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A Real Innovator
How Alan Haberman changed the world—and me.
By Kevin Ashton
Aug. 29, 2011—At one of my first RFID standards meetings, in Antwerp, Belgium, in early 1999, I sat next to a man who introduced himself as chairman of the International Standards Organization's RFID committee. Alan Haberman had silver hair and a beard that would have matched if it weren't stained yellow from nicotine. When he spoke, he did so with passion and authority, and everybody listened. At times, his thunderous cough drowned all discussion. After one coughing storm, he slumped forward and seemed to stop breathing. Unsure what to do, I offered his lifeless body a glass of water. Suddenly, he sat up, thanked me and took a sip.
After the meeting, we agreed to talk over coffee. Instead, he ordered martinis for us. He told me that, in addition to his work on international RFID standards, he had chaired the committee that developed the UPC bar code and was on the board of the Uniform Code Council. We talked into the night about a dream we shared—to make RFID the successor to the UPC, and to put it everywhere. I told him about some researchers I had met at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He told me he wanted to meet them.
A few weeks later, one of those researchers, Sanjay Sarma, called me to say he had just met Alan for lunch, watched him consume a rare steak and two martinis, and been offered money to start a Center for Automatic Identification and Data Capture. Within months, Alan had driven MIT to create the center. When we all sat down to celebrate that July, he told us it was his 70th birthday. A few months later, at a Smithsonian Institution exhibit in Washington, DC, celebrating 25 years of the UPC bar code Alan had helped create, we announced the Auto-ID Center (I persuaded him to change the name over a cocktail at Boston's Logan Airport) and our plans to create an Electronic Product Code. Alan became the Auto-ID Center's founding chairman.
Alan brought his vision, energy and wisdom to a second revolution. During meetings, he was loud, enthusiastic and impatient. He would cuss, and he would smoke, and we would wait patiently while he coughed. His Mad Men-era manners risked getting us in trouble, so we instituted behavior guidelines he called the "anti-Haberman rules." When his health flagged, around 2001, he kicked his cigarette habit and came to meetings with an oxygen tank. Within months, Alan had recovered, and his beard sparkled with silver. By this time, the RFID revolution he had inspired was well under way.
Alan, who died on June 12, at age 81, of heart and lung disease, also had a profound impact on my world. Thanks to him, I immigrated to the United States, where I found a home and built a family and career. I miss Alan. I wish I could offer him a glass of water and bring him back again now.
Kevin Ashton was cofounder and executive director of the Auto-ID Center.
Aug. 29, 2011—At one of my first RFID standards meetings, in Antwerp, Belgium, in early 1999, I sat next to a man who introduced himself as chairman of the International Standards Organization's RFID committee. Alan Haberman had silver hair and a beard that would have matched if it weren't stained yellow from nicotine. When he spoke, he did so with passion and authority, and everybody listened. At times, his thunderous cough drowned all discussion. After one coughing storm, he slumped forward and seemed to stop breathing. Unsure what to do, I offered his lifeless body a glass of water. Suddenly, he sat up, thanked me and took a sip.
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A few weeks later, one of those researchers, Sanjay Sarma, called me to say he had just met Alan for lunch, watched him consume a rare steak and two martinis, and been offered money to start a Center for Automatic Identification and Data Capture. Within months, Alan had driven MIT to create the center. When we all sat down to celebrate that July, he told us it was his 70th birthday. A few months later, at a Smithsonian Institution exhibit in Washington, DC, celebrating 25 years of the UPC bar code Alan had helped create, we announced the Auto-ID Center (I persuaded him to change the name over a cocktail at Boston's Logan Airport) and our plans to create an Electronic Product Code. Alan became the Auto-ID Center's founding chairman.
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| Alan Haberman, right, at a 2003 Auto-ID Center board meeting. |
Alan, who died on June 12, at age 81, of heart and lung disease, also had a profound impact on my world. Thanks to him, I immigrated to the United States, where I found a home and built a family and career. I miss Alan. I wish I could offer him a glass of water and bring him back again now.
Kevin Ashton was cofounder and executive director of the Auto-ID Center.
