Adrian Holovaty
{{short description|American web developer, musician, entrepreneur}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Adrian Holovaty
| image = Adrian Holovaty in 2009.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Adrian Holovaty in 2009
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1981}}
| birth_place = Naperville, Illinois
| death_date =
| death_place =
| nationality = American
| other_names =
| known_for = Django Web framework
| occupation = web developer, musician, entrepreneur
| alma_mater = Missouri School of Journalism (B.A., 2001)
}}
Adrian Holovaty (born 1981) is an American web developer, musician and entrepreneur from Chicago, Illinois, living in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He is co-creator of the Django web framework and an advocate of "journalism via computer programming".
Life and career
Holovaty, a Ukrainian American, grew up in Naperville, Illinois and attended Naperville North High School. While serving as co-editor of the high school's newspaper, The North Star, a censored article about a faculty member sexually assaulting a student reignited an anti-censorship debate in the Illinois house of representatives.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/09/28/us/school-newspaper-in-illinois-revives-a-debate-over-censorship.html |title=School Newspaper in Illinois Revives a Debate Over Censorship |work=The New York Times |date=28 September 1997 |access-date=20 May 2020 }} He graduated from the Missouri School of Journalism in 2001 and worked as a web developer/journalist for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Lawrence Journal-World and The Washington Post before starting [http://www.everyblock.com/ EveryBlock], a web startup that provided "microlocal" news, in 2007.{{cite web|url=https://www.holovaty.com/writing/microlocal/|title=Goodbye hyperlocal, hello microlocal - Holovaty.com|website=holovaty.com|access-date=14 July 2018}}
While working at the Lawrence Journal-World from 2002 to 2005, he and other web developers (Simon Willison, Jacob Kaplan-Moss and Wilson Miner{{cite web|url=https://www.docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/internals/committers/#internals-committers|title=Django committers|website=djangoproject.com|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140716123229/https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/internals/committers/|archivedate=July 16, 2014|access-date=January 1, 2022}}) created Django, an open source web application framework for Python. He and Kaplan-Moss served as the framework's Benevolent Dictators for Life until January 2014.{{cite web|url=https://www.holovaty.com/writing/bdfls-retiring/|title=Adrian and Jacob retiring as Django BDFLs - Holovaty.com|website=holovaty.com|access-date=14 July 2018}} The pair wrote The Django Book, first published in 2007.
In 2012, he and PJ Macklin founded Soundslice,{{Cite web |title=Soundslice {{!}} Create living sheet music |url=https://www.soundslice.com:443/ |access-date=2025-04-12 |website=Soundslice |language=en}} a website for learning, practicing and teaching music, via "interactive sheet music" that is synced with real audio and video recordings.{{cite web| url=http://www.soundslice.com/about/ |title=About Soundslice |publisher=Soundslice LLC |date=December 2023}}
In 2018, he was named co-chair of the W3C Music Notation Community Group, given responsibility over developing MNX, a new, open format for encoding music notation.{{cite web| url=https://www.w3.org/community/music-notation/2018/12/19/co-chair-announcement/ |title=Co-Chair Announcement |date=19 December 2018 |publisher=W3C Music Notation Community Group |access-date=29 Dec 2023}}
= Guitar =
Holovaty is a Fingerstyle and Gypsy jazz guitarist. Since 2007 he has posted videos of his acoustic guitar arrangements on YouTube, building an audience of more than 30,000 subscribers.{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/adrianholovaty|title=Adrian Holovaty|website=YouTube|access-date=14 July 2018}}
In 2023, he released an album of 10 original guitar instrumentals, "Melodic Guitar Music."{{cite web|url=https://www.holovaty.com/melodic-guitar-music/ |title=Melodic Guitar Music by Adrian Holovaty |date=December 2023}}
