You created the first market analysis software for Microsoft... Yes, that system was developed in 1993 for Steve Ballmer and they still use it to this day. In fact, they feature a lot of its components in Excel. I also worked for Alan Sugar in the mid-80s. I always say the two years I worked for him brutally trained me for the IT industry.
Any changes in the IT industry since then? It was about 1983 that I first joined it and the PC was really just being born. The one thing you did notice then was the industry was very arrogant. They never captured any data about what they sold. The internet has allowed an electronic relationship with the end user. That's eating away a lot of that old arrogance.
What's the idea behind the E-cademy? Teaching people e-business. We started in February 98 and now have 65 corporate clients. If you look in internet dog years I've been on the net for six years, making me a 42 year internet veteran! That's a lot of service. I often tell people that I've effectively been studying for 15,000 hours, so I think that now gives me enough experience to be a teacher.
Do you think there's a new desire to regulate the internet? I do see increased regulation such as the Regulation of Investigatory Powers bill and the e-commerce bill and others. People are perceiving the network to be purely an economic phenomenon, but it's also a social and political one.In Sweden they're considering making broadband free to every home so the network becomes a public service. If the net does become a public service, paid for out of our taxes - which I do support - then we are going to have a lot of regulation.
Is the PC a transient platform? We've heard the "PC is over" for 10 years now and still they continue to sell in bucketloads! It's a bit like the idea that video is killing cinema. The moment that you put any kind of software and processor inside a device -whether it's a mobile phone, a toaster or a microwave - then it is a PC!
Any favourite places on the net? I have a passion for very high quality hotels in unique places. There's a website called Small Luxury Hotels that I really like. A favourite search engine is All The Web which can do an exact phrase match and respond in less than half a second. It's also indexed more sites than AltaVista. I also have a passion for DLJ Direct because I do all my stocks and shares there.
Do you see the portal becoming increasingly important? Yes. I believe that Yahoo could be the next Microsoft. It could grow into the most valuable company in the world: I can see it on every device. They have 120m subscribers to their service and they're basically providing whatever that number ask for. They could be the monster of this decade.
The E-cademy can be found at: www.theecademy.com
