Michael Aldrich

Michael Aldrich

BACKGROUND

Michael was born on 22 August 1941

Place of Birth in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England.

In 1959, he went to school at Clapham College in London.

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.

In 1962, they married just prior to his graduation.

They have four children and are grandparents to eight grandchildren.

He died on 19 May 2014 at the age of 72 years.

THE CAREER BEGIN

Aldrich spent 15 years with Honeywell and Burroughs in the UK in various sales and marketing roles, where he became known as an innovator, before joining the Board of Redifon in 1977.

Aldrich invented online shopping by connecting a modified domestic TV to a real-time transaction processing computer via a domestic telephone line in 1979.

His concept of information technology as a mass communications medium is a driver for the contemporary IT industry.

His definition of the new mass communications medium as 'participative' was fundamentally different to the traditional definitions of mass communication and mass media and a precursor to the social networking on the Internet 25 years later.

In March 1980 he launched Redifon's Office Revolution.

In 1980 he invented a system he called the 'Teleputer' by connecting a modified 14-inch colour television to a plinth containing a Zilog Z80 microprocessor running a modified version of the CP/M operating system and a chip set containing a modem, character generator and auto-dialler.

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.

The three areas of his work in consumer electronics—online shopping/Teleworking/Telebanking, 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.

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.

In 1984, he patented the world's first static signature recognition system.

He founded ROCC Computers in 1984 after a management buy-out of Rediffusion Computers.

PROFFESION

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 1987 Michael Aldrich was made a Freeman of the City of London, England.

In 2002 he was awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters by the University of Brighton for services to Information Technology.