Joseph J. Allaire (born 1969),[1] better known professionally as J. J. Allaire, is an American-born software engineer and Internet entrepreneur. He created the ColdFusion programming language and web application server,[2][3][4] founded Allaire Corporation, OnFolio,[5] FitNow,[6] and RStudio, and created LoseIt! and Windows Live Writer. Allaire is currently the founder and CEO of statistical computing company Posit (formerly RStudio Inc).

J. J. Allaire
Allaire presenting at the Web 2.0 Conference in 2005
Born
Joseph J. Allaire

(1969-09-27) September 27, 1969 (age 55)
Alma materMacalester College
Occupation(s)Entrepreneur, software engineer, inventor
Known forColdFusion, Allaire Corporation, Macromedia, Windows Live Writer, LoseIt!, RStudio
TitleCreator of ColdFusion, Founder of Allaire Corporation, Founder of Onfolio, Creator of Windows Live Writer, Founder of FitNow, Creator of Lose It!, Founder of Posit (formerly RStudio)
RelativesJeremy Allaire (brother)
Websitegithub.com/jjallaire

Early life

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Joseph J Allaire received his bachelor's degree from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1991.[7][1]

ColdFusion and Allaire Corporation

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In 1995, Allaire created ColdFusion.[3][2][4][8] The same year, Allaire founded Allaire Corporation in Minneapolis, Minnesota.[3]

Allaire moved the company to Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1996 with his brother and founding team member, Jeremy Allaire.[9] Allaire served as the Chairman and CEO of Allaire Corporation, then as its Executive Vice President of Products after hiring David Orfao as the company's CEO.[1]

Allaire Corporation had an initial public offering in 1999.[3][10] In 2001, Allaire Corporation was acquired by Macromedia.[11]

Onfolio, Microsoft, and Windows Live Writer

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In 2002, Allaire co-founded Onfolio with Adam Berrey[5] and Charles Teague[12] and led the development of its suite of tools for web research and publishing,[13] released in 2004. Onfolio was acquired by Microsoft in 2006.[14] At Microsoft, Allaire created a blog publishing product called Windows Live Writer, initially released in 2007.[15][16] Windows Live Writer was distributed by Microsoft as part of Windows Essentials, until it was discontinued in 2015 and forked into an open-source version called Open Live Writer.[17]

FitNow and Lose It!

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In 2008, Allaire, Paul DiCristina and Charles Teague co-founded FitNow, a company dedicated to mobile health and fitness applications, and created Lose It!, a mobile weight loss application with over 17 million users.[6][18][19][20][21][22]

RStudio

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In 2009, Allaire founded RStudio, a company that builds tools for the R statistical computing environment. Allaire created the company's flagship product RStudio, a 2015 InfoWorld Technology of the Year Award recipient.[23]

Beginning in 2013, Allaire worked on the R Markdown ecosystem of scientific publishing packages, including R Markdown, Distill for R, and Flexdashboard.[24][25][26][27] From 2018 through 2020, Allaire worked on R interfaces to Python, and R versions of the TensorFlow and Keras Python packages.[28][29][30]

In 2021, Allaire and Charles Teague created Quarto, a Jupyter-based scientific publishing system.[31] Quarto was publicly announced in 2022.[32]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Beal, David (January 26, 1999). "From Macalaster to Millions//Newly Public Allaire Corp., Now Based in Boston, Springs From Liberal Arts-Grounded Talent". St. Paul Pioneer Press. Archived from the original on May 27, 2024. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
  2. ^ a b Metz, Cade (October 9, 2014). "Beef up your browser". PC Mag. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
  3. ^ a b c d Wallack, Todd (January 23, 1999). "Allaire sees stellar market debut". Boston Herald. Archived from the original on May 27, 2024. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
  4. ^ a b Auerbach, Jon; Kerber, Ross (January 30, 1998). "Massachusetts Rises Despite Passing of High-Tech Giants". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
  5. ^ a b Kontzer, Tony (March 15, 2004). "Allaire Founder Debuts Online Research Tool". CRN. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
  6. ^ a b Castellanos, Sara (February 24, 2014). "Weight-loss app Lose It! grows to 17M users, aims to rival Weight Watchers". Boston Business Journal. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
  7. ^ "Macalester College Notable Alumni". America's Best Colleges 2010, Forbes. 2010. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
  8. ^ Hilwa, Al (January 2015). "Turning Up the Heat on Mobile Application Development with ColdFusion 11" (PDF). IDC White Paper. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-10-03. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
  9. ^ Olen, Helaine (March 24, 2015). "How Brightcove's Jeremy Allaire Shaped the Online Video Revolution". Inc. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
  10. ^ "ALLAIRE CORP. (ALLR) IPO". NASDAQ. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
  11. ^ "Macromedia to Acquire Rival Allaire in $360 Million Deal". Wall Street Journal. January 17, 2001. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
  12. ^ Moore, Galen (March 19, 2009). "Teague said to be leaving General Catalyst". Boston Business Journal. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
  13. ^ Mossberg, Walter (March 18, 2004). "New Tool Cleans Up The Messy Business Of Web Research". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
  14. ^ Gardner, W. David (March 8, 2006). "Microsoft Tweaks Its Toolbar With Onfolio Acquisition". Information Week. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
  15. ^ Bishop, Todd (August 14, 2006). "Microsoft targets bloggers with 'Live Writer'". Seattle P-I. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
  16. ^ Anderson, Tim (July 15, 2015). "OPEN WIDE: Microsoft Live Writer authoring tool going open source". The Register. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
  17. ^ Keizer, Gregg (June 12, 2015). "It's alive! Microsoft to let Live Writer live on as open source". Computer World. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
  18. ^ Eaton, Kit (March 18, 2015). "Video Feature: Apps for Tracking Fitness and Losing Weight". New York Times. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
  19. ^ Graham, Jefferson (January 18, 2014). "Review: Calorie counter apps MyFitnessPal vs. Lose It". USA Today. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
  20. ^ Moore, Galen (January 21, 2010). "Boston-based Lose It! tops Apple iPhone health app charts". Boston Business Journal. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
  21. ^ Tedeschi, Bob (December 30, 2009). "A Weight-Loss Resolution That's Light on the Wallet". New York Times. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
  22. ^ Duffy, Jill (June 3, 2015). "The 25 Best Fitness Apps". PC Mag. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
  23. ^ "InfoWorld Announces the 2015 Technology of the Year Award Recipients". www.globenewswire.com. January 26, 2015. Archived from the original on 2020-06-23. Retrieved 2020-06-23.
  24. ^ Grolemund, Yihui Xie, J. J. Allaire, Garrett (25 July 2018). R Markdown: The Definitive Guide. Chapman and Hall/CRC. doi:10.1201/9781138359444. ISBN 978-1-138-35944-4. Retrieved 11 April 2024.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  25. ^ "Contributors to rstudio/rmarkdown". GitHub. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
  26. ^ "Contributors to rstudio/distill". GitHub. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
  27. ^ "Contributors to rstudio/flexdashboard". GitHub. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
  28. ^ "Contributors to rstudio/reticulate". GitHub. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
  29. ^ "Contributors to rstudio/tensorflow". GitHub. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
  30. ^ "Contributors to rstudio/keras". GitHub. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
  31. ^ "Contributors to quarto-dev/quarto-cli". GitHub. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
  32. ^ Machlis, Sharon (2022-07-28). "What is Quarto? RStudio rolls out next-generation R Markdown". InfoWorld. Retrieved 2024-05-17.