Ian Clarke (computer scientist)

Clarke grew up in Navan, County Meath, Ireland.{{cite web |url=http://blog.locut.us/about/ |title=About Ian - Locutus of Blog |publisher=Blog.locut.us |date= |accessdate=2016-06-05 |archive-date=12 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190212222525/http://blog.locut.us/about/ |url-status=dead }} He was educated at Dundalk Grammar School and while there, he came first twice in the Senior Chemical, Physical, and Mathematical section of the Young Scientist Exhibition. The first time, in 1993, was with a project entitled "The C Neural Network Construction Kit". The second time, the following year, was with a project entitled "Mapping Internal Variations in Translucency within a Translucent Object using Beams of Light".{{cite web|author=Ian Clarke, I.Clarke@dynamicblue.com |url=http://www.sanity.uklinux.net/tblob.html |title=Ian Clarke's Homepage: Projects: Cloud Maps |accessdate=2016-06-05 |url-status=unfit |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100420222912/http://www.sanity.uklinux.net/tblob.html |archivedate=20 April 2010 }}

In 1995, Clarke left Dundalk to study Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. While at Edinburgh, he became president of the then dormant Artificial Intelligence Society, resulting in its revival.{{cite web|url=http://www.linkedin.com/in/iancjclarke |title=Ian Clarke |publisher=LinkedIn |date= |accessdate=2016-06-05}} In Clarke's final year at Edinburgh, he completed his final year project, entitled "A Distributed, Decentralised Information Storage and Retrieval System". In July 1999, after receiving a 'B' grade for his paper, he decided to release it to the Internet and invited volunteers to help implement his design. The resulting free software project became known as Freenet, and attracted significant attention from the mainstream and technology media.{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/05/10/business/cyberspace-programmers-confront-copyright-laws.html | title = Cyberspace Programmers Confront Copyright Laws| author = John Markoff| work=The New York Times | date = 10 May 2000}}{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1216486.stm | work=BBC News | title=Coders prepare son of Napster | date=12 March 2001}}{{cite news| url=http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/12/19/internet.freedom/index.html?iref=allsearch | title=Fighting for free speech on the Net | work = CNN | date = 19 December 2005}}

In August 1999, Clarke began his first full-time job as a software developer in the Space Division of Logica plc, a London-based software consulting company. In February 2000, he left Logica to join a small software start-up called Instil Ltd. In August 2000, he left London for Santa Monica, California, where he co-founded Uprizer, Inc. with the intent of commercializing some of his Freenet-related ideas.{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/18/business/media/18thoof.html | work=The New York Times | first=John | last=Markoff | title=Another Attempt to Match Readers and Relevant News | date=18 June 2007}} In January 2001, Uprizer Inc. successfully raised $4 million in Series A round venture funding from investors including Intel Capital.{{cite web|url=http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/P2P-Love-your-enemy/0,130061791,120221443,00.htm |archive-url=https://archive.today/20070527005630/http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/P2P-Love-your-enemy/0,130061791,120221443,00.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=27 May 2007 |title=Latest Topics |website=ZDNet.com.au |date=2015-06-30 |accessdate=2016-06-05}}

In March 2001, Clarke published an article describing FairShare, developed in collaboration with Uprizer's co-founders, Steven Starr and Rob Kramer. Clarke was concerned that copyright would become increasingly difficult to enforce in the Internet age, the goal of Fairshare was to provide an alternative to copyright as a way to compensate creators.{{cite web|url=http://freenetproject.org/fairshare.html |title=The Freenet Project - /Fairshare - beginner |accessdate=23 October 2006 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070314205708/http://freenetproject.org/fairshare.html |archivedate=14 March 2007 }}

In September 2002, after leaving Uprizer, Clarke formed Cematics LLC to explore a variety of new ideas and opportunities. Cematics LLC developed a number of products including Locutus - a P2P search application for the enterprise, WhittleBit - a search engine that learns from user feedback,{{cite web|title=Search Engine Learns From User Feedback|url=http://science.slashdot.org/story/03/08/11/1722244/Search-Engine-Learns-From-User-Feedback?art_pos=1|publisher=Slashdot}} and 3D17, a web-based collaborative editing tool.{{cite web|title=Large Scale Collaborative Editing|url=http://slashdot.org/story/03/10/30/1819241/large-scale-collaborative-editing|publisher=Slashdot}}

