Profile - Tim O'Reilly: He may have built a successful technology empire, but Irish-American Tim O'Reilly is more concerned with what the internet can do for society than building a personal fortune, writes John Collins.
Tim O'Reilly is arguably the most influential Irish man in Silicon Valley, but outside the technology world he's not exactly a household name. His mainstream profile was raised this week when, along with Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of the community-written online encyclopedia Wikipedia, he published a bloggers' code of conduct.
Attempting to put some manners on the free-wheeling world of online commentary sounds like a thankless task, and predictably enough O'Reilly came in for widespread criticism for the suggestion. To an outsider, the proposals seem straightforward enough. Abusive, harassing, libellous or knowingly false information should not be published. Nor should content that infringes copyrights or trademarks, violates confidentiality agreements or infringes on personal privacy.
Most controversially of all, O'Reilly and Wales suggested that blogs shouldn't allow anonymous comments - something that many see as providing the lifeblood of blogging - ensuring the medium is a conversation and not just a publishing exercise.
On the internet, where bloggers pride themselves on openness and transparency, the proposals were a red rag to a bull. Some of the more reasoned discussion pointed out that the proposals would reduce the amount of valuable information that gets released through blogs. Others just accused O'Reilly of setting himself up as a censor and of being an enemy of free speech.
Regardless of the merits of the proposals themselves, O'Reilly's efforts were well-intentioned. The move is a response to an incident last month where a high-profile US blogger, Kathy Sierra, announced that she had been receiving death threats and other hateful comments on her blog. Disturbingly graphic pictures, one of Sierra with a noose, were posted on other blogs including one hosted by Chris Locke, co-author of an influential internet marketing book, The Cluetrain Manifesto.
Sierra cancelled all public speaking engagements and said she was "at home, with the doors locked, terrified". She notified the police and debate began almost immediately as to how bloggers should respond to this development.
"Am I willing to bet with my life that it's just some random internet jerk?" Sierra asked CNN in an interview.
It's a sign of how influential blogs have become that the debate over a code of conduct for bloggers was mainstream news. The story made the front page of the New York Times and CNN even filmed Sierra meeting Chris Locke (a meeting apparently brokered by O'Reilly). Blogs may not have quite the same mainstream acceptance here yet, but many advocates of the medium believe the upcoming general election will catapult Irish bloggers to centre stage.
O'Reilly owes his high profile to the success of his firm, O'Reilly Media, which specialises in publishing computer books and organising conferences.
Even non-technical types will have seen the iconic books whose covers carry line drawings of rare animals and are stacked on the shelves of IT departments and of computer geeks' flats.
But relatively few people know much about the man behind the O'Reilly empire. Unlike many Irish-Americans, O'Reilly has never played up his Irish roots. He was born in Cork in 1954, the third of seven children, to a doctor from Co Kerry and a Lancashire-born mother. Due to his father's work the family emigrated to California when he was just three months old.
As a child in California, O'Reilly and his brother came under the influence of George Simon, a German immigrant who was the boys' scoutmaster and a part-time new age guru. He espoused a philosophy of a global consciousness that O'Reilly admits continues to have a profound influence on his thinking.
Perhaps even more importantly, Simon introduced him to Christina, whom he married in 1975. The couple have two daughters but O'Reilly tries to keep them out of the public eye.
His marriage caused a rift with his staunchly Catholic father who said his younger siblings would be "scandalised" if he brought his non-Catholic wife home. The two didn't meet for seven years as a result.
Father and son overcame their mutual stubbornness in 1980 when his father's health was failing. Following a heart attack, O'Reilly senior was unable to speak. He asked his son's forgiveness by writing, "I only wanted you to be with us in paradise" on a slate with a piece of chalk.
O'reilly graduated from Harvard in 1975 with a BA in classics, having apparently spent the bulk of his time at the New England college reading in solitude. After graduation he did some research and writing. He was struggling to establish a meaningful career when he had a chance encounter with a friend who had landed a contract to write a computer manual. The friend knew about computers but couldn't write so he enlisted O'Reilly's help and they formed a partnership that lasted many years.
