San Francisco, USA: Ten billion or more times each day, electronic scanners read data encoded in black-and-white codes—barcodes—printed on or fixed to physical goods. In the upcoming business memoir The Barcode, Paul McEnroe tells his story of leading the team that developed one of the most innovative and influential technologies of our generation.
Paul McEnroe is an award-winning engineer who developed multiple state-of-the-art technologies during his long career, including more than two decades in leadership roles at IBM. McEnroe is best known for his primary role in developing the Universal Product Code (UPC), the barcode used on every product in supermarkets and the retail industry, and the scanners that read them. This year, the barcode celebrates its 50 year anniversary having cemented its place in history—but now Paul is setting the record straight on the real story behind the barcode.
His book, The Barcode is a celebration of the digital age and the entrepreneurial spirit and of the men and women who had the vision, the courage and the fortitude to take an ‘impossible’ idea and make it real. The Barcode tells the real story of the team at IBM that developed the technology we use today, why it was selected in layman’s terms, and in the appendix, why it is superior for the technical community. In its contribution to both global economic prosperity and the quality of daily life few technologies equal the barcode. But who knows the history of the barcode? No one is better suited to tell the story than Paul McEnroe. In so many ways, the story of the barcode is his story.
Barcode scans are so common, so ubiquitous, that we scarcely notice them. They permeate every corner of our lives. They can be found on Mars rovers, children’s toys, luxury brands, and the bottom of the ocean. You are likely wearing some at this very moment without really knowing how they happened or who created them. A truly successful technology becomes invisible. And then, even if you encounter it dozens of times each day, as you do with barcodes, it becomes forgotten.
The Barcode: How a Team Created One of the World’s Most Ubiquitous Technologies (September 19, 2023) will be available on Silicon Valley Press and wherever books are sold.
