Rob Malda (born May 10, 1976), also known as CmdrTaco, is an American Internet content author, and former editor-in-chief of the website

Slashdot ''Slashdot'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''/.'') is a social news website that originally advertised itself as "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters". It features news stories concerning science, technology, and politics that are submitted and evalu ...

Career

Malda is an

alumnus Alumni (singular: alumnus (masculine) or alumna (feminine)) are former students of a school, college, or university who have either attended or graduated in some fashion from the institution. The feminine plural alumnae is sometimes used for grou ...

Hope College Hope College is a private Christian liberal arts college in Holland, Michigan. It was originally opened in 1851 as the Pioneer School by Dutch immigrants four years after the community was first settled. The first freshman college class matricul ...

and

Holland Christian High School Holland Christian High School is a private, Calvinist high school in the city of Holland, Michigan. Holland Christian's colors are maroon and white, and their nickname is "The Maroons". Holland Christian High School is the only grade 9–12 buil ...

. In 1997, Malda and

Jeff Bates Jeffery Wayne Bates (born September 19, 1963) is an American country music artist. Signed to RCA Nashville in late 2002, Bates released his debut album ''Rainbow Man'' in May 2003. In 2005 he released his second album, ''Leave the Light On'', ...

created

while undergraduates of

. After managing the site for two years "on a shoestring", they sold the site to Andover.net, which was later acquired by

VA Linux Systems Geeknet, Inc. is a Fairfax County, Virginia–based company that is a subsidiary of GameStop. The company was formerly known as VA Research, VA Linux Systems, VA Software, and SourceForge, Inc. History VA Research VA Research was founded in No ...

. Malda ran the site out of the

SourceForge, Inc. Geeknet, Inc. is a Fairfax County, Virginia–based company that is a subsidiary of GameStop. The company was formerly known as VA Research, VA Linux Systems, VA Software, and SourceForge, Inc. History VA Research VA Research was founded in Nove ...

office in

Dexter, Michigan Dexter is a city in Washtenaw County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 4,067 at the 2010 census. Dexter Township is located to the northwest and does not border the city, and the two are administered autonomously. The townshi ...

. Rob Malda also wrote a monthly

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...

for the magazine ''Computer Power User''. In 2002, he was named in the

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

Technology Review ''MIT Technology Review'' is a bimonthly magazine wholly owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and editorially independent of the university. It was founded in 1899 as ''The Technology Review'', and was re-launched without "The" in ...

TR100 The Innovators Under 35 is a peer-reviewed annual award and listicle published by ''MIT Technology Review'' magazine, naming the world's top 35 innovators under the age of 35. at ''Technology Review'' with lists of winners at technologyreview.com ...

as one of the top 100 innovators in the world younger than the age of 35. On August 25, 2011, Rob Malda announced his resignation from Slashdot. On March 5, 2012, Malda was appointed as Chief Strategist and Editor-at-Large of WaPo Labs, a subsidiary of

The Washington Post Company Graham Holdings Company (formerly The Washington Post Company) is a diversified American conglomerate holding company. Headquartered in Arlington County, Virginia, and incorporated in Delaware, it was formerly the owner of ''The Washington Post ...

. After The Washington Post Company sold its newspaper operations to Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, the company was renamed

Graham Holdings Company Graham Holdings Company (formerly The Washington Post Company) is a diversified American conglomerate holding company. Headquartered in Arlington County, Virginia, and incorporated in Delaware, it was formerly the owner of ''The Washington Post ...

. WaPo Labs became

Trove Trove is an Australian online library database owned by the National Library of Australia in which it holds partnerships with source providers National and State Libraries Australia, an aggregator and service which includes full text document ...

, for which Malda was Chief Strategist and Head of Product, before it was terminated in December, 2015.

Personal life

Malda was married to longtime girlfriend Kathleen Fent on December 8, 2002, in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

., having had a proposal displayed on the website Slashdot on February 14, 2002.

References

External links

Personal homepage

CmdrTaco interview
on the FLOSS

Podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

Rob's resignation post on Slashdot
{{DEFAULTSORT:Malda, Rob 1976 births Living people American Internet celebrities Businesspeople in information technology Businesspeople in software Geeknet Hope College alumni People from Holland, Michigan Slashdot People from Dexter, Michigan