Jump to content

Jack Dorsey

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Ser Amantio di Nicolao (talk | contribs) at 20:58, 14 February 2011 (added Category:New York University alumni using HotCat). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Jack Dorsey
Dorsey at the 2010 Time 100 Gala.
Born (1976-11-19) November 19, 1976 (age 47)[1]
St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Occupation(s)software designer, businessperson, Creator, Co-founder and Chairman of Twitter, CEO of Square

Jack Dorsey (born November 19, 1976) is an American software architect and businessperson best known as the creator of Twitter.[2] MIT's Technology Review named him (in the Technology Review 35(TR35)) as an outstanding innovator under the age of 35.[3]

Early years

Dorsey grew up in St. Louis, Missouri,[4] and by age 14, he had become interested in dispatch routing. Some of the open source software he created in the area of dispatch logistics is still used by taxicab companies.[4] He went to high school at Bishop DuBourg High School, and attended Missouri University of Science and Technology before subsequently transferring to New York University, where he first conceived the idea for Twitter.[5] While working on dispatching as a programmer he later moved to California.[6][7]

long view of stage with Stone and Dorsey speaking in front of a slide presentation
Biz Stone and Dorsey accepting a Crunchie award for best mobile startup

In Oakland in 2000, Dorsey started his company to dispatch couriers, taxis, and emergency services from the Web.[8] His other projects and ideas at this time included networks of medical devices and a "frictionless service market".[8] In July 2000, building on dispatching[4] and inspired in part by LiveJournal and possibly by AOL Instant Messenger, he had the idea for a Web-based realtime status/short message communication service.[8]

When he first saw implementations of instant messaging, Dorsey had wondered if the software's user status output could be shared among friends easily.[4] He approached Odeo, who at the time happened to be interested in text messaging.[4] Dorsey and Biz Stone decided that SMS text suited the status message idea, and built a prototype of Twitter in about two weeks.[4] The idea attracted many users at Odeo and investment from Evan Williams[4] who had left Google after selling them Pyra Labs and Blogger.

Twitter, Inc.

Dorsey in 2008.

Dorsey, Stone and Williams co-founded Obvious which then spun off Twitter, Inc.[4] As chief executive officer, Dorsey saw the startup through two rounds of funding by the venture capitalists who back the company.[9] On 16 October 2008[10] Williams took over the role of CEO, and Dorsey became chairman of the board.[11]

As the service grew in popularity, Dorsey had to choose improving uptime as top priority,[12] even over creating revenue – which, as of 2008, Twitter was not designed to earn.[13] Dorsey described the commercial use of Twitter and its API as two things that could lead to paid features.[13] His three guiding principles, which are shared by the whole company and through its culture, are simplicity, constraint and craftsmanship.[13]

Square, Inc.

Main article: Square (payment device)

Jack Dorsey also began a new platform to accept debit and credit cards on a mobile device for small businesses. The device is a small square-like object that has the ability to be attached to devices such as an iPhone, iPad or Android device through the headphone jack. This product is a mini card reader which allows a person to swipe their card, choose an amount to give to the recipient and then sign their name for confirmation. Square is also a system for sending paperless receipts via text message or email, and is available as a free app for iOS and Android OS. [14]

References

  1. ^ Jack Dorsey's facebook account
  2. ^ Strange, Adario (April 20, 2007). "Flickr Document Reveals Origin Of Twitter". Wired News. CondéNet. Retrieved November 5, 2008.
  3. ^ "TR35 Young Innovator". Technology Review. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 2008. Retrieved November 5, 2008.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Glaser, Mark (May 17, 2007). "Twitter Founders Thrive on Micro-Blogging Constraints". Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Retrieved November 5, 2008.
  5. ^ "Co-founder of Twitter receives key to St. Louis with 140 character proclamation". ksdk.com. KSDK. September 19, 2009. Retrieved 29 September 2009. After high school in St. Louis and some time at the University of Missouri-Rolla, Jack headed east to New York University.
  6. ^ BusinessWeek (staff) (March 26, 2007). "Tech's Next Gen: The Best and Brightest". BusinessWeek. The McGraw-Hill Companies. Retrieved November 5, 2008. {{cite news}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  7. ^ Dorsey, Jack (April 8, 2009). "To be clear: I didn't attend Cornell (and didn't invent Twitter there)". Twitter. Retrieved April 13, 2009.
  8. ^ a b c Dorsey, Jack (March 24, 2006). "twttr sketch". Flickr. Yahoo!. Retrieved 2008-11-07.
  9. ^ Miller, Claire Cain (October 16, 2008). "Twitter Sidelines One Founder and Promotes Another". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved November 5, 2008.
  10. ^ Miller, Claire Cain (October 20, 2008). "Popularity or Income? Two Sites Fight It Out". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved November 5, 2008.
  11. ^ McCarthy, Caroline (October 16, 2008). "Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey steps down". CNET News. CBS Interactive. Retrieved November 5, 2008.
  12. ^ Wagner, Mitch (June 24, 2008). "Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey: Improved Uptime Is Top Priority". InformationWeek. United Business ...Media. Retrieved November 5, 2008.
  13. ^ a b c Wagner, Mitch (June 24, 2008). "Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Talks About Its Business Model". InformationWeek. United Business Media. Retrieved November 5, 2008.
  14. ^ Square [1]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jack Dorsey.

Template:Persondata

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jack_Dorsey&oldid=413941873"