Ward Cunningham, the developer of WikiWikiWeb

WikiWikiWeb refers to four things: the first wiki, or user-editable website, launched on 25 March 1995 by Ward Cunningham as part of the Portland Pattern Repository (the website was also later known as "WardsWiki"); the Perl-based application that was used to run it, also developed by Cunningham, which was the first wiki software (it was later renamed "WikiBase"); the original general term for wiki websites; and the original term for wiki software.

The software and website were developed in 1994 by Cunningham in order to make the exchange of ideas between programmers easier. The concept was based on the ideas developed in HyperCard stacks that Cunningham built in the late 1980s.^[1][2][3] He installed the software on his company's (Cunningham & Cunningham) website, c2.com, on March 25, 1995. Cunningham came up with the name WikiWikiWeb because he remembered a Honolulu International Airport counter employee who told him to take the Wiki Wiki Shuttle, a shuttle bus line that runs between the airport's terminals. "Wiki Wiki" is a reduplication of "wiki", a Hawaiian language word for fast. Cunningham's idea was to make WikiWikiWeb's pages quickly editable by its users, so he initially thought about calling it "QuickWeb", but later changed his mind and dubbed it "WikiWikiWeb".

The WikiWikiWeb's current WelcomeVisitors page contains the following description:

Welcome to WikiWikiWeb, also known as Ward's wiki or just Wiki. A lot of people had their first wiki experience here. This community has been around since 1995 and consists of many people. We always accept newcomers with valuable contributions. If you haven't used a wiki before, be prepared for a bit of CultureShock. The beauty of Wiki is in the freedom, simplicity, and power it offers. This site's primary focus is PeopleProjectsAndPatterns in SoftwareDevelopment. However, it is more than just an InformalHistoryOfProgrammingIdeas. It started there, but the theme has created a culture and DramaticIdentity all its own. All Wiki content is WorkInProgress. Most of all, this is a forum where people share ideas! It changes as people come and go. Much of the information here is subjective. If you are looking for a dedicated reference site, try WikiPedia; WikiIsNotWikipedia! (last updated 17 October 2010)

Some words are written in CamelCase because this is the markup used to create inter-page links by WikiWikiWeb's software, WikiBase. Later wiki engines, such as MediaWiki, dropped this convention.

WikiWikiWeb and its designated sister sites[link]

This article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject. Please help improve the article with a good introductory style. (November 2009)

See also[link]

• History of wikis
• Wiki

References[link]

External links[link]

• WikiWikiWeb (c2.com/cgi/wiki)
• Search the wiki
• Edit The Front Page Of Wiki
• WikiWikiWeb:WikiBase — the Wiki Base software
• WikiWikiWeb:WikiDesignPrinciples
• WikiWikiWeb:WikiHistory, including comments by Ward Cunningham
• WikiWikiWeb:WelcomeVisitors
• Correspondence on the Etymology of Wiki — Ward Cunningham

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (March 2011)

Ward Cunningham
Cunningham in Portland, Oregon in 2011
Born	(1949-05-26) May 26, 1949 (age 63) United States
Nationality	American
Other names	Ward Cunninghamm, Ward Cuningham, Ward Cuninghamm
Occupation	Computer programmer
Years active	1994–present
Known for	WikiWikiWeb, the first implementation of a wiki
Call-sign	K9OX

Software Testing portal

Howard G. "Ward" Cunningham (born May 26, 1949) is an American computer programmer who developed the first wiki. A pioneer in both design patterns and Extreme Programming, he started programming the software WikiWikiWeb in 1994 and installed it on the website of his software consultancy, Cunningham & Cunningham (commonly known by its domain name, c2.com), on March 25, 1995, as an add-on to the Portland Pattern Repository.

He currently lives in Beaverton, Oregon and is the Co-Creation Czar for CitizenGlobal.^[1] He is Nike's first Code for a Better World Fellow.^[2]

He has co-authored a book about wikis, titled The Wiki Way, and also invented Framework for Integrated Tests. He was a keynote speaker at the first three instances of the WikiSym conference series on wiki research and practice.

Personal history[link]

Cunningham received his Bachelor's degree in interdisciplinary engineering (electrical engineering and computer science) and his master's degree in computer science from Purdue University. He is a founder of Cunningham & Cunningham, Inc. He has also served as Director of R&D at Wyatt Software and as Principal Engineer in the Tektronix Computer Research Laboratory. He is founder of the Hillside Group and has served as program chair of the Pattern Languages of Programming conference which it sponsors. Cunningham was part of the Smalltalk community. From December 2003 until October 2005, he worked for Microsoft Corporation in the "patterns & practices" group. From October 2005 to May 2007, he held the position of Director of Committer Community Development at the Eclipse Foundation.

In May 2009, Cunningham joined AboutUs as its chief technology officer.^[3][4][5] On March 24, 2011 The Oregonian reported that Cunningham had quietly departed AboutUs to join Venice-based CitizenGlobal, a startup working on crowd-sourced video content, as their Chief Technology Officer. He remains "an adviser" with AboutUs.^[6][7]

Ideas and inventions[link]

Cunningham is well known for a few widely disseminated ideas which he originated and developed. The most famous among these are the wiki (the Hawaiian word for "quick") and many ideas in the field of software design patterns. He owns the company Cunningham & Cunningham Inc., a small consultancy that has specialized in object-oriented programming.

In a 2006 interview with internetnews.com Cunningham described his thinking about patenting the Wiki concept when he first developed it.^[8]

He has a current interest in tracking the number and location of wiki page edits as a sociological experiment and may even consider the degradation of a wiki page as part of its process to stability. “There are those who give and those who take. You can tell by reading what they write.”^[9]

Patterns and extreme programming[link]

Cunningham is also well known for his contributions to the developing practice of object-oriented programming, in particular the use of pattern languages and (with Kent Beck) CRC (Class-Responsibility Collaboration) cards. He is also a significant contributor to the extreme programming software-development methodology. A great deal of this work was collaboratively carried out in the first wiki site itself.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ward Cunningham

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Ward Cunningham

• WikiWikiWeb, including his WikiHomePage
• 2012 Dr. Dobbs Interview
• EclipseCon 2006 interview with Ward Cunningham (MP3 audio podcast, running time 20:01)
• Cunningham & Cunningham, Inc.
• The Microsoft patterns & practices group home page
• A Laboratory For Teaching Object-Oriented Thinking (paper introducing CRC Cards)
• The Simplest Thing That Could Possibly Work (2004 interview)
• "The Web's wizard of working together" - profile originally in The Oregonian, December 19, 2005
• Ward's Personal Pages
• https://github.com/WardCunningham - Ward Cunningham on GitHub