Rob Malda

Rob Malda
Malda at LinuxWorld in Boston, 2006
Born (1976-05-10) May 10, 1976 (age 48)
Holland, Michigan, United States
Other namesCmdrTaco
Occupation(s)Author, former editor of Slashdot
Known forco-founder of Slashdot
SpouseKathleen Fent (m. 2002)

Rob Malda (born May 10, 1976), also known as CmdrTaco, is an American Internet content author, and former editor-in-chief of the website Slashdot.

Career

Malda is an alumnus of Hope College and Holland Christian High School.[citation needed] In 1997, Malda and Jeff Bates created Slashdot while undergraduates of Hope College.[1] After running the site for two years "on a shoestring",[2] they sold the site to Andover.net, which was later acquired by VA Linux Systems.[3] Malda ran the site out of the SourceForge, Inc. office in Dexter, Michigan.[4]

Rob Malda also wrote a monthly column for Computer Power User.[5] In 2002, he was named in the MIT Technology Review TR100 as one of the top 100 innovators in the world under the age of 35.[6]

On August 25, 2011, Rob Malda announced his resignation from Slashdot.[7] On March 5, 2012, Malda was appointed as Chief Strategist and Editor-at-Large of WaPo Labs, a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company.[8] After The Washington Post Company sold its newspaper operations to Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, the company rebranded as Graham Holdings Company. WaPo Labs became Trove, for which Malda was Chief Strategist and Head of Product, before shutting down in December, 2015.[9][10]

Personal life

Malda proposed to longtime girlfriend Kathleen Fent using the front page of Slashdot on February 14, 2002.[11][12] They were married on December 8, 2002, in Las Vegas, Nevada.[13]

References

  1. ^ "Attack of the Blogs". Holland Sentinel. September 7, 2004. Archived from the original on January 10, 2005.
  2. ^ "Cmdrtaco on Slashdot Sale". Wired. June 29, 1999.
  3. ^ "VA Linux buys Andover.Net". news.com. February 3, 2000. Archived from the original on September 6, 2012.
  4. ^ Kushner, David (November 2007). "The Slashdot Supremacy". IEEE. Archived from the original on July 14, 2012.
  5. ^ Malda, Rob (October 2009). "The Department of Stuff: Caught in the Web". Computer Power User. Retrieved August 28, 2009. [dead link‍]
  6. ^ "2002 Young Innovators Under 35". Technology Review. 2002. Retrieved August 16, 2011.
  7. ^ Malda, Rob (August 25, 2011). "Rob Malda Resigns from Slashdot". Slashdot. Retrieved August 25, 2011.
  8. ^ "The Washington Post Company's WaPo Labs Hires Rob Malda as Chief Strategist and Editor-at-Large". Business Wire. 2012. Retrieved March 5, 2012.
  9. ^ "Slashdot founder CmdrTaco is back with a news recommendation startup called Trove". The Verge. 2014. Retrieved June 13, 2014.
  10. ^ "Introducing Trove". Trove Blog. 2014. Archived from the original on July 1, 2014. Retrieved June 13, 2014.
  11. ^ Avery, Laura; Thomson, Gale (2007). Newsmakers: the people behind today's headlines. Thomson Gale. p. 73. ISBN 978-0-7876-8090-9. Retrieved February 15, 2010.
  12. ^ Malda, Rob (February 14, 2002). "Kathleen Fent Read This Story". Slashdot. Retrieved February 15, 2010.
  13. ^ "News from Hope College" (PDF). February 2003. Retrieved February 15, 2010.
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