Monique Vescia - David Karp and Tumblr

Published in 2014 by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.

29 East 21st Street, New York, NY 10010

Copyright 2014 by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Vescia, Monique.

David Karp and Tumblr/Monique Vescia.First edition.

pages cm.(Internet biographies)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4488-9528-1 (library binding)

1. Karp, David, 1986Juvenile literature. 2. WebmastersUnited StatesBiographyJuvenile literature. 3. Computer programmers United StatesBiographyJuvenile literature. 4. Tumblr (Electronic resource)Juvenile literature. 5. BlogsJuvenile literature. I. Title.

TK5102.56.K37V47 2014 338.7'61006752092dc23 [B]

2012036728

Manufactured in the United States of America

CPSIA Compliance Information: Batch #S13YA: For further information, contact Rosen Publishing, New York, New York,at 1-800-237-9932.

A t a Tumbir meetup somewhere in New York City, a hosted gathering where Tumblr users go to connect with one another in person, you might find a crowd of excited twenty-somethings clutching their smartphones and clustering around a tall and skinny young man with dark shaggy hair, intense blue eyes, and a shadow of razor stubble on his chin. David Karp, wearing his usual uniform of a patterned shirt and a gray hoodie, is the founder and CEO of the blogging platform Tumblr, and in the world of social networks he has rock-star status.

David Karp s remarkable transformation from a shy and introverted boy who struggled in school to the poised and articulate leader of a white-hot Internet startup worth many millions of dollars happened fast, but not overnight. Karp was gifted with intelligence and drive, as well as the willingness to work very hard, but he also had the good fortune to find generous mentors who helped guide and advise him along the way.

Blogging tools such as Tumbir [ http://www.tumblr.com ) have transformed social media networks by allowing users to access, both at home and remotely, a much wider range of content.

Early on in his life, Karp deliberately sought out a different path from that of his peers. His mother, Barbara Ackerman, has said that, from the beginning, her eldest son was always very focused and driven. A socially awkward teen, he chose to drop out of a very prestigious high school before his sophomore year and began teaching himself how to program computers. When he was just seventeen, he traveled to Tokyo, Japan, on his own and lived there for five months.

When people started hiring him to write computer code, Karp might have gone on to earn a good living as a computer programmer. However, like other highly creative individuals, Karp often thinks outside the box. It bothered him that the available blogging platforms seemed to be built for writers rather than visual artists. He started thinking about how to design a platform that would be elegant and easy to use and that would allow people to freely express their creativity. As some of the people who know him well have pointed out, Karp seems to have a natural instinct for knowing what will work on the Web. However, in interviews, he insists that he wasnt trying to transform the art of blogging when he came up with the idea for a microblogging service called Tumblrhe just wanted to make something that he could use.

Having been born in the 1980s, David is in the company of other successful young Internet entrepreneurs, such as Facebook founders Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz, as well as Matt Mullenweg, founder of the popular blogging platform WordPress. All of these bright, young innovators came of age in a generation of digital natives. They grew up online, in a manner of speaking, and each would have a big impact on the history of social networks and the new phase of the Internets evolution, often called Web 2.0.

If you were lucky enough to get close to him at that Tumblr meetup and engage him in conversation, you would find that David Karp is a very upbeat and positive person. He has a good sense of humor and highly values creativity in others. Also, he might tell you that the first decade of the twenty-first century was an especially exciting time to be alive. For someone with big ideas who was willing to work hard and carve out an unconventional path, anything seemed possible.

M r. Karp is tall and skinny, with unflinching blue eyes and a mop of brown hair. He speaks incredibly fast and in complete paragraphs. Thats how David Karp, the creator of Tumblr, describes himself in his tum-blelog, or microblog, quoting from a newspaper article written about him. His portrait on his blog, called Davids Log, is a large-headed cartoon avatar in a black T-shirt clutching a coffee mug. He probably wouldnt stand out in a crowd in his generic outfit of Converse sneakers, jeans, and a hoodie sweatshirt worn over a patterned shirt. Yet Karp is an extraordinary young man. Like other Internet pioneers such as Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg and Apples Steve Jobs, Karp made a name for himself when most people his age are happy just goofing around.

David Karp was born in New York City on July 6, 1986, and grew up on Manhattans Upper West Side. Bordered by Central Park, this vibrant New York City neighborhood features many distinctive architectural and cultural landmarks. They include Lincoln Centerhome of the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet, and the New York Philharmonic Orchestraas well as the prestigious Julliard School of music and the American Museum of Natural History.

Native New Yorker and Internet entrepreneur David Karp would soon become known as one of the rock stars of social media.

During the 1980s, the Upper West Side saw an explosion of restaurants and cafes along Broadway, Columbus Avenue, and Amsterdam Avenue. Unlike many American cities today, New York City is a place where most people walk or take public transportation. This allows individuals from all walks of life to rub elbows. New York attracts students, lawyers, bankers, artists, actors, ordinary families, and musicians, such as Emmy-winning composer Michael Karp, who also happens to be Davids father.

Growing up in such a lively and visually stimulating environment probably helped to make Karp into a creative person. It may have even planted the seeds in his brain for a wonderful idea: how to design a virtual space where people could interact and express their individual creativity and celebrate the creativity of others.

Until eighth grade, David attended an Upper West Side private coeducational prep school called the Calhoun School, where his mother, Barbara Ackerman, is a first-grade science teacher. From an early age, David proved that he had a lot more on his mind than did the majority of his peers, including a keen interest in computers.