Robert Hartill (born 30 January 1969 in

Pontypridd () ( colloquially: Ponty) is a town and a community in Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. Geography comprises the electoral wards of , Hawthorn, Pontypridd Town, 'Rhondda', Rhydyfelin Central/Ilan ( Rhydfelen), Trallwng ( Trallwn) and Treforest (). ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

) is a

computer programmer A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software. A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...

and

web designer Web design encompasses many different skills and disciplines in the production and maintenance of websites. The different areas of web design include web graphic design; user interface design (UI design); authoring, including standardised code a ...

best known for his work on the

Internet Movie Database IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and W ...

and the

Apache The Apache () are a group of culturally related Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, which include the Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan, Mescalero, Mimbreño, Ndendahe (Bedonkohe or Mogollon and Nednhi or Carrizaleño a ...

web server A web server is computer software and underlying hardware that accepts requests via HTTP (the network protocol created to distribute web content) or its secure variant HTTPS. A user agent, commonly a web browser or web crawler, initia ...

and is notable for playing a key role in the initial growth of the World Wide Web. Hartill grew up in Wales, and studied computer science at University of Wales College, Cardiff where he earned a BSc and PhD. In 1993, he became involved with the rec.arts.movies database that went on to become the

(IMDb). On 5 August 1993 he announced the first web version of the database. In 1994, Hartill moved to Los Alamos in

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe, New Mexico, Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque, New Mexico, Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Albuquerque metropolitan area, Tiguex , Offi ...

to work at the

Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy (DOE), located a short distance northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, ...

on the

ArXiv.org e-print archive arXiv (pronounced "archive"—the X represents the Chi (letter), Greek letter chi ⟨χ⟩) is an open-access repository of electronic preprints and postprints (known as e-prints) approved for posting after moderation, but not Scholarly peer re ...

with

Paul Ginsparg Paul Henry Ginsparg (born January 1, 1955) is a physicist. He developed the arXiv.org e-print archive. Education He is a graduate of Syosset High School in Syosset, New York. He graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts in phy ...

. At the same time, he was a co-founder of the

Apache Software Foundation The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) is an American nonprofit corporation (classified as a 501(c)(3) organization in the United States) to support a number of open source software projects. The ASF was formed from a group of developers of the ...

, and made many contributions to the early development of the

Apache HTTP Server The Apache HTTP Server ( ) is a free and open-source cross-platform web server software, released under the terms of Apache License 2.0. Apache is developed and maintained by an open community of developers under the auspices of the Apache S ...

. In 1994, Hartill was one of only six inductees in the World Wide Web Hall of Fame announced at the first international conference on the World Wide Web. In 1996, the

was founded, and Rob returned to

Ogmore-by-Sea Ogmore-by-Sea ( Welsh: ''Aberogwr'', meaning "Mouth of the River Ogmore") is a seaside village in St Brides Major community in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. It lies on the western limit of the Glamorgan Heritage Coast of south Wales. The pop ...

in Wales before leaving the IMDb in 2000 and emigrating to

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest o ...

in May 2003. He's currently a volunteer fire-fighter with the

Country Fire Service The South Australian Country Fire Service (SACFS, commonly abbreviated as CFS) is a volunteer based fire service in the Australian state of South Australia. The CFS has responsibility as the Control Agency for firefighting and Hazardous Waste ...

and a hobby farmer.

References

External links

IMDb History
British computer programmers People from Pontypridd Alumni of Cardiff University Living people Hartill Welsh emigrants to Australia People educated at Ysgol Gyfun Garth Olwg Los Alamos National Laboratory personnel {{Australia-bio-stub

See also

References

External links