Spencer Kimball (computer programmer)

Kimball was born in 1974 to a Latter-day Saint family. He attended the University of California at Berkeley. While still a student in 1995, he developed the first version of GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) as a class project, along with his roommate Peter Mattis.{{cite book|last1=Wallace|first1=Shawn|title=Perl Graphics Programming: Creating SVG, SWF (flash), JPEG and PNG files with Perl|date=2002|publisher=O'Reily Media Inc.|isbn=9781449358310|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NV_4AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA145 |accessdate=July 25, 2015}}{{cite web|last1=Beane|first1=Zachary|title=Spencer Kimball & Peter Mattis|url=http://www.xach.com/gg/1997/1/profile/1/|website=GIMP Gazette|accessdate=July 25, 2015}} Kimball was also a member of a student club at Berkeley called the eXperimental Computing Facility (XCF).{{cite web|url=http://dir.salon.com/story/tech/feature/2000/12/04/xcf/index.html |title=Free Photoshop for the people |accessdate=August 28, 2006 |last=Frauenheim |first=Ed |date=December 4, 2000 |work=Salon.com}} During his time with XCF, he co-wrote the code for GIMP. Kimball said in 1999 that, "From the first line of source code to the last, GIMP was always my 'dues' paid to the free software movement. After using emacs, gcc, Linux, etc., I really felt that I owed a debt to the community which had, to a large degree, shaped my computing development."{{cite web|url=http://www.linuxworld.com/linuxworld/lw-1999-01/lw-01-gimp.html |title=Interview with Spencer Kimball and Peter Mattis |accessdate=August 30, 2007|last=Hackvän |first=Stig |date=January 1999 |publisher=LinuxWorld |archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/19990417052141/http://www.linuxworld.com/linuxworld/lw-1999-01/lw-01-gimp.html |archivedate = April 17, 1999}} Kimball graduated with a B.A. in computer science from Berkeley in 1996.{{cn|date=October 2021}}

After graduation, Kimball mostly ended his relationship with the GIMP development community. He co-founded WeGo, a company providing tools for building web communities, in 1998 and served as the company's co-CTO.{{cite news|last1=Cha|first1=Ariana Eunjung|title=Gnutella-Based Engine Finds Way to Internet|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/pb/archive/business/2000/06/08/gnutella-based-engine-finds-way-to-internet/594730c5-b667-4cb2-be8c-8e881f4c80b5/?resType=accessibility|accessdate=July 25, 2015|newspaper=Washington Post|date=June 8, 2000}} While at XCF, he met Gene Kan, who was also a member, and the two would later begin working together on a file-sharing program for the Gnutella network, the open source Unix/Linux client gnubile.{{cite news|last1=Beato|first1=G.|title=The Last Crash|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2nxQP3qCjFgC&pg=PA78 |accessdate=July 25, 2015|work=`|publisher=SPIN Magazine|date=January 2003}} In 2000, he created a web-based version of GIMP, OnlinePhotoLab.com, that was short-lived.{{cite news|last1=Mook|first1=Nate|title=Open-Source Image Software Fuels Online Photo Lab|url=http://betanews.com/2000/04/12/open-source-image-software-fuels-online-photo-lab/|accessdate=July 25, 2015|publisher=Beta News|date=April 12, 2000}} The technology was subsequently folded into Ofoto's online image manipulation tools.

Kimball started work with Google in Mountain View in 2002{{cite news|last1=Cha|first1=Ariana Eunjung|title=At Google, Not Quite Partying Like It's 1999|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33784-2005Jan24_3.html|accessdate=August 13, 2015|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=January 25, 2005}} and relocated to Google's New York offices in 2004. As one of Google's engineers, he helped spearhead Colossus, a new version of the Google File System.{{cite news|last1=Babcock|first1=Charles|title=CockroachDB: Ultimate In Database Survival|url=http://www.informationweek.com/big-data/software-platforms/cockroachdb-ultimate-in-database-survival/d/d-id/1320700|accessdate=July 25, 2015|publisher=Information Week|date=June 4, 2015}} He also worked on the Google Servlet Engine.{{cite web|url=http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2009/01/opengse-released.html|title=OpenGSE Released|accessdate=January 27, 2009}}

