Kalev Leetaru

Born to Hannes and Marilyn Leetaru,{{cite book|author=Kalev Leetaru|title=Data Mining Methods for the Content Analyst: An Introduction to the Computational Analysis of Content|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rnlw1lZyqa8C&pg=PR5|year=2012|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-89513-2|page=5}} Leetaru co-founded a web company in 1995 while in middle school. His first product was a web authoring suite. (During this time, websites were still built directly into HTML and content management systems; Javascript, and CSS were not used widely.) In 2000, while an undergraduate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Leetaru joined the National Center for Supercomputing Applications there.{{cite web|url=http://www.kalevleetaru.com/vita.pdf|title = Vita|last = Leetaru|first = Kalev|accessdate = June 3, 2014}}{{cite web|url=http://www.kalevleetaru.com/Publish/KauffmanThoughtbook2005_LeetaruBio.pdf|title = Changing the World Through Creative Entrepreneurship: A Profile of University of Illinois Student-Entrepreneur Kalev Leetaru|publisher = Kauffman Thoughtbook 2005 (pages 87-92)}} Leetaru's undergraduate thesis was a history of the University of Illinois and formed the basis for the University of Illinois Histories Project.{{cite web|url=http://uihistories.library.illinois.edu/cgi-bin/cview?SITEID=1&ID=1|title = UIHistories Project|accessdate = June 4, 2014}}

After finishing his undergraduate studies, Leetaru continued working at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, and held positions at the Institute for Computing in the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences and the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the university. In 2013, he started as a Yahoo! Fellow in Residence at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, and in 2014, he was appointed adjunct assistant professor at the university.

Leetaru's research has focused on the use of big data and networks and their utility in prediction, including analyses of Wikipedia, Twitter, and geopolitical events.{{cite web|url=http://www.kalevleetaru.com/|title = Research|last = Leetaru|first = Kalev|accessdate = June 4, 2014}}

Leetaru is best known for his role as the co-creator of the Global Database of Events, Language, and Tone (GDELT) with Philip Schrodt. He currently maintains the database and the underlying code.{{cite web|url=http://gdeltproject.org/about.html|title = About GDELT|publisher = The Global Database of Events, Language, and Tone|accessdate = June 4, 2014}}{{cite web|url = http://ideas.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/04/10/what_can_we_learn_from_the_last_200_million_things_that_happened_in_the_world|title = What can we learn from the last 200 million things that happened in the world?|last = Keating|first = Joshua|authorlink = Joshua Keating|date = April 10, 2013|accessdate = June 2, 2014|publisher = Foreign Policy|url-status = dead|archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20140606210801/http://ideas.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/04/10/what_can_we_learn_from_the_last_200_million_things_that_happened_in_the_world|archivedate = June 6, 2014}}{{cite web|url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21829165.600-worlds-largest-events-database-could-predict-conflict.html|title = World's largest events database could predict conflict|last = Heaven|first = Douglas|publisher = New Scientist|date = May 13, 2013|accessdate = June 2, 2014}}

Leetaru is a contributor to Foreign Policy, where he discusses current political events worldwide, often drawing from GDELT data for his analyses.{{cite web|url=https://foreignpolicy.com/voices/leetaru|title = Kalev Leetaru|publisher = Foreign Policy|accessdate = June 4, 2014}}

Leetaru's analysis of the relationships between articles on Wikipedia, sponsored by Silicon Graphics International, was covered in The New York Times.{{cite web|url=http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/14/how-big-data-sees-wikipedia/|title = How Big Data Sees Wikipedia|last = Hardy|first = Quentin|date = June 14, 2012|accessdate = June 4, 2014}} He has also been cited in The Wall Street Journal in an article about Twitter usage.{{cite web|date=April 8, 2014|title=The Race to Locate Twitter Users|url=https://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/04/08/the-race-to-locate-twitter-users/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140409065352/https://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/04/08/the-race-to-locate-twitter-users/|archive-date=April 9, 2014|accessdate=June 4, 2014|publisher=The Wall Street Journal}} He has been cited in The Washington Post in connection with GDELT{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/03/24/what-big-data-can-tell-us-about-the-relationships-between-world-leaders/|title = What big data can tell us about the relationships between world leaders|last = Taylor|first = Adam|date = March 24, 2014|accessdate = June 4, 2014|newspaper = The Washington Post}} and as an expert on foreign affairs.{{cite news|url=http://voices.washingtonpost.com/washingtonpostinvestigations/2008/12/report_white_house_deleted_coa.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20140604163932/http://voices.washingtonpost.com/washingtonpostinvestigations/2008/12/report_white_house_deleted_coa.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 4, 2014|title = Report: White House Deleted 'Coalition of the Willing' Lists|date = December 8, 2008|accessdate = June 4, 2014|newspaper = The Washington Post}}

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