He told The Irish Timesin 1999, "The partnership eventually broke up because he never did learn how to write and I did learn a lot about computers."
O'Reilly founded his company in 1983, churning out manuals for clients in the computer industry. The company made the leap from consultancy to publishing in 1988 when delegates at a conference were throwing money at him for a photocopied manual on how to use new programming tools. The company has gone from strength to strength since and has about 15 per cent of the market for computer-related titles. Add to that a successful conference business and interests in software and non-technical publishing and it's easy to see why those who have met him say he has the relaxed laid-back air common to those who have done well out of the technology industry.
In recent years he and his siblings purchased a castle in Killarney (his father was born in the town and his aunt still lives there) which they are currently restoring with their children. He has an interest in Irish history, particularly Michael Collins. O'Reilly says his hobbies include hiking with his wife, horseriding, playing basketball badly and growing fruit to make his own jam.
O'REILLY IS RENOWNEDas a bookworm and claims to have more than 5,000 books in his home, favouring science fiction, historical fiction and classics. He admits to buying business books but never gets past the first chapter and says he has to read enough technical material at work, so he avoids it at home.
"One of my favourite kinds of book to discover is the bestseller of a bygone era, the books that didn't quite make it to classic status but still reached millions of people," he explains on his official biography on the O'Reilly website. "They can often tell us more about the unique sensibility of an era than the timeless classics." In a profile last year, Wired magazine described his rambling North California farmhouse as a "post-hippie enclave". His casual dress sense, ability to quote poetry in the middle of a technical conversation and his earnest attempts to make the web an open environment mark O'Reilly out as a Californian child of the 1960s who has done well in business.
Given that O'Reilly gets exposed to new technologies at a very early stage, it is not surprising that he has been an early investor in a number of successful Silicon Valley start-ups.
In 1993 he established the first truly commercial site on the web - the Global Network Navigator site which acted as a directory to the emerging medium. It was sold to AOL in September 1995 for $11 million - big money at the time but small potatoes compared to what O'Reilly would have netted if he had waited a few years.
He was also an early supporter of Blogger, the popular blogging platform which was acquired by Google, and left O'Reilly holding valuable Google stock before the company had gone public.
But given the fortunes that have been made by far less creative and intelligent people on the web in recent years, O'Reilly hasn't really cashed in on spotting the potential of the internet at a very early stage. A more money-oriented person might have become a billionaire but instead he was more interested in promoting the idea of what the internet could do for society as a whole rather than making money for himself or his company.
AT THE SAMEtime, he will fight tooth and nail to protect his own business interests. Last year he was again the subject of controversy when his firm threatened to sue IT@Cork, a local technology group that was organising a conference on the topic of Web 2.0. O'Reilly's company had trademarked the term for use in connection with conferences, and despite being roundly condemned by bloggers and commentators for claiming a name that they felt was owned by the community, he backed down only half-heartedly.
Of course, O'Reilly could have cashed in by floating O'Reilly Media on the stock market but it's a move he has always resisted. His reasons for not doing so sum up his philosophy of doing business.
"Part of what has made O'Reilly so successful is that we don't chase quarterly earnings targets," he said in a company publication. "Instead, we follow our dreams, our curiosity, and our sense of what's important."
The O'Reilly File
Who is he?The Irish-born multimillionaire technology guru who believes the internet can enrich society and not just beef up his bank account.
Why is he in the news?O'Reilly and Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of Wikipedia, are attempting to put some manners on the no-holds-barred world of internet commentary, by proposing a controversial Bloggers' Code of Conduct. The move is a response to online death threats received by US blogger Kathy Sierra.
Most appealing characteristic?A firmly held belief that technology should be used to improve everyone's lives.
Least appealing characteristic?An unswerving faith in his own views and a tendency to flare up at any criticism of himself or his company.
Most likely to say:We are entering a new paradigm.
Least likely to say:We could make a lot of money doing that and squash all our competitors.