In January 2012, Kimball launched the company Viewfinder along with Mattis and Brian McGinnis, formerly of Lehman Brothers.{{cite news|last1=Mlot|first1=Stephanie|title=Square Buys Photo-Sharing App Viewfinder|url=https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2427911,00.asp|accessdate=July 25, 2015|publisher=PC Mag|date=December 3, 2013}} The company developed an app that allowed social media users to share photos, chat privately, and search photo history without leaving the app.{{cite news|last1=Schmidt|first1=Will|title=Viewfinder Launches Today, Boasts Strong Communications, Privacy, and Personality|url=http://tech.co/viewfinder-launches-today-boasts-strong-communications-privacy-and-personality-2013-07|accessdate=July 25, 2015|publisher=Tech Cocktail|date=July 16, 2013|archive-date=May 9, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160509132630/http://tech.co/viewfinder-launches-today-boasts-strong-communications-privacy-and-personality-2013-07|url-status=dead}} The company was acquired by Square, Inc. in December 2013.{{cite news|last1=Novellino|first1=Teresa|title=Square doubles down on engineers with Viewfinder|url=http://upstart.bizjournals.com/money/loot/2013/12/04/square-acquires-viewfinder-and-tech-duo.html?page=all|accessdate=July 25, 2015|publisher=Upstart Business Journals|date=December 4, 2013}} Kimball moved to Square's New York City office where he became a senior member of the company's East Coast team.{{cite news|last1=Perez|first1=Sarah|title=Square Acquires Ex-Googler Team Behind Viewfinder to Help Grow Its NYC Presence|url=https://techcrunch.com/2013/12/03/square-acquires-ex-googler-team-behind-viewfinder-to-help-grow-its-nyc-presence/|accessdate=July 25, 2015|publisher=TechCrunch|date=December 3, 2013}}

While at Google, Kimball used a database known as Bigtable and followed the development of its next generation, known as Spanner. The database organizes data between thousands of servers to allow Google applications to stay online, even if an entire data center were to go offline. Kimball wanted to use this software but found there was nothing available outside of Google as either closed or open-source software with similar capabilities. He elicited the help of Mattis, along with ex-Google Reader team member Ben Darnell.{{cite news|last1=Ewbank|first1=Kay|title=CockroachDB Released|url=http://www.i-programmer.info/news/84-database/8672-cockroachdb-released.html|accessdate=July 25, 2015|publisher=I Programmer|date=June 9, 2015}} They formed the company Cockroach Labs to provide commercial backing for CockroachDB, an open source project he started on GitHub in February 2014.{{cite news|last1=Finley|first1=Klint|title=Out in the Open: Ex-Googlers Building Cloud Software That's Almost Impossible to Take Down|url=https://www.wired.com/2014/07/cockroachdb/|accessdate=August 13, 2015|publisher=Wired|date=July 21, 2014}} Kimball serves as the company's chief executive officer and also contributes to the source code development of CockroachDB.{{cite web|title=Tech Executive Spencer Kimball|url=http://www.venturedeal.com/Executives/Spencer-Kimball-CockroachDB-Chief%20Executive%20Officer-Profile|website=Venture Deal|accessdate=July 25, 2015}}{{cite news|last1=Ovide|first1=Shira|title=CockroachDB Scampers Off with $6.3 Million to Tackle Database Shortcomings|url=https://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/06/04/cockroachdb-scampers-off-with-6-3-million-to-tackle-database-shortcomings/|accessdate=July 25, 2015|publisher=The Wall Street Journal|date=June 4, 2015}}

{{reflist|30em}}

• {{LinkedIn URL|https://www.linkedin.com/in/spencerwkimball}}
• [http://www.cockroachlabs.com/ Cockroach Labs official website]

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Category:Free software programmers

Category:Living people

Category:American computer programmers

Category:UC Berkeley College of Engineering alumni

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)

Category:GTK