A bit of history
Domain51 was started in the spring of 1999 in El Paso, Texas, by Travis Swicegood who started working on his first website for a client. The company remained small and focused mostly on tools to help administer websites for the next 5 years.
After stints at several open-source startups and a large social networking site, Travis decided he needed to strike out on his own and work on projects that made the world a better place, thus Domain51 was reborn.
Now, based in downtown Lawrence, Kansas, Domain51 has reopened with a focus on web applications for non-profits and activists. That's what the slogan means. We're not in the trenches, but we're supplying ammo to those who are getting their hands dirty. We're hacking a better world.
Why we do it
We're passionate about excellent code. We're passionate about making the world a better place. We're passionate about everything we do.
We're the guys who already do this for free. We contribute to open source, we spend our weekends knocking out code for ourselves, we learn new languages for nothing more than the challenge. We're excited about programming because that's our passion. That we get paid to do it is what makes this a great gig.
Who we are
- Travis Swicegood
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Travis is the founder of Domain51, and a serial geek. He's a polyglot, with a functional knowledge of Ruby, Python, Erlang, Clojure, and Java and is considered an expert in PHP. He's the author of Pragmatic Version Control using Git and a regular speaker at tech conferences.
His background is in TDD and automation. His passion is in numbers and trying to disect what they mean in the context of the current application: be that how quickly someone makes a donation to a cause or how efficiently (or in-efficiently) people use a given application.
- Chris Dickinson
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Chris is the fairly nerdy newest member of Domain51. His core experience lies in Python, PHP, and Javascript; with additional experience in design. He loves typography, linguistics, and hacking at local coffee shops.
- Caroline Wroczynski
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Caroline is the newest member of Domain51 and the Captain of the Office. She is a graduate of the University of Kansas with a degree in Political Science with a focus in International Politics and Public Administration.
She brings with her over 14 years of experience working for non-profits, health care, and in the public business field. You can find her researching the next project, questioning the world, writing for her book, writing a poem, or taking unprepared pics with her camera phone.
- Nate Haas
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Nate is a graduate student at The University of Kansas. His foci include cartography, neogeography and ethnomusicology.
The deal with the name
From Travis:
I get asked this every time I hand out a card. "What's the deal with the name Domain51?" It's simple. I was looking for a unique name, and had probably just watched something on the History Channel or Discover talking about Area 51. I put two and two together and ended up with Domain51 and the name stuck.
