Paul Davis (programmer)

{{BLP sources|date=July 2011}}

Paul Davis (formerly known as Paul Barton-Davis{{Cite web|url=http://equalarea.com/paul/name.html|title = Paul Davis (Was Paul Barton-Davis)}}) is a British-American{{Cite web|url=https://www.admiralbumblebee.com/music/2018/02/20/Interview-with-Paul-Davis-of-Ardour-about-Ardour-6-and-more.html|title = Interview with Paul Davis of Ardour about Ardour 6 and more}} software developer best known for his work on audio software (JACK) for the Linux operating system, and for his role as one of the first two programmers at Amazon.com.[https://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.03/bezos_pr.html "The Inner Bezos"], Chip Bayers, Wired 7.02{{cite news|url=http://www.zdnetasia.com/what-if-the-alphabet-was-patented-39224138.htm|title=What if the alphabet was patented?|last=Yu|first=Eileen|date=April 1, 2005|work=ZDNet|access-date=31 July 2011}}

Davis grew up in the English Midlands and in London. After studying molecular biology and biophysics, he did post-graduate studies in computational biology at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot and EMBL in Heidelberg.[http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/10295 "Paul Davis: an Ardour for the Challenge"], Jun 01, 2009, Dave Phillips, Linux Journal

He immigrated to the U.S. in 1989. He lived in Seattle for seven years, where he worked for the Computer Science and Engineering Department at the University of Washington,[http://www.ak.tu-berlin.de/menue/edgard-varese-gastprofessur/paul_davis "Paul Davis"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140922061158/http://www.ak.tu-berlin.de/menue/edgard-varese-gastprofessur/paul_davis/ |date=2014-09-22 }}, Institut für Sprache und Kommunikation, Fachgebiet Audiokommunikation and several smaller software companies in Seattle. While in Seattle, he helped to get Amazon.com off the ground during the period 1994–1996, making critical contributions to Amazon's backend systems alongside Shel Kaphan,{{cite web

|url=https://www.businessinsider.com/where-early-amazon-employees-are-now-2017-4

|title=Here's where Amazon's first 21 employees are now

|last=Hartmans

|first=Avery

|date=16 March 2020

|website=www.businessinsider.com

|publisher=Business Insider

|access-date=14 May 2020

}} before subsequently moving to Philadelphia in 1996. In 2019 he moved with his wife to Galisteo, NM{{Cite web|url=https://librearts.org/2020/06/podcast-episode-002-paul-davis-part-1|title = Paul Davis on the deep rewrite of Ardour}}

He went on to fund the development of various audio software for Linux, including Ardour{{cite web |url=https://ardour.org/credits.html | title=Ardour credits page}} and the JACK Audio Connection Kit.{{cite web |url=http://www.techrepublic.com/article/open-source-awards-2004-paul-davis-for-jack/ |title=Open Source Awards 2004: Paul Davis for JACK |publisher=techrepublic.com.com}} He works full-time on free software.

He is also an ultra-marathon runner and touring cyclist.