Sabine K McNeill

Born as Sabine Kurjo in Silesia, I survived the bombing of Dresden as a 4-months-old baby thanks to my then 22-year-old mum. I grew up in the North of Germany (near Bremerhaven), finished school in the South (Munich), studied mathematics and computing in the middle (Darmstadt) and started work as a systems analyst at CERN the European Centre for Nuclear Research in Geneva, where the web was born.

In 1973 I was sent to Lawrence Radiation Lab in Berkeley, but a physicist friend of mine fell asleep while driving and we fell for 25 feet. Even though the doctor of the insurance company said I will not suffer in later life, I have not been without pain ever since. But I am realigning my skeleton most successfully with Bikram Yoga.

In 1981 I came to London with the vision of a ‘peace network’ of people and computers protecting our planet. I created “Turning Points @ St. James’s” and ran it until 1988. It still continues today as Alternatives.

I organised many other events, conferences and seminars and co-founded ‘NetReach’ – Networking Computers and Reaching out to People by Computer.

In 1988 I married Ian R McNeill who as a young man had been the Assistant Director of the Greater London Council. I learned from him how to write in English and together we wrote the book “Only Connect – The Art and Technology of Networking for Personal Change and Global Transformation”.

Since 1996 I wrote and withdrew five patent applications, produced four pieces of prototype software and participated in many scientific seminars and conferences. I constantly need to compare why, although my thinking is ‘outside the box’, it makes sense: if and only if, it is expressed via software.