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 May 26, 1949) is an American computer programmer. He is famous for creating the very first wiki. A wiki is a website that lets many people easily add, change, or remove content. He also helped write the Manifesto for Agile Software Development. This is a set of ideas for making computer programs better and faster.
Ward Cunningham is seen as a pioneer and an innovator in the world of computers. He also helped develop ideas like software design patterns and extreme programming. These are ways to organize and build computer software. He started working on the first wiki, called WikiWikiWeb, in 1994. He launched it online on March 25, 1995. He also wrote a book about wikis called The Wiki Way with Bo Leuf.
Cunningham often gives important speeches at conferences. He has spoken at WikiSym, which is about wiki research. He also spoke at the Wikimedia Developer Summit in 2017 and the MediaWiki Users and Developers Conference in 2024.
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Ward Cunningham's Early Life and Education
Ward Cunningham was born in Michigan City, Indiana, on May 26, 1949. He grew up in Highland, Indiana. He finished high school there.
He went to Purdue University. He earned two degrees there, one in engineering and another in computer science in 1978. After college, he started a company called Cunningham & Cunningham with his wife. This company helps other businesses with their software needs.
Cunningham has also worked at other technology companies. He was a director at Wyatt Software. He was also a main engineer at Tektronix Computer Research Laboratory. He started a group called The Hillside Group. This group helps people learn about and use software design patterns.
Ward Cunningham's Career Journey
From 2003 to 2005, Cunningham worked for Microsoft. He was part of a team that focused on software patterns. Later, he worked at the Eclipse Foundation. There, he helped build a community for software developers.
In 2009, he became the chief technology officer for a company called AboutUs.org. In 2011, he moved to CitizenGlobal. This company worked on videos made by many different people. He was their chief technology officer. In 2013, Cunningham joined New Relic as a programmer.
Ward Cunningham's Big Ideas and Inventions
Ward Cunningham is famous for several important ideas he created. His most well-known invention is the wiki. He also developed many ideas in software design patterns. These patterns are like blueprints for building software. His company, Cunningham & Cunningham Inc., specializes in object-oriented programming. This is a way of designing computer programs using "objects."
He also came up with the idea of "technical debt." This means that if you take shortcuts when building software, you might have to do more work later to fix things. He explained this idea in 1992.
In 1995, he created the website and software for WikiWikiWeb. This was the very first wiki on the internet.
In 2001, he was one of the people who signed the Manifesto for Agile Software Development. This document changed how many teams create software.
In 2006, someone asked him if he thought about getting a patent for the wiki idea. He said he didn't think anyone would pay money for it.
Cunningham is also interested in how people edit wiki pages. He sees it as a social experiment. He thinks that even when a wiki page gets worse, it can be part of its journey to becoming stable.
In 2011, Cunningham created something called Smallest Federated Wiki. This tool lets different wikis connect and share information. It uses ideas from software development, like "forking," for wiki pages.
He has also helped improve object-oriented programming. He worked with Kent Beck on class-responsibility-collaboration cards. These cards help programmers design software. He also helps with extreme programming, which is a way to develop software quickly and efficiently. Much of his work was done on the first wiki site.
What is Cunningham's Law?
Ward Cunningham is often linked to a saying called "Cunningham's Law." The idea is: "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 directly.
Steven McGeady named this "Cunningham's Law" in the 1980s. It was first about discussions on Usenet, an early internet system. Now, it's used to describe how other online communities work, like Wikipedia. However, Cunningham himself says he didn't mean it as a rule. He calls it a "misquote that disproves itself."
Ward Cunningham's Personal Life
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Ward Cunningham lives in Beaverton, Oregon. He has a special license from the Federal Communications Commission to be an amateur radio operator. His call sign is K9OX.
He is also the first "Code for a Better World" Fellow for Nike. This means he helps Nike use technology to make the world better.
See also
- Christopher Alexander – Cunningham says Alexander's work influenced his own ideas.
- PatternShare
