Adrian Holovaty
Adrian Holovaty (born 1981) is an American web developer, journalist 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".
Adrian Holovaty | |
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![]() Adrian Holovaty in 2009 | |
Born | 1981 (age 38–39) |
Nationality | USA |
Alma mater | Missouri School of Journalism (B.A., 2001) |
Occupation | web developer, journalist, entrepreneur |
Known for | Django Web framework |
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 in the Illinois house of representatives.[1] 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 EveryBlock, a web startup that provided "microlocal" news, in 2007.[2]
While working at the Lawrence Journal-World from 2002 to 2005, he and other web developers (Simon Willison, Jacob Kaplan-Moss and Wilson Miner[3]) 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.[4] The pair wrote The Django Book, first published in 2007.
Holovaty is also a guitarist. In 1999, he recorded an album of his own guitar compositions,[5] and since 2007 he has posted videos of his acoustic guitar arrangements on YouTube, building an audience of more than 20,000 subscribers.[6] In 2012 he and PJ Macklin founded SoundSlice, a collaboratively edited website which shows YouTube music videos alongside simultaneous animated tablature, intended to help guitarists learn new musical pieces.[7]
Crime mapping innovations
In 2005, Holovaty launched chicagocrime.org, a Google Maps mashup of Chicago Police Department crime data.[8] The site won the 2005 Batten Award for Innovations in Journalism[9] and was named by The New York Times as one of 2005's best ideas.[10]
As one of the first Google Maps mashups, it helped influence Google to create its official Google Maps API.[11] 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.[12]
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.[13] On August 17, 2009, EveryBlock was officially acquired by MSNBC.[14] The terms of the deal were not disclosed.[15] In February 2013, NBC News announced that it was shutting down EveryBlock.[16] The service was re-launched by Comcast NBCUniversal in January, 2014 and now operates in Boston, Chicago, Denver, Fresno, Hialeah, Houston, Medford, Nashville, Philadelphia, and Seattle.[17] On July 19, 2018, EveryBlock was acquired by social networking service Nextdoor and shut down.[18]
References
- "School Newspaper in Illinois Revives a Debate Over Censorship". https://www.nytimes.com/. Retrieved 20 May 2020. External link in
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(help) - "Goodbye hyperlocal, hello microlocal - Holovaty.com". holovaty.com. Retrieved 14 July 2018.
- "Django committers". Retrieved 14 July 2018.
- "Adrian and Jacob retiring as Django BDFLs - Holovaty.com". holovaty.com. Retrieved 14 July 2018.
- "Music - Holovaty.com". holovaty.com. Retrieved 14 July 2018.
- "Adrian Holovaty". YouTube. Retrieved 14 July 2018.
- "About Soundslice". SoundSlice LLC. November 2012.
- "Announcing chicagocrime.org - Holovaty.com". holovaty.com. Retrieved 14 July 2018.
- "Batten winner! - Holovaty.com". holovaty.com. Retrieved 14 July 2018.
- O'Connell, Pamela Licalzi. "Do-It-Yourself Cartography". Retrieved 14 July 2018.
- "The world is your JavaScript-enabled oyster". Retrieved 14 July 2018.
- Street Wise: http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/June-2009/Street-Wise/
- "Knight Foundation grant - Holovaty.com". holovaty.com. Retrieved 14 July 2018.
- Nieman Journalism Lab. "EveryBlock". Encyclo: an encyclopedia of the future of news. Retrieved 1 April 2012.
- "MSN - Outlook, Office, Skype, Bing, Breaking News, and Latest Videos". NBC News. Retrieved 14 July 2018.
- "NBC News shuts down hyperlocal site EveryBlock". CNN. February 7, 2013. Retrieved February 7, 2013.
- "EveryBlock: The Online Community for Your Neighborhood". Comcast. August 26, 2014. Retrieved June 27, 2018.
- "Nirav Tolia-led Nextdoor Acquires Chicago's 'EveryBlock' Neighborhood News Site". IndiaWest. August 5, 2018. Retrieved March 23, 2020.