About

Steve Karmeinsky

Steve Karmeinsky started as an engineer in medical electronics designing and programming microcontrollers for use in medical devices. He then moved into the world of mobile (Cellnet) allegedly as a programmer, but rapidly took over the system's admin of various UNIX systems including a cluster of HP workstation running HP/UX. He then designed and rolled out a wide area tcp/ip (internal) Internet connecting all Cellnet's sites across the UK. He knew Cliff Stanford of Demon Systems and was part of the group that went to UKUUG at Farnborough abd worked out how to build a dial-up Internet Service Provider, which was then implemented in Finchley and was launched as Demon Internet in 1992. Cellnet had built a network that was over capacity and Steve tried to persude them to lease some capacity to Demon, but was consistantly told "no one would want the Internet at home, let alone on their mobile phone" and so he left Cellnet and joined Demon (intially as a contractor and then in 1995 as a full-time employee). He was part of the senior management team as the company was acquired by Scottish Telecom and then floated as THUS Plc. He played a pivotal role in the early days of the UK Internet, helped launch pioneering projects like the first Internet Dance Radio Station (Gaialive.com), and subsequently has been a mentor, advisor, and director for numerous startups and industry bodies. Steve is currently Director at NetTek Ltd, which hosts services under GBNet and other brands. He is also active in industry groups such is NetUK, ISOC UK and and The British Computer Society Council and is known for making technology accessible to both technical and non-technical audiences. Steve also writes a technology blog at Euro Tech News.