Martin F. Porter is the
inventor
An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...
of the Porter
Stemmer, one of the most common algorithms for stemming English, and the
Snowball
A snowball is a spherical object made from snow, usually created by scooping snow with the hands, and pressing the snow together to compact it into a ball. Snowballs are often used in games such as snowball fights.
A snowball may also be a large ...
programming framework. His 1980 paper "An algorithm for suffix stripping", proposing the stemming algorithm, has been cited over 8000 times (Google Scholar).
The Muscat search engine comes from research performed by Porter at the
University of Cambridge
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
and was commercialized in 1984 by Cambridge CD Publishing; it was subsequently sold to MAID which became the
Dialog Corporation. Part of Dialog was then spun off to become
BrightStation in 2000, which transitioned Open Muscat to a closed-source development model in 2001. Subsequently, a group of developers led by Porter initiated a project based on Open Muscat called
Xapian
Xapian is a free and open-source probabilistic information retrieval library, released under the GNU General Public License (GPL). It is a full-text search engine library for programmers.
It is written in C++, with bindings to allow use from ...
and released the first official version on September 30, 2002.
In 2000 he was awarded the
Tony Kent Strix award
Tony may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Tony (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters
* Gregory Tony (born 1978), American law enforcement officer
* Motu Tony (born 1981), New Zealand international rugby leagu ...
.
Porter read mathematics at
St John's College, Cambridge
St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...
(1963–66) and went to get a Diploma in Computer Science (1967) and a PhD. at
Cambridge Computer Laboratory
The Department of Computer Science and Technology, formerly the Computer Laboratory, is the computer science department of the University of Cambridge. it employed 35 academic staff, 25 support staff, 35 affiliated research staff, and about 15 ...
. He worked at the
University of Leeds
, mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased
, established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds
, ...
for a year before returning to Cambridge's ''Literary and Linguistic Computing Centre'' (1971-1974) and at the
Sedgwick Museum
The Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, is the geology museum of the University of Cambridge. It is part of the Department of Earth Sciences and is located on the university's Downing Site in Downing Street, central Cambridge, England. The Sedgw ...
as a programmer (1974-1976). In 1977, he became the Director of the Museum Documentation Advisory Unit (MDA).
Martin Porter is co-founder with John Snyder of the contextual targeting and content recommendation company, Grapeshot. John Snyder is listed as CEO and Martin Porter is listed as Chief Scientist. Grapeshot took £250,000 in UK government subsidies and subsequently raised £16m from UK investors.
Parliamentary Review 2018 - Grapeshot
On May 15, 2018, Oracle Corporation
Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation headquartered in Austin, Texas. In 2020, Oracle was the third-largest software company in the world by revenue and market capitalization. The company sells da ...
completed the acquisition of Grapeshot.
References
External links
Martin Porter's personal homepage
Living people
1944 births
Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge
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