fbpx

The stories of the pioneering people behind IT

This expanding database contains more than 200 oral histories recorded by the Archives of IT team. They tell the extraordinary story of how the Tech industry has transformed our lives, in the words of the people who made and are making it happen.

You can filter interviews by subject area below or use the Search button at the top of the page. If you know who you are looking for, use our A-Z list here.

Filter by:

Vin Murria OBE

Vin Murria is an outstandingly successful serial creator of  ‘Tech Unicorns’, businesses that grow to be valued at over $1Bn.  A key mentor gave her the chance, straight out of university, to run a company and she learned from him the trade of management, acquisition, turnaround and then start-up of her own new businesses.  In conversation with Jane Bird for Archives of IT she talked about how her early life and upbringing equipped her for a career as a Tech Entrepreneur and gave us some insights into how successful companies work and how to build them.  In an industry that struggles to attract its fair share of women, she tells how she achieved her success in spite of (or maybe with the benefit of) the triple challenge of being young, Asian and female, observing that diversity brings many benefits to business.

Alan Newell

Alan Newell is Emeritus Professor at Dundee University. He has spent over forty years conducting research in Human Computer Interaction, primarily into supporting elderly and disabled people. He founded and headed the Dundee University’s School of Computing, and later set up the Queen Mother Research Centre, an important academic group, researching digital systems for older and disabled people. In 2000 He was awarded an MBE, for services to IT and communication for people with disabilities. 

Dr. A. Michael Noll

Dr Noll has been active in the Internet and Computing industries for over 60 years and a theme of this conversation is that there is nothing new under the sun. Michael is an entertaining speaker and a great communicator: I am indebted for his kind and clear explanation that his birthplace of “Nork, New Jersey” is not be linguistically confused with our town of “New-Ark on Trent.”

He started his career with an incisive paper in 1961 about the opportunities and dangers that computers might bring and has seen much of it come to pass. Michael’s career has spanned a huge range of technologies and it is fascinating to see that many big ideas were conceived in the very early days of commercial computing but had to wait to realise their potential. Michael, for his PhD, built a haptic or force-feedback device (and patented the concept) 50 years ago and still has a vision of how more could (and will) be done with the technology. He can cite at lease two false starts to the realisation of what we now know as the Internet, to which he made his own contributions as well as being an acute observer of its potential and use.

Michael is an outstanding scholar, Professor Emeritus and former Dean of the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, an enthusiast for the Arts, including his own role in them, and a world-renowned pioneer of Digital Computer Art.

John O’Connell

John O’Connell is a high-profile London-based technology entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist. He founded Staffware, one of the then leading software companies in the UK, which he sold in 2004. Since then he has personally invested in fourteen technology businesses, having chaired the vast majority of them. He also chaired and co-owned the professional rugby club then known as London Wasps. At present he is Chairman of Active Navigation, and he is the founder and Chairman of ScaleUp Group,