Ward Cunningham facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Ward Cunningham
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Cunningham in December 2011
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Howard G. Cunningham
May 26, 1949 Michigan City, Indiana, U.S.
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| Alma mater | Purdue University |
| Occupation | Computer programmer |
| Years active | 1984–present |
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| Call sign | K9OX |
Howard G. Cunningham, born on May 26, 1949, is an American computer expert. He is famous for creating the very first wiki. He also helped write an important document called the Agile Manifesto.
People call him a pioneer because he came up with new ideas. He also helped develop software design patterns and extreme programming. He started building the WikiWikiWeb in 1994. On March 25, 1995, he launched it on his company's website, c2.com. This was the first wiki ever! He wrote a book about wikis called The Wiki Way with Bo Leuf. He also invented something called the Framework for Integrated Test.
Cunningham has been a main speaker at many important computer conferences. These include the WikiSym conference series and the Wikimedia Developer Summit in 2017. He also spoke at the MediaWiki Users and Developers Conference in Spring 2024.
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Ward Cunningham's Early Life and Education
Cunningham was born in Michigan City, Indiana, on May 26, 1949. He grew up in Highland, Indiana, where he finished high school.
He went to Purdue University. There, he earned a bachelor's degree in engineering and a master's degree in computer science in 1978. He later co-founded Cunningham & Cunningham, a company that helps other businesses with computer software.
Working in Technology Companies
Cunningham has worked in many different roles in the tech world. He was a Director of Research and Development at Wyatt Software. He also worked as a Principal Engineer at the Tektronix Computer Research Laboratory.
He started The Hillside Group, which is a group focused on software design. He also led the Pattern Languages of Programming conference. Cunningham was also a part of the Smalltalk community, which is a group of people who use a certain computer language.
From 2003 to 2005, Cunningham worked for Microsoft. After that, he became the Director of Committer Community Development at the Eclipse Foundation. In 2009, he joined AboutUs as their chief technology officer. In 2011, he moved to CitizenGlobal, a company working with crowd-sourced video. He worked there as chief technology officer. In 2013, Cunningham joined New Relic as a programmer.
Ward Cunningham's Big Ideas and Inventions
Cunningham is famous for several important ideas he created. The most well-known is the wiki. He also developed many ideas in software design patterns. These ideas became very popular thanks to a group called the Gang of Four.
His company, Cunningham & Cunningham Inc., specializes in object-oriented programming. This is a way of designing computer programs. He also came up with the idea of "technical debt" in 1992. This term describes what happens when you take shortcuts in software development.
Creating the First Wiki
In 1995, Cunningham created the website and software called WikiWikiWeb. This was the very first wiki on the internet. A wiki is a website that allows many people to easily add, remove, or change content.
In 2001, he was one of the people who signed the Manifesto for Agile Software Development. This document changed how software teams work together.
In a 2006 interview, he was asked if he thought about getting a patent for the wiki idea. He said he didn't think anyone would want to pay money for such an idea.
Understanding How People Use Wikis
Cunningham is interested in how people edit wiki pages. He sees it as a social experiment. He even thinks that a wiki page changing over time is part of how it becomes stable. He once said, "There are those who give and those who take. You can tell by reading what they write."
In 2011, Cunningham created Smallest Federated Wiki. This tool helps connect different wikis. It uses ideas from software development, like "forking", for wiki pages.
Cunningham has also helped improve object-oriented programming. He worked with Kent Beck on class-responsibility-collaboration cards. He also helps with extreme programming, which is a way to develop software quickly. Much of this work was done together on the first wiki site.
Cunningham's Law
Cunningham is known for a clever idea: "The best way to get the right answer on the Internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer." This means people are often quicker to correct a mistake than to answer a question.
Steven McGeady said Cunningham told him this idea in the early 1980s. McGeady then called it Cunningham's Law. Even though it first described how people talked on Usenet, it now describes how other online communities, like Wikipedia, work. Cunningham himself says it's a "misquote that disproves itself by propagating through the internet." He also says he "never suggested asking questions by posting wrong answers."
Ward Cunningham's Personal Life
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Cunningham lives in Beaverton, Oregon. He has a special license for amateur radio, which lets him talk to people around the world. His call sign is K9OX.
He is also the first "Code for a Better World" Fellow for Nike.
See also
In Spanish: Ward Cunningham para niños
- Christopher Alexander – Cunningham says Alexander's work influenced his own.
- PatternShare