He has served on the guitar faculty of Django In June, an instructional camp for Gypsy jazz music, for several years.{{cite web|url=https://www.holovaty.com|title=Adrian Holovaty|access-date=29 Dec 2023}}
= Crime mapping innovations =
In 2005, Holovaty launched [https://web.archive.org/web/20070609122443/http://www.chicagocrime.org/ chicagocrime.org], a Google Maps mashup of Chicago Police Department crime data.{{cite web|url=https://www.holovaty.com/writing/chicagocrime.org-launch/|title=Announcing chicagocrime.org - Holovaty.com|website=holovaty.com|access-date=14 July 2018}} The site won the 2005 Batten Award for Innovations in Journalism{{cite web|url=https://www.holovaty.com/writing/316/|title=Batten winner! - Holovaty.com|website=holovaty.com|access-date=14 July 2018}} and was named by The New York Times as one of 2005's best ideas.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/11/magazine/11ideas1-13.html?_r=1|title=Do-It-Yourself Cartography|first=Pamela Licalzi|last=O'Connell|work=The New York Times |date=11 December 2005 |publisher=|access-date=14 July 2018}}
As one of the first Google Maps mashups, it helped influence Google to create its official Google Maps API.{{cite web|url=https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/06/world-is-your-javascript-enabled_29.html|title=The world is your JavaScript-enabled oyster|publisher=|access-date=14 July 2018}} Newspaper sites such as the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times have incorporated a map from EveryBlock, the successor to chicagocrime.org, into their web sites.Street Wise: http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/June-2009/Street-Wise/
In 2007, Holovaty was awarded a $1.1 million Knight Foundation grant and left his job as editor of editorial innovations at washingtonpost.com to start EveryBlock, the successor to chicagocrime.org.{{cite web|url=https://www.holovaty.com/writing/knight-foundation-grant/|title=Knight Foundation grant - Holovaty.com|website=holovaty.com|access-date=14 July 2018}} On August 17, 2009, EveryBlock was officially acquired by MSNBC.{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.niemanlab.org/encyclo/everyblock |title= EveryBlock |author= Nieman Journalism Lab |date= |encyclopedia=Encyclo: an encyclopedia of the future of news |publisher= |access-date=1 April 2012}} The terms of the deal were not disclosed.{{cite web|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna32443365|title=MSN - Outlook, Office, Skype, Bing, Breaking News, and Latest Videos|website=NBC News|access-date=14 July 2018}} In February 2013, NBC News announced that it was shutting down EveryBlock.{{cite web |url=http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/07/tech/innovation/everyblock-closed/ |title=NBC News shuts down hyperlocal site EveryBlock |publisher=CNN |date=February 7, 2013 |access-date=February 7, 2013}} The service was re-launched by Comcast NBCUniversal in January, 2014 and operated in Boston, Chicago, Denver, Fresno, Hialeah, Houston, Medford, Nashville, Philadelphia, and Seattle.{{cite web |url=https://corporate.comcast.com/comcast-voices/everyblock-the-online-community-for-your-neighborhood |title=EveryBlock: The Online Community for Your Neighborhood |publisher=Comcast |date=August 26, 2014 |access-date=June 27, 2018}} On July 19, 2018, EveryBlock was acquired by social networking service Nextdoor and shut down.{{cite news |url=https://www.indiawest.com/news/business/nirav-tolia-led-nextdoor-acquires-chicago-s-everyblock-neighborhood-news/article_93e18fd2-974c-11e8-8ac2-a71f9d746063.html |title=Nirav Tolia-led Nextdoor Acquires Chicago's 'EveryBlock' Neighborhood News Site |publisher=IndiaWest |date=August 5, 2018 |access-date=March 23, 2020 |archive-date=September 15, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210915090816/https://www.indiawest.com/news/business/nirav-tolia-led-nextdoor-acquires-chicago-s-everyblock-neighborhood-news/article_93e18fd2-974c-11e8-8ac2-a71f9d746063.html |url-status=dead}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.holovaty.com Holovaty.com] - personal site
- [https://www.youtube.com/adrianholovaty YouTube videos]
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Category:American male guitarists
Category:American online journalists
Category:American people of Ukrainian descent
Category:American computer programmers
Category:Free software programmers
Category:Guitarists from Illinois