Jacob Kaplan-Moss

Jacob Kaplan-Moss
Name	Jacob Kaplan-Moss
Occupation	Software developer, entrepreneur, speaker
Known for	Django, open-source software

Jacob Kaplan-Moss is an American software developer and entrepreneur widely recognized for co-creating the Django web framework. He has contributed to numerous open source software projects and has spoken about software engineering, web development, and diversity in technology at conferences associated with organizations such as PyCon, DEF CON, O'Reilly Media, and Strata Conference. Kaplan-Moss's work spans contributions to frameworks, libraries, and advocacy within the Python community, the wider web ecosystem, and the technology startup scene.

Early life and education

Kaplan-Moss grew up in the United States and pursued studies that led him into software engineering and web development, interacting with institutions such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, and regional technical communities. During his formative years he engaged with projects and groups connected to Linux, Free Software Foundation, Apache Software Foundation, Mozilla Foundation, and campus technology clubs. His early exposure included use of platforms and tools from companies like Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, Google, Apple Inc., and IBM as he developed skills in programming, systems administration, and web architecture.

Career

Kaplan-Moss's professional trajectory includes roles in organizations ranging from startups to established technology companies, collaborating with teams at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, World Health Organization, Mozilla Corporation, Facebook, and cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services. He has worked on web applications, back-end systems, and API design, interfacing with standards and protocols championed by groups like the Internet Engineering Task Force, World Wide Web Consortium, OAuth, and REST. His career intersected with leaders and projects in the Python ecosystem including Guido van Rossum, Ben Bangert, Adrian Holovaty, Kenneth Reitz, and organizations like the Python Software Foundation.

Django and open-source contributions

Kaplan-Moss is best known for co-founding and co-maintaining Django, working with co-creators and contributors such as Adrian Holovaty, Simon Willison, Jacob Thornton, and numerous community members from the Django Software Foundation. He has contributed to package development, documentation, and release management, interacting with tooling from pip, virtualenv, setuptools, pytest, and Sphinx. Beyond Django, his open-source involvement touches projects in the Python Package Index, integrations with PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite, and adoption patterns seen in companies like Instagram, Disqus, Pinterest, Spotify, and Reddit. Kaplan-Moss has participated in collaborative development practices influenced by platforms such as GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, and continuous integration services like Travis CI and Jenkins.

Professional roles and entrepreneurship

In professional capacities Kaplan-Moss has held positions as software engineer, technical lead, and entrepreneur, founding or advising startups and engaging with incubators and investors including Y Combinator, Techstars, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, and Accel Partners. He has operated in ecosystems involving product teams at Heroku, DigitalOcean, Stripe, Twilio, and enterprise groups at Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform. His entrepreneurial activities involved building teams that used frameworks and services from vendors such as Docker, Kubernetes, HashiCorp, and Elastic. Kaplan-Moss has also provided consultancy and coaching to organizations implementing agile and DevOps practices that align with tools from Atlassian, Chef Software, and Puppet.

Views and advocacy

Kaplan-Moss has been an advocate for inclusive communities and ethical technology, engaging in conversations alongside figures and organizations like Benedict Evans, Tracy Chou, Tim O'Reilly, Evan You, and institutions including Electronic Frontier Foundation, Center for Democracy & Technology, and the National Science Foundation. He has written and spoken on issues such as diversity in tech, code of conduct development modeled after efforts by Contributor Covenant and groups like the Open Source Initiative, and the social impact of software discussed at venues including Strata Data Conference and SXSW. Kaplan-Moss's commentary often intersects with debates about platform governance involving companies such as Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, and public policy arenas including the United States Congress and international regulatory discussions.

Selected works and talks

Kaplan-Moss's selected presentations and writings include conference talks at PyCon, DjangoCon, Yes! Programming, and workshops at O'Reilly Media events. He has authored or contributed to documentation, blog posts, and community guides referenced alongside works by Adrian Holovaty, Simon Willison, Kenneth Reitz, Wes McKinney, and David Beazley. His technical and opinion pieces have been cited in media outlets and aggregators such as TechCrunch, Wired, The Verge, InfoQ, and Ars Technica. Selected topics covered by Kaplan-Moss include web framework design, testing strategies used in projects like Django REST framework, deployment patterns with Ansible, and community governance exemplified by the Django Software Foundation.

Category:American software engineers Category:Free software programmers