Ian Angell

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Ian Angell is a noted futurologist and professor of Information Systems at the London School of Economics, well known for his radical views on capitalism and the information age,, which he portrays in his book The New Barbarian Manifesto. He has been given a number of nicknames by mainstream publications: The Times calls him "the Angell of Doom," The Guardian, "the Guru of Gloom." and The Independent on Sunday has crowned him as the 'Prophet of the 21st Century'.
Angell is regularly featured on BBC and known in the international lecture circuit, and has been dubbed, "The only intellectually honest new conservative," by the Toronto Star.

[edit] Education

Educated at the University College of Wales Swansea and at Royal Holloway College, University of London, Angell is an outspoken author known for his very radical and constructive views on his subject, and he is very critical of what he calls “the pseudo science of academic Information Systems.” His highly articulate presentations of his controversial position means he is in great demand as a speaker on the international lecture circuit. Apart from his keynote talks on Computer Security, on business strategy in a world globalized through ICT, he is also well known for his workshops on new tactics for sales and marketing using the Internet, and for his pragmatic, down-to-earth and outspoken views on electronic commerce and developments in the telecommunication industry.

He holds a Phd in Algebraic Number Theory and previously held positions as a lecturer in Computer Science at Royal Holloway College and a senior lecturer at University College London. He has written numerous books on 3D Graphics, Knowledge Management and Information Systems. For the past twenty years, he has concentrated on strategic information systems, organisational and IT policies. A particular specialty was the study of Systemic Risk. On his initiative the LSE created a Research Centre for the study of Computer Security.

[edit] Work

Professor Angell acts as a consultant on the management and strategic impact of information systems, to many national and international organizations and to a number of governments and the EU. Until 2000 he was a personal advisor to the Cabinet of the Director General of UNESCO (Federico Mayor), and he has consulted for the Russian Ministry of Science on the impact of IT on employment. In January 1998 he was invited to present his ideas to the Malaysian National IT Council and had private meetings with both the Malaysian Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and the (now ex-) Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. He has also come to the attention of some very senior international businessmen and politicians who have invited him for private discussions about his ideas.

His work has generated substantial media interest, and he is frequently interviewed for radio (particularly Radio 4, BBC Wales, BBC World Service and Radio Scotland) and television. Appearances include all five British terrestrial channels, Sky, NBC, CNN, and national television in Australia, Canada, Hungary, Italy, and Poland, as well as many business satellite channels. His ideas concerning ‘the future of work’ and ‘the future of money’ have been reported widely in newspapers from as far a-field as Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Éire, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, India, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Malaysia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and of course the USA. Major titles reporting his work include the Wall Street Journal, the Toronto Star, Independent, Times, Evening Standard, Guardian and Financial Times, the Sunday Mirror, the Scotsman, Marketing Weekly, Computing, Computer Weekly - the on-line version of Wired Magazine, Director Magazine and even the KLM in-flight magazine! The Independent on Sunday called him a ‘Prophet of the 21st Century’ and used his ideas for a three-page article, and the Times Interface magazine printed a two-page cover article on his ideas. He has spoken at conferences for Fortune (New York, Colorado Springs) and the FT (Berlin). He presented his ideas before the Parliamentary IT Committee at the Palace of Westminster to a cross party group from both Lords and Commons, and they were “profoundly disturbed” and “visibly shaken” by his forecasts. He was nevertheless invited to be the first to give evidence to the House of Lords Select Committee on e-commerce in Europe, where he “managed to knock the gyroscope over.”

His growing reputation comes as the culmination of over twenty years work developing a new perspective on information systems, stressing that the social, economic and organizational issues are more important than the technological ones: even the very best investment in new technology can be a source of commercial risk, if the societal aspects are not managed properly. This alternative position is having wide ranging repercussions both in educational and business circles in the UK and increasingly abroad. In particular he emphasises that even the very best software and investment in the Internet will be a total waste and the cause commercial risks if the complexity caused by societal aspects are not managed properly. He has gained a certain notoriety worldwide for his aggressive polemics against the inappropriate use of artificial intelligence and so-called knowledge management, and against the hyperbole surrounding ‘e-commerce.’ His research work concentrates on strategic information systems, on computers and risk (opportunities and hazards), and on organizational and national I.T. policies.

The CEO of Warner-Lambert wrote to him saying that, because of a presentation he had made to W-L senior executives in Orlando, the company was changing its whole approach to Internet business. He prefers to promote his ideas on these topics on the Net, radio and television, and in popular magazines and newspapers rather than academic journals, which he claims are becoming increasingly irrelevant to commerce because the business environment changes too rapidly for a publication date that often lags a year behind the times.

Professor Angell has delivered over one hundred and fifty talks to many well-known international companies and national organizations. He has had the honour of stepping in at short notice to cover for the absences of both President Mikhail Gorbachev (for Stern Stewart in Chartes) and Senator Edward Kennedy (for Zefer at Harvard).

Undoubtedly it is his radical and controversial views on the global consequences of IT that has brought him such a high profile reputation as a ‘futurologist’ in business circles and in the media. Articles in the Independent, the Times and the Guardian, his interviews in the Guardian and Independent on Sunday concerning ‘off-planet banking’ and the ‘bit tax’, ‘A Step into the Unknown’ in the Times, Melvin Bragg’s In our Time on Radio 4, BBC television programmes Stories my country told me and the Hollow State, as well as BBC News 24's Hard Talk, and many discussion programmes on Channel 4 including ‘the Big If’ and ‘the Future of Money’, extended TV interviews in Canada on Pamela Wallin Live and Future World, and in Australia on Beyond 2000, all have created enormous interest worldwide.

Samples of his radical writings can be found on his web-site - http://www.ianangell.com. January 2000 saw the publication of his book The New Barbarian Manifesto, in which he lays out his advice on how to win in an increasingly complex, brutal and brutish world. This book is having an impact worldwide (it is already translated into Chinese and Korean), and even reached number 5 in the Amazon.com best-sellers list in Brazil! In April 2000 he undertook a media tour of the United States to promote his book, with TV and radio interviews in New York, Yonkers, Washington, Chicago, Seattle, Olympia, Dallas and Fort Worth.