiverse learners and communities who are often underrepresented in the built environment, technology and infrastructure sectors.
Children cannot aspire to careers in systems they cannot see. Communities cannot meaningfully engage with infrastructure they have not been given the language to understand.
Infrastructure literacy helps make those systems visible.
It gives children, communities, educators, councils and policymakers a shared language for understanding the infrastructure shaping everyday life.
Current Research and Public Work
Current work includes Churchill Fellowship field research, public infrastructure literacy workshops, curriculum-aligned educational resources, community insight gathering, industry engagement, long-form writing and policy exploration.
The Institute’s work sits across computing education, digital inclusion, AI readiness, public trust, community engagement and infrastructure literacy, with a focus on making the systems behind digital life more visible, understandable and accessible.
From Awareness to Pathways
The ThreadPoint Institute is developing a long-term infrastructure literacy pipeline, from first encounter in early years through to secondary education, skills development and career entry.
We believe some of the children who will build tomorrow’s digital infrastructure are already sitting in our workshops.
Our work is to make sure that early curiosity is recognised, supported and connected to meaningful pathways, so that every child, regardless of background, postcode or gender, has the opportunity to understand, question and shape the systems behind digital life.
Publications & Writing
The Institute publishes essays, articles, reflections, field observations, research outputs and education commentary on infrastructure literacy, digital infrastructure, public understanding and community engagement.
This work is intended to support broader conversations across education, industry, policy and public life, helping to make the systems behind digital life more visible, understandable and open to public discussion
A Long-Term Project
Infrastructure literacy is not yet a recognised field.
The ThreadPoint Institute is a long-term project. Through research, writing, education and public engagement, we intend to help make it one.
Get in Touch
For research enquiries, collaboration or press contact: