Ian Angell

Infobox Scientist
name = Ian O. Angell
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birth_date = bda|1947|07|08
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residence = United Kingdom
citizenship = United Kingdom
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fields = Information Systems
workplaces = London School of Economics
lives = Egham
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Ian Angell (born in 1947 in Neath, South Wales, UK) is a forecaster of the socio-political and business consequences of information and communication technologies (ICT), with over three decades of research experience into the impact of computerization on society. "The Times" calls him "the Angell of Doom", "the Guardian" calls him "the Guru of Gloom", "The Independent on Sunday" crowned him the "Prophet of the 21st Century", and the "Toronto Star" dubbed him "the only intellectually honest new conservative".

He is a Professor of Information Systems in the Department of Management at the London School of Economics (LSE), where he teaches courses on technological innovation and its implications. Angell is well known for his workshops on new tactics for sales and marketing using methods based on (so-called) Web 2.0 social networks, and for his outspoken views on electronic commerce. However, he is best known for his radical support of capitalism in the Information Age, which he portrays in his book "The New Barbarian Manifesto" [ISBN-10: 0749435054] .

Angell appears routinely in the media worldwide (noteworthy are his views on “off-planet banking”, and the future of money), and he often appears on the international lecture circuit - he has stepped in at short notice to cover for the absences of former premier of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev (for Stern Stewart in Chartes) and Senator Edward Kennedy (for Zefer at Harvard).

In 2007, he was elected as a Borough Councillor for the Egham Hythe ward on Runnymede Borough Council in Surrey, United Kingdom. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runnymede_Council_election,_2007]

Education/academic

Educated at the University College of Wales, Swansea {now Swansea University} (BSc Pure Mathematics) and at Royal Holloway College, University of London (Phd in Algebraic number theory). Angell 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 and Information Systems. For the past twenty years, he has concentrated on strategic information systems, organisational and IT policies. On his initiative the LSE created a Research Centre for the study of Computer Security.

Reputation

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 presentations of his controversial position means he is in great demand as a speaker on the international lecture circuit [http://www.speakers.co.uk/csaWeb/speaker,IANANG] ; [http://www.speakers.com/listing.asp?sid=689] ; [http://www.nmplive.com/viewTalent.aspx?id=1351&Pre=TopTen&TCat=Conference] ; [http://www.wcspeakers.com/speaker.cfm?ID=2953] ; [http://www.gordonpoole.com/?artistID=73] . 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 views on electronic commerce and developments in the telecommunication industry.

Angell has acted as a consultant on managing the complexity of information systems to a number of governments and the EU. He was a personal advisor to the Cabinet of Federico Mayor when the latter was Director General of UNESCO, and he has consulted for the Russian Ministry of Science and the Malaysian National IT Council. He presented his ideas before the Parliamentary IT Committee at the Palace of Westminster to a cross party group from the House of Lords and the House of Commons, and they were “profoundly disturbed” and “visibly shaken” by his forecasts. He was 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.”Fact|date=July 2008

At the core of his ideas is the study of systemic risk, where most recently he has been focussing on complexity caused by government regulations. Angell has been particularly vocal in his criticisms of problems caused by intellectual property rights (he is Director of Creative Commons - England and Wales), Anti-Money Laundering regulations, taxation, and Identity Cards. In a debate held at the London Stock Exchange, with Sir Nicholas Montague, the ex-head of H.M. Inland Revenue, he proposed “All Taxation is Theft”; and at the 2008 City Debate held at the Lord Mayor of London’s Mansion House, he spoke in favour of short-termism. He is very active giving presentations and writing articles (see "the Times "column linked below) about “the inevitable and very expensive failure of the UK Identity Card Scheme”.

Published books

including:
*"No More Leaning on Lamp-Posts", Villa Publishing (ISBN 1-902573-07-2)
*"The New Barbarian Manifesto", Kogan Page (ISBN 0-74943505-4)
*"Information Systems Management", with Steve Smithson, Macmillan (ISBN 0-33353681-9)
*"Advanced Graphics on VGA and XGA Cards Using Borland C++", with Dimitrios Tsoubelis, Macmillan (ISBN 0-33356765-X)
*"High-resolution Computer Graphics Using C", Macmillan (ISBN 0-333-49873-9)

References

External links

*http://www.gordonpoole.com/?artistID=73
*http://ianangell.blogspot.com/
*http://www.ianangell.com/
*http://www.lse.ac.uk/people/[e-mail]/
*http://personal.lse.ac.uk/ANGELL/
*http://visionarymarketing.com/signs.html
*http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article3499317.ece
*Ian Angell interview - January 2008 at the London School of Economics [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8607962266616760142&ei=j-eZSJa6MZKEwgOpkbAo&q=ian+angell&vt=lf] & [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7634931268194104086&ei=j-eZSJa6MZKEwgOpkbAo&q=ian+angell&vt=lf]
*Ian Angell on the "Information Revolution and Death of the Nation State" in 1995! [http://www.libertarianalliance.co.uk/lapubs/polin/polin114.pdf]
*http://www.cio.com/article/205801/BLACK_HAT_Professor_Computers_Plus_People_Equals_Risk/
*Ian Angell interview - August 2008 BlackHat Las Vegas [http://www.darkreading.com/tv/tv_popup.asp?doc_id=161055]
*Press on Ian Angell's keynote talk at Black Hat 2008 in Las Vegas [http://www.crn.com/security/209903912] ; [http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/attacks/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=209904015] ; [http://www.gcn.com/online/vol1_no1/46834-1.html?topic=&CMP=OTC-RSS] ; [http://blog.internetnews.com/skerner/2008/08/black-hat-will-technology-lead.html] ; [http://www.emergentchaos.com/archives/2008/08/black_hat_live_blog_keyno.html] ; [http://taosecurity.blogspot.com/2008/08/black-hat-usa-2008-wrap-up-day-1.html]