Michael Aldrich: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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==Personal life==

Michael Aldrich was born on 22 August 1941 in [[Welwyn Garden City]], [[Hertfordshire]], England. He went to school at [[Clapham College]] in London and, in 1959, he won a scholarship to the [[University of Hull]] to study History. He became engaged to Sandy Kay Hutchings, a student at Hull Art College, originally named [[Hull School of Art]], in 1960, and they married in 1962, just prior to his graduation. They had four children and were grandparents to eight grandchildren.<ref name="aldricharchive.comaldrichbio">[httphttps://www.aldricharchive.comco.uk/biography.html ''Biography, Aldrich Archive'', University of Brighton]</ref>

==Career==

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Although the Teleputer had been conceived for mass market home use, it was put into production for business use with the TV tuner removed. There was no consumer electronics market for it (at the time the consumer electronics market was just waking up to the VCR) but it was relatively easy to cost-justify the Teleputer for business networking.<ref>1981 Charlish.G ''Enter the Teleputer, all purpose information tool, Financial Times'' London 2 October 1981 [http://www.aldricharchive.com/downloads/guardian%20and%20ft%20articles.pdf]</ref> It was widely used in the UK and, because a Cyrillic version was made, in the then USSR.

The Teleputer was often used with the Online Shopping systems. Most computer systems by their nature are transient but many of Aldrich's systems were transformative. A number were recorded for posterity and case studies have survived.<ref>''Pioneer Case Studies, Innovative Information Systems, Aldrich Archive'', University of Brighton, England [httphttps://www.aldricharchive.com/pioneer_csco.htmluk/pioneers-of-online-shopping] and [httphttps://www.aldricharchive.com/innovative_informationco.htmluk/innovative-information-systems]</ref> The world's first recorded Business-to-Business (B2B) Online Shopping system was [[Thomson Holidays]] (1981).<ref>1988 Palmer.C ''Using IT for competitive advantage at Thomson Holidays, Long range Planning'' Vol 21 No.6 p26-29, Institute of Strategic Studies Journal, London- Pergamon Press [now Elsevier.B.V.] December 1988. Original story at [http://www.aldricharchive.com/downloads/Thomson.pdf]</ref> The world's first recorded Business-to-Consumer (B2C) online shopping system was [[Gateshead]] SIS/[[Tesco]] (1984).<ref>1984''Videotex takes Gateshead Teleshopping into the home, The Incorporated Engineer'', Journal of the IEE September 1984 p.6 [http://www.aldricharchive.com/downloads/videotex%20takes%20gateshead.pdf] The original story can be found at [http://www.aldricharchive.com/downloads/IM_Gateshead%20Council.pdf]</ref> The world's first recorded online home shopper was Mrs Jane Snowball, 72,<ref>2013 BBC News Magazine: 'Online Shopping: The pensioner who pioneered a home shopping revolution' Denise Winterman and Jon Kelly. 16 September 2013 [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24091393]</ref> of Gateshead, England in May 1984.<ref>''Gateshead celebrates world's first online shopper'' and the Mrs Snowball interview can be found at [httphttps://www.aldricharchive.com/Snowballco.htmluk/finding-mrs-snowball]</ref> The Gateshead system had an Online Shopping Basket (later renamed Online Shopping Trolley) invented by Aldrich's colleague John Phelan.<ref>2011 'John Phelan Application Developer and Project Manager' Aldrich Archive, University of Brighton [httphttps://www.aldricharchive.comco.uk/pioneer_ref_rocc_john_phelan_.htmljohn-phelan]{{Dead link|date=April 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

Some of the most interesting{{According to whom|date=August 2010}} B2B applications in the surviving case studies were in the auto industry. [[Peugeot]]-Talbot (1981), then trading as Talbot Motors, installed a system for dealers to locate and adopt both a new car from the manufacturer or a used car from other dealers. [[Ford Motor Company|Ford]] (1982) installed systems with ISPs in Brentwood England and Valencia Spain that permitted dealers in many European countries to buy new cars from Ford or transfer existing new cars from other dealers' lots. [[General Motors]] (1985) used systems for selling truck spares. The [[Nissan]] (1984) systems were truly revolutionary.{{Citation needed|date=August 2010}} They combined car purchase by the dealer from the manufacturer (known in the industry as 'adoption') with car sale and financing to the consumer.<ref>1988 ''Behind the driving wheel at NISSAN, Aldrich Archive'', University of Brighton, [http://www.aldricharchive.com/downloads/NISSAN.pdf]</ref> The Nissan systems networked credit ratings from outside agencies (mainly UAPT Infolink 1985)<ref>1985 ''Uapt/Infolink, Innovative Information Systems'' Aldrich Archive, University of Brighton [http://www.aldricharchive.com/downloads/INFOLINK.pdf] Summer 1985</ref> and finance provision from either Nissan or other suppliers in real-time as part of the complete consumer purchasing transaction. This is the world's first recorded B2C online shopping for high value consumer durables and a model for the complex internet-based online shopping transactions for consumer durables that followed 20 years later. The Nissan system was copied by other credit rating and finance companies at the time but these systems appear to have been supplied by Aldrich's company under confidentiality agreements and no record is extant.<ref>''Introduction, Innovative Information Systems, Aldrich Archive'' Para 9, University of Brighton [httphttps://www.aldricharchive.com/innovative_informationco.htmluk/innovative-information-systems]</ref>

