Ward Cunningham
Programmer who invented the wiki
- Age
- 77 yrs
- Birthday in 202 days
- Works listed
- 2
- Website, Book
- Honours
- 0
- Awards & distinctions
- Profile views
- 1
- 0 followers
Ward Cunningham is an American programmer who created the first wiki, WikiWikiWeb, in 1995 — a website anyone could edit. He also helped pioneer software design patterns and extreme programming, signed the Agile Manifesto and coined the term “technical debt”.
Biography
Background
Cunningham studied interdisciplinary engineering and computer science at Purdue University and worked at Tektronix, where with Kent Beck he explored pattern languages for programming.
The wiki
On 25 March 1995 he launched WikiWikiWeb on his company’s site to collect programming patterns. He named it after the Wiki Wiki Shuttle at Honolulu airport — “wiki” means “quick” in Hawaiian. The idea inspired Wikipedia and countless other wikis.
Agile and technical debt
He was a key figure in extreme programming and one of the 17 signatories of the 2001 Agile Manifesto. In 1992 he coined “technical debt” for shortcuts that must later be repaid with extra work.
Later work
He has worked at Microsoft, the Eclipse Foundation, AboutUs and New Relic, and created the Federated Wiki.
Timeline
-
1949
Born in Michigan City, Indiana, United States
-
1987
Pattern-language work with Kent Beck
-
1992
Coins “technical debt”
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1995
Launches WikiWikiWeb
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2001
Signs the Agile Manifesto
-
2001
The Wiki Way book
-
2011
Smallest Federated Wiki
Notable works
-
1995
WikiWikiWeb Website
-
2001
The Wiki Way Book
With Bo Leuf.
Did you know?
-
1
“Cunningham’s Law” — that the best way to get a right answer online is to post a wrong one — is named after him, though he did not coin it.
-
2
The original wiki still exists in read-only form.
-
3
He named the wiki after an airport shuttle bus.
Connections
Frequently asked
Who is Ward Cunningham?
Ward Cunningham is an American programmer who created the first wiki, WikiWikiWeb, in 1995 — a website anyone could edit. He also helped pioneer software design patterns and extreme programming, signed the Agile Manifesto and coined the term “technical debt”.
How old is Ward Cunningham?
Ward Cunningham is 77 years old, born on 26 May 1949 in Michigan City, Indiana, United States.
Where is Ward Cunningham from?
Ward Cunningham was born in Michigan City, Indiana, United States.
What is Ward Cunningham known for?
Ward Cunningham is best known for WikiWikiWeb (1995); design patterns; Agile Manifesto; the term “technical debt”.
References
- Ward Cunningham — Wikipedia. Wikipedia. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
- Ward Cunningham — Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
- Ward Cunningham — Goodreads author page. Goodreads. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
- Ward Cunningham — Hindi Wikipedia. Wikipedia (Hindi). Retrieved 4 November 2026.
- Official website. c2.com. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
- Ward Cunningham (Q7637) — structured data. Wikidata. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
Includes material from the Wikipedia article “Ward Cunningham”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. That text is available under the same licence. Learn more
External links
About this profile
- Researched by the TrackFame editorial team; reviewed by Sanjay Sokal under our editorial policy
- First published 4 November 2026
- Last updated
Cite this page
“Ward Cunningham.” TrackFame, last updated 5 November 2026. https://trackfame.com/person/ward-cunningham
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