John Naughton

=Early life=

John Naughton was born and raised in Ireland, that part of which he himself describes as being “like the edge of the world—in a remote part of rural Ireland, in a household with few books, magazines, or television.” [Naughton 2000, p5.]

Radio days

As a boy, John Naughton was a great [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless "wireless"] [Radio was actually called wireless in those early days; "radio was a posh word". Naughton 2000, p5.] fan, especially of short wave.For [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longwave_radio longwave "wireless"] he remembers that the stations were identified by the physical locations of their transmitters: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Droitwich ‘Droitwich’] , [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilversum ‘Hilversum’] , [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxembourg ‘Luxembourg’] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athlone ‘Athlone’] [Naughton 2000, p6.] . Other stations on the long-wave band that he remembered were: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minsk Minsk] , [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalundborg Kalundbourg] [Note that the current spelling is Kalundborg.] , [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ankara Ankara] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brasov Brasov] .

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium_wave Medium wave radio] pointed to another collection of locations with "glamorous connotations": [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bordeaux Bordeaux] , [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm Stockholm] , [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rennes Rennes] , [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna Vienna] and somewhere called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mühlacker Mühlacker] .

Of all the things that interested him about the wireless-technology of the time it was the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortwave short wave radio] that held the key to what he later recognized was a link to the present World Wide Web:

“For this [short-wave radio] was a technology which belonged not to great corporations or governments, but to "people".” [Naughton 2000, p7.]

For Naughton, the early days of radio mirror and inform the experience of the early days of the Internet (the Net) and the World Wide Web.

In 1968 he moved to the United Kingdom.

Education

Naughton went to primary school with the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congregation_of_Christian_Brothers Christian Brothers] and with the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesuits Jesuits] . Later, he studied at the University College Cork and the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanuel_College,_Cambridge Emmanuel College in Cambridge] . As an undergraduate he became involved with student politics, and as a consequence started to write for newspapers and developed his writing skills. [http://molly.open.ac.uk/Personal-pages/OAQs.htm John Naughton's Personal Homepage] ] He is an electrical engineer and also works as a journalist. [http://systems.open.ac.uk/page.cfm?pageid=JohnNhome Open University Systems Department Website] ]

Academia

Naughton started working as an academic in the Open University's systems workgroup in 1972. He was appointed as a professor of the Public Understanding of Technology at the Open University in 2006.

Other Occupations

John Naughton is Director of the Wolfson College, Cambridge Press Fellowship Programme, non-executive Chairman of RAB-eye and of Ndiyo. He is also a founding partner of Ellipsian, a Cambridge-based ideas factory.

Personal life

John Naughton met his Wife Sue in England while working together on a project of the Open University. They had three children, named Annie, Thomas and Peter.Tragically, his wife Sue died in 2002 after a battle with cancer.

Publications

Naughton wrote a book which has become a standard on the history on the Internet:
*"A Brief History of the Future: Origins of the Internet", Phoenix Press, 2000, ISBN 0-7538-1093-X

He also writes a weekly column for the Business Section of The Observer.

Notes

References

1. cite book | last = Naughton | first = John | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = A Brief History of "the" Future: the origins of the Internet | publisher = Phoenix | date = 2000 | location = London | pages = | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 0-75381-093-X

External links

* [http://molly.open.ac.uk/ Homepage at the Open University ]
* [http://kmi.open.ac.uk/people/marc/2006/06/20/naughton-tells-it-like-it-is/ Inaugural Lecture]
* [http://systems.open.ac.uk/page.cfm?pageid=JohnNhome/ Open University Systems Department Website] ***Page Not Found*** 2008-09-08
* [http://memex.naughtons.org/ John Naughton's Online Diary]