Aldrich's systems directly changed the holiday, retail, auto, finance and credit ratings industries. Online shopping was an important development for [[electronic commerce]]. E-commerce changed the way the world does business. Both of his B2C systems in [[Gateshead]] and [[Bradford]] were shopping and information services. Bradford Centrepoint (1987) even ran a news service at one point. These systems were pioneering pre-internet systems.<ref>1993 Cahill.M ''Computer Technology and Human Services in the 1990s: Advancing Theory and Practice: Teleshopping and Social Services in the UK'', 'Computers in Human Services' Vol. 9 [3/4] London 1993</ref>

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Aldrich's original intention had been to develop a consumer electronics market for IT systems linked to a concept for broadband interactive information processing and cable TV distribution. He had a particular schema for a wired community.<ref>1982 Aldrich.M 'Videotex Key to the Wired City' Quiller Press London {{ISBN|0-907621-12-0}}</ref> He campaigned successfully to change the law in the UK to permit new cable TV technology.<ref>1982 Aldrich.M co-author'Cable Systems'HMSO London {{ISBN|0-11-630821-4}}</ref>

Aldrich articulated and broadcast the ubiquitous business and social potential of his mass communications medium concept of IT and created systems to realise that dream, sold and installed them, and created satisfied clients. Well known in the 1980s in the UK, he was all but forgotten 20 years later. His ideas were copied, plagiarised and patented in the 1990s without acknowledgement.<ref>Introduction to the Aldrich Archive, Aldrich Archive, University of Brighton [httphttps://www.aldricharchive.comco.uk/introduction.html-to-the-archive]'None of the US Patents[ for online shopping and the online shopping trolley] mention Michael Aldrich, John Phelan or Redifon/Rediffusion/ROCC'</ref> Thomson Holidays reverse-engineered his system (the sincerest form of homage in the computer business)<ref>1989 Allan E. Altar 'The Great Chiefs of Europe-Colin Palmer' CIO Magazine, IDG UK February 1989 pp29-31</ref> and in the peer-reviewed 1988 report used his language while virtually air-brushing his contribution. For online shopping he produced both the system and the business rationale for using it. The tie between his online shopping systems and the innovative information systems he created is the concept that videotex was a new, mass communications medium. That was the giant conceptual leap from the world of EDP to modern IT, emancipating computing from corporate information centres, and a precursor to the development of the Apple Mac and Microsoft Windows approaches to universal human/computer interface design for PCs and the Apple iPhone 3G. {{Citation needed|date=August 2010}}

The three areas of his work in consumer electronics — [[online shopping]] /[[remote work]]ing / [[online banking]], Home Information Centres and broadband cable TV—and his book, papers and UK Government reports represent a significant contribution to the development of contemporary IT mass communications, consumer information and transaction systems, electronic commerce and e-business. Aldrich's ideas are the basis for Internet [[home shopping]]. In June 2011 an ICM Poll in the UK voted Aldrich's date of birth as the 7th most important date in the history of the internet.<ref>[https://archive.today/20120805011429/http://www.kelkoohistoryoftheinternet.co.uk/ 2011 ICM Poll UK]</ref> In April 2012 the UK Intellectual Property Office (formerly the UK Patents Office) nominated Aldrich for a public poll to identify the UK Visionary Innovator to celebrate World IP Day on 26 April. He came 4th in the Poll.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ipo.gov.uk/wipd-2012/wipd-2012-innovators.htm |title=Visionary Innovators |access-date=26 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120426121241/http://www.ipo.gov.uk/wipd-2012/wipd-2012-innovators.htm |archive-date=26 April 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

He was also an innovator in other areas of computer and information technology including large-scale data capture, mixed media scanning, minicomputer networking, voice response and handprint processing. He patented the world's first static signature recognition system in 1984. He founded ROCC Computers in 1984 after a management buy-out of Rediffusion Computers. The company traded mainly in the UK and Eastern Europe.<ref name="aldricharchive.comaldrichbio"/>

