Aged 12 I would stand in the computer store programming their TI-99/4A until I got kicked out. IT is where I was born. Previous lives have included being a senior consultant in the server technology consulting group in Oracle Corporation in the UK; and building high-volume transaction and document processing applications for multiple banks and financial institutions in Europe. I've a degree in Mathematics and Computation from Oxford University.
But I emigrated to telecomland in 2001 to work on a crazy project to re-invent Sprint as the first carrier to become an open application platform, and dodge the evil dumb pipe fate that beckons. Think "i-mode++", but before i-mode was a known success. It was an exciting time, boom and bust. The outcome? Project terminated, VP fired, business unit dissolved. At least I'm a named inventor on 17 patent applications from the project, one of which has just been granted.
With time on my hands, I started a blog jokingly called Telepocalypse to examine the fundamentals of telecom. Things rapidly got out of hand, with me being quoted in Business Week Online, Forbes and WSJ. I soon left Sprint to go consulting.
How to define yourself? I'm a thinker, writer, coder, inventor, agitator, irritant and consultant. If it involves the transport and manipulation of bits of information, I'm interested in it. My current work passion is understanding the effect that the end-to-end model has on telcos and the IT industry. "The Network is the Computer" presages a massive collision between these two industrial ecosystems. The outcome is still unclear, and the effects will be dramatic. Our economic and social progress is closely linked to the systems we use to create, manage and distribute information. I'm also working on the future of this strange software application we call "telephony".
Now I do "Voice 2.0" and "stupid network" type analysis for big players in the telecom industry, and freelance work for interesting start-ups. I'm also actively involved in the Telco 2.0 initiative, which takes up most of my time.
I'm based in Edinburgh, Scotland. One wife, two kids, three PCs.
I am not and have never been a postman.
I am available for consulting work worldwide.