Sunir Shah

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name = Sunir Shah


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birth_name = Sunir Shah
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birth_place = Niagara Falls, Ontario
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nationality = Canadian
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known_for = founding MeatBallWiki
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occupation = website designer
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website = [http://sunir.org Sunir.org]
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Sunir Shah is a Canadian web designer best known for creating one of the first wikis, MeatBallWiki. As the inventor of some widely-used concepts in wikis today, such as the Barnstar, he has been an influence on many websites, including Wikipedia.

While growing up in Mississauga, Shah's father bought him a Vic20 computer at the age of four. At first Sunir didn't like it, but then, he had learned to operate it.http://sunir.org/sunir Sunir's Personal Page]

Shah was a participant of Ward Cunningham's WikiWikiWeb, where a growing conflict about "Meta-wiki discussions about the nature of Wiki itself [which] consumed the community" prompted him to found MeatBallWiki (with the help of Clifford Adams) as a venue specifically dedicated to such meta discussions.

Shah has been a panelist or speaker at various conferences about wikis and related topics such as WikiSym, Wikimania or Wizards of OS (where he lead a workshop about Wikipedia together with Jimmy Wales and Erik Möller in 2004). [ [http://www.wizards-of-os.org/archiv/wos_3/programm/panels/freier_content/wikipedia_co.html Wizard of OS: Wikipedia & Co ] ]

He has been quoted as an expert on wikis by mainstream media such as the Associated Press, which attributed the following metaphor to Shah::"At its core, a Wiki is an empty room, devoid of furniture and decoration. Visitors bring the personality and mission, turning the Wiki into a library, a party or a conference room." [Anick Jesdanu: " [http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/internetlife/2004-09-26-wonderful-wikis_x.htm 'Wikis' provide window on the wisdom of groups] " USA Today, September 26, 2004]

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