In October 2003, Clarke decided to leave the United States to return to Edinburgh, Scotland. In December 2004, he began work on Dijjer, a distributed P2P web cache, and Indy, a collaborative music discovery system, both in conjunction with ChangeTv, a company founded by his long-time collaborator, Steven Starr, who later brought in Clarke and Oliver Luckett as co-founders. In 2003, he was named to the MIT Technology Review TR100 as one of the top 100 innovators in the world under the age of 35.{{cite web|url=http://www.technologyreview.com/tr35/?year=2003 |title=2003 Young Innovators Under 35 |publisher=Technology Review | year=2003 | accessdate=16 August 2011}}

ChangeTv changed its name to Revver Inc. and unveiled a new website in November 2005 that strove to let creators of short videos earn revenue from their work.{{cite news| url=https://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2005-10-30-video-ads_x.htm | work=USA Today | first=Gary | last=Gentile | title=Start-up aims to make online video profitable | date=30 October 2005}} Revver was one of several user-created video websites unveiled in late 2005, but was the first such website to financially compensate video creators, and is reminiscent of Fairshare.

In December 2006, Clarke left Revver and moved to Austin, Texas.{{cite web|url=http://newteevee.com/2006/12/20/two-revver-founders-leave/ |title=Two Revver founders leave |accessdate=7 September 2009 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090917011332/http://newteevee.com/2006/12/20/two-revver-founders-leave/ |archivedate=17 September 2009 }} There, Clarke founded a new company, SenseArray, which is a drop-in ad targeting engine based on a proprietary algorithm developed by Clarke.{{cite web|url=http://sensearray.com/ |title=Sense Array : Welcome |accessdate=29 July 2008 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080730025150/http://sensearray.com/ |archivedate=30 July 2008 }} In October 2009, he released Swarm,{{cite web|url=https://code.google.com/p/swarm-dpl/ |title=Google Code Archive - Long-term storage for Google Code Project Hosting |website=Code.google.com |date= |accessdate=2016-06-05}}{{cite web|title=Swarm — a New Approach To Distributed Computation|url=http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/10/11/1738234/Swarm-mdash-a-New-Approach-To-Distributed-Computation?from=rss|publisher=Slashdot}}{{cite web|url=http://howsoftwareisbuilt.com/2010/01/20/interview-with-ian-clarke-luminary-and-freenet-creator/#swarm |title=Interview with Ian Clarke – Luminary and Freenet Creator |accessdate=12 July 2010 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100730194315/http://howsoftwareisbuilt.com/2010/01/20/interview-with-ian-clarke-luminary-and-freenet-creator/ |archivedate=30 July 2010 }}{{cite web|url=http://www.scala-lang.org/node/3485 |title=Swarm - Concurrency with Scala Continuations | The Scala Programming Language |website=Scala-lang.org |date=2009-09-28 |accessdate=2016-06-05}} a novel approach to distributing computation across multiple computers in a manner largely transparent to the programmer.

In January 2012, Clarke co-founded OneSpot, with the goal of creating "ads that don't suck". Over the next 3 years, he designed a real-time bidding engine capable of consistently outperforming Google Adwords.{{Cite web|url=https://vimeo.com/137999578|title=Realtime Bidding: Predicting the future, 10,000 times per second|website=Vimeo|access-date=2016-08-22}} In March 2012, he open sourced LastCalc,{{cite web|url=http://lastcalc.com/ |title=LastCalc |website=Lastcalc.com |date= |accessdate=2016-06-05}} an online calculator he intended to provide an open and more flexible alternative to tools like Google Calculator.{{cite web|title=LastCalc Is Open Sourced|url=http://science.slashdot.org/story/12/03/10/186201/lastcalc-is-open-sourced|publisher=Slashdot}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

• [http://blog.locut.us/ Ian Clarke's blog]
• {{LinkedIn URL|https://www.linkedin.com/in/iancjclarke}}
• [http://deviantnation.com/magazine/article/Ian-Clarke/The-Digital-Hive/ Interview on Deviant Nation]
• [http://www.uprizer.com/ Uprizer Labs LLC]

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Category:1977 births

Category:20th-century Irish people

Category:21st-century Irish people

Category:Irish computer scientists

Category:Irish computer programmers

Category:Irish expatriates in the United States

Category:Living people

Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh

Category:People from Navan

Category:People educated at Dundalk Grammar School

Category:Scientists from County Meath