===High-profile IT projects===

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The first project for which evidence survives was to provide a system to automatically read handprinted timesheets for the nationalised railway, [[British Rail]] with over 100,000 employees, to complete the weekly payroll (1978). Regional centres were established throughout the UK. Scanners were used to read timesheets and for other applications. The systems were used for many years.<ref>[http://www.aldricharchive.com/downloads/ocr%20and%20scanning%20British%20rail%201978.pdf 1978 ''British Rail, Aldrich Archive'', University of Brighton]</ref>

The largest project was the Siberian Gas Pipeline for [[Gazprom]] (1981–83) where 46 computer systems with 1200 terminals and 240 Teleputers were networked to provide logistics support for the operation of the pipeline. Every aspect of the project was fraught with difficulties,

including political, technical, environmental, technical support, economic and resourcing problems. Some 1500 Russian hardware and software specialists were trained. The system was the most advanced IT system then installed in the USSR. It was used for many years.<ref>[httphttps://www.aldricharchive.comco.uk/ussr.html ''USSR, Aldrich Archive'', University of Brighton]</ref>

The largest European project was the [[Ford Europe]] system (1981–83) for dealers to locate and adopt a car, an online shopping system for dealers in the UK and much of Europe networking to systems based in the UK and Valencia, Spain. The system was used for nearly two decades.<ref>[http://www.aldricharchive.com/downloads/Ford.pdf 1985 ''Ford, Aldrich Archive'', University of Brighton]</ref> The largest UK project, apart from the Inland Revenue (the UK IRS), was the pricing of over 334 million medical prescriptions per annum for the Prescription Pricing Authority (1981–83, now [[NHS Prescription Services]]), part of the UK's single provider health system. These systems were used throughout the UK for a decade or more. The most politically sensitive project was probably the cattle passport system for the [[British Cattle Movement Service]] to address the [[Bovine spongiform encephalopathy|BSE]] (mad cow disease) crisis in 1998.<ref>1988 ''British Cattle Movement Service, Aldrich Archive'', University of Brighton, [http://www.aldricharchive.com/downloads/bcms.pdf]</ref> There were hundreds of other projects.

The legacy of these projects is somewhat perverse. Leading-edge technology was seen to work well and to be reasonably easy to implement. It may have encouraged others to take risks that were not always justifiable. The 1990s onwards in the UK saw a succession of big, failed IT projects.

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Michael Aldrich became a Fellow of the [[British Computer Society]] in 1984 and he was made a Chartered Fellow in 2004. In 1986 he was invited to become a Companion of the [[Chartered Management Institute]], the UK's elite management leadership organization. He is an Honorary Fellow of the [[Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals]]. In 2002 he was awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters by the University of Brighton for services to Information Technology.

Michael Aldrich was invited to address an invited audience including British Royalty on 23 March 1983 in Edinburgh, Scotland to mark the 25th Anniversary of the founding of the British Computer Society.<ref>1983 ''HRH Duke of Kent etc,'Computing', Aldrich Archive'', University of Brighton 14 April 1983 [http://www.aldricharchive.com/cuttings/1983/teleputers%20apr%2083.pdf]</ref> The speech was titled 'Computers in the Community.'<ref>1983 ''Computers in the Community, Aldrich Archive'', February 1983 University of Brighton, [http://www.aldricharchive.com/papers/1983/Computers%20In%20The%20Community%20Feb'83.pdf]</ref>

In 1987 Michael Aldrich was made a Freeman of the City of London, England. He became a Founder Member of the Company of Information Technologists which became a Chartered City Livery in 1992. The Company's membership consists of senior IT professionals. He is a Liveryman of the [[Worshipful Company of Information Technologists]].<ref>[http://www.aldricharchive.com/biography.html ''Biography, Aldrich Archive'', University of Brighton]<name="aldrichbio"/ref>

===Information Technology Advisory Panel 1981–86===

In 1981, at the beginning of the IT age, the British Government assembled a team of six UK IT experts, on a ''pro bono'' basis, to provide high-level advice to the government. This team was known as the Information Technology Advisory Panel. It reported to Prime Minister Mrs Margaret Thatcher and was located in the Cabinet Office adjacent to 10 Downing Street in London, England. In its five-year existence it produced three reports for publication by the government. Little else is known about its activities.

