Tony Law has been an information technologist for over 40 years, although now retired and undertaking little technology work. This includes updating this website and the blog!
Tony Law has been an information technologist for over 40 years, although now retired and undertaking little technology work. This includes updating this website and the blog!
I joined the world of IT through using computers to analyse results of academic research — in my case, in earth science at Christ Church and at the Department of Geology & Mineralogy (now Earth Sciences) at Oxford University. Before going up to Oxford, I attended Kingswood School in Bath.
I worked for a major London University Computing Service at Queen Mary College for several years. QMC (now Queen Mary, University of London) was at the forefront of developments in inter-networking. The work we did eventually grew into the UK's Joint Academic NETwork (JANET) and contributed to the rise of internetworking (Internet).
I then joined British Petroleum (BP), working for BP Exploration in London in data analysis. I subsequently moved to the Sunbury Research Centre and worked particularly in the development of management architectures for distributed systems, alongside colleagues from the Distributed Software Engineering group at Imperial College. This brought me into contact with the ANSA project for Advanced Networked Systems Architecture (1985-1998), and the Object Management Group.
For much of my time at QMC and BP I also taught for the Open University, an immensely rewarding experience. On "retiring" I returned as an Associate Lecturer but re-retired after a few very rewarding years.
I started work for SmithKline Beecham in 1993, continuing through the merger in GlaxoSmithKline. My role in IT Research includes emerging technology awareness and investigation, and our relationship with external analyst companies such as Gartner, Forrester Research and CSC's Leading Edge Forum.
I left GSK at the end of 2007 to create InformationSpan, a technology research and insight services consultancy. This has ceased trading, but the insights – particularly about how IT organisations best use the insight services – remains.
I am a chartered member (CITP) of the British Computer Society, and a Chartered Engineer.
I am also a member of the Council of the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and a member of the Mineralogical Society of America.
Footnote: "Authobiography" is not a typo. It's the Author's Biography!. Visit InformationSpan for a fuller outline of my history as an IT specialist, and for technology insights see the blog ITasITis.
Please send comments to InformationSpan.