A tech wizard who built his first computer at the tender age of 10 is looking ahead to the next Internet revolution.

Karl Gjertsen – who has lived in Biggleswade for the past four years – used his expertise in the industry to start up his own company, Infiniforms, which helps businesses, charities and clubs to create online forms quickly and securely.

As well as helping organisations locally – for instance Biggleswade United who needed to make membership forms online – Karl has also been involved in Government projects such as its online visa application system, and you can even find his computer software in Harrods.

Karl said: “When I was 10 years old, I built my own Sinclair ZX81.

“It came with 1kb of memory, which was great at the time, but tiny when you compare it to the 32,000,000kb of memory an average iPhone has today.

“The software wasn’t downloaded, it had to be typed in by hand and often took hours, especially by the time you found all of the typos.

“The IT industry has changed dramatically over the last 20 years.

“The Internet has revolutionised the way we live and work.

“20 years ago, most people bought a computer and it was never connected to the Internet, now if a computer does not have Internet access, it is pretty useless.

“Mobile devices are a huge driver of change too and have led to a decline in desktop computers.

“Phones with larger screens and tablets are replacing desktop computers.

“The rate of change is still increasing and the next big revolution will be in The Internet of Things, small devices that are connected to, and controlled over, the Internet.

“This will bring a range of new challenges for the IT industry, especially around security.”

Karl’s motivation for his job – as well as his love of working on puzzles and creating computer software – is helping people to use technology to make their lives easier.

“Writing computer software is like a puzzle,” he said. “You have to find the steps to get to the solution.

“I love puzzles and I love writing computer software.

“Infiniforms also lets me help businesses to use technology, even if the person using our website isn’t an IT expert.

“We are always increasing the number of third party integrations we have, allowing us to connect with other systems and make life more convenient for our users.

“We also offer our services for free to charities and good causes.”