Michael Aldrich was a member of the team for the whole term of its existence. He wrote a seminal paper on re-cabling the UK with local loop broadband cable and paying for it without government subsidy by distributing cable television alongside data and telephone services.<ref>1981 Aldrich.M. ''The Original Discussion Paper, Aldrich Archive'', University of Brighton [httphttps://www.aldricharchive.com/original_discussionco.htmluk/the-original-discussion-paper]</ref> The panel then wrote a report, published it and the government subsequently changed the law to legalise such systems.<ref>1982 Aldrich M.co-author ''Cable Systems'', London- HMSO 1982 {{ISBN|0-11-630821-4}}</ref> By 2007, 12 million UK homes were passed by these high-speed broadband links.<ref>2008 Aldrich M. ''Cable Story, Aldrich Archive'', University of Brighton [http://www.aldricharchive.com/cable_story.html]</ref>

The second report concerned the emerging software and information business and, among other issues, identified the potential power of providers who might control both content and electronic delivery.<ref>1983 Aldrich M. co-author ''Making a Business of Information'' London- HMSO 1983ISBN 011 6308249</ref> The third report was a long-range forecast of the potential effects of IT on schools and teaching and it predicted powerful PCs on school desks.<ref>1986 Aldrich M. co-author ''Learning to Live with IT'', London- HMSO 1986 {{ISBN|0-11-630831-1}}</ref> The Panel was disbanded in 1986.

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===University of Brighton===

Michael Aldrich first became involved with the then Brighton Polytechnic in 1977 when he was sponsoring student employees for degrees in electronic engineering and computer science. Under the sponsorship, employees were paid to attend college full-time for degrees. In 1982 he joined the governing body of the college, became Chairman and then Founding Chairman of the University of Brighton. In all he served 17 years on the governing body of the institution, 11 years as Chairman (1987-1998). He retired from the Board of Governors in 1999. In 1990 he was responsible for appointing Professor (later Sir) David Watson as the first Vice-Chancellor (1990-2005). A particularly talented leadership team developed the new university and for 1999 the University was declared 'University of the Year' by the London 'Sunday Times' newspaper. In 1992, Aldrich became Founding Chairman of the University's Foundation a fundraising body. The Aldrich family has been a longtime benefactor of the University. In 1995 Michael and wife Sandy began the Aldrich Collection of Contemporary Art which, by 2009, had grown to more than 300 works dating back over 100 years.<ref>Selected Works:The Aldrich Collection at the University of Brighton, ed Miles.B,2000. {{oclc|319718969}}

</ref> The works have been created mainly by former students and artist professors at the University's highly rated Faculty of Art.<ref>'The Aldrich Collection' Jonathan M Woodham, Art and Design in Brighton 1859-2009, the University of Brighton Centre for Research and Development 2009, pp 387-393 {{ISBN|978-1-905593-58-3}}</ref> The works are also held in web-accessible digitised form to provide a permanent virtual gallery.<ref>[http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/collections/aldrich Aldrich Collection Faculty of Art University of Brighton]</ref> In 1996 the University named its new business, bio-sciences, engineering and technology library the 'Aldrich Library.' In 2002 Aldrich relinquished the chairmanship of the Foundation and remained a Trustee. In 2008, Michael Aldrich agreed to donate his IT papers for the period 1977-2000, the Aldrich Archive, to the University for teaching, learning, scholarship and research. Much of the first part of the archive which relates to technology and events has been digitised and is web-accessible.<ref>[httphttps://www.aldricharchive.com/indexco.htmluk/collected-papers Michael Aldrich Archive, University of Brighton]</ref> The second phase of the archive project was launched in 2010. It will gather and digitise material relating to the people who built and used the systems.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.brighton.ac.uk/news/2010/100304aldrich_archive.php?PageID=8100 |title=2010 University of Brighton News Release, 4 March 2010 |access-date=10 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110614121958/http://www.brighton.ac.uk/news/2010/100304aldrich_archive.php?PageID=8100 |archive-date=14 June 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In November 2010 the University of Brighton Business School announced that it would be using the Aldrich Archive for teaching and research. A Michael Aldrich Prize would be awarded to the outstanding e-commerce student on merit each year.<ref>2010 'Getting down to Business with the help of the Aldrich Archive' University of Brighton [http://www.brighton.ac.uk/news/2010/101110aldrich_archive.php?PageId=810]{{Dead link|date=April 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> The first awards were made in the Summer of 2011.<ref>[httphttps://www.aldricharchive.com/michael_aldrich_prizeco.html uk/the-michael-aldrich-prize The Michael Aldrich Prize, University of Brighton]</ref>

Aldrich died on 19 May 2014.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.theargus.co.uk/announcements/deaths/obituary/11236944.Michael_ALDRICH/ | title=Michael Aldrich | newspaper=The Argus | date=27 May 2014 | accessdate=5 June 2014 }}</ref>

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*'Online Shopping in the 1980s' Aldrich M 'Annals of the History of Computing' IEEE Oct-Dec 2011 Vol 33 No4 pp57–61 ISSN 1058-6180

Michael Aldrich was a prolific writer of magazine articles, conference papers and speeches.

Some have survived.<ref>[httphttps://www.aldricharchive.comco.uk/collected-papers.html ''Collected Papers, Aldrich Archive'', University of Brighton]</ref> Some are available from commercial publishers. Many have been lost or destroyed.

==References==

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