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John Gage

From Alfawiki
John Burdette Gage
Born (1942-10-09) October 9, 1942 (age 84)
Long Beach, California, U.S.
Occupation(s)Computer scientist, technology leader, venture capitalist
Known forCo-founder of Sun Microsystems; originating the phrase "The Network is the Computer"; hosting JavaOne conference; co-founder of NetDay

John Burdette Gage (born October 9, 1942) is a former computer scientist and technology leader. As the fifth employee at Sun Microsystems, he is recognized for originating the phrase The Network is the Computer. Gage held multiple roles at Sun including vice president, chief researcher, and director of the Science Office until June 9, 2008. Afterward, he became a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, concentrating on environmentally sustainable technologies aimed at combating global warming. He departed KPCB in 2010 to focus his skills on wider global challenges.

In 2006, Gage joined the board of the Tegla Loroupe Peace Foundation, helping to establish educational and orphan care facilities in remote north-western Kenya. Later, in 2012, he played a key role in developing the Kibera Town Centre, a significant water access and community education facility located in Kibera, Africa’s largest informal settlement.

Gage was a co-founder of NetDay in 1995, an innovative crowd-driven project that sought to connect schools around the globe to the Internet, representing one of the earliest large-scale Internet mobilizations. He also became involved with the Human Needs Project in 2012 to create a networked water supply and purification system within Nairobi’s Kibera slum.

For over a decade, Gage was the host of the annual JavaOne conference held in San Francisco. This event drew approximately 20,000 Java developers each year and played a crucial role in establishing Java’s dominance on more than 95% of mobile devices. Additionally, Java served as the foundational technology for the Android platform.

Background

Gage obtained his bachelor's degree in 1975 from the College of Natural Resources at the University of California, Berkeley. He furthered his education at both the Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School. During his time at Berkeley, he collaborated with Bill Joy, a principal architect behind Berkeley UNIX (BSD), which influenced numerous modern UNIX derivatives such as Solaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD. In 1982, Gage co-founded Sun Microsystems alongside Bill Joy and other colleagues.

He is featured in Mark Kitchell's documentary Berkeley in the Sixties, which captures Berkeley's Free Speech Movement, as well as appearing in the Discovery Channel’s documentary American Stories: the American Dream: A Future Reborn 1918–1945.

In June 2008, Gage stepped down from Sun Microsystems to join Kleiner Perkins as a venture capitalist collaborating with Al Gore, before leaving the firm in 2010.

Throughout his career, Gage has contributed to advisory committees for organizations such as the US National Research Council, the US National Academy of Sciences, the United Nations, the World Bank, and the World Economic Forum. Appointed by President Bill Clinton in 2000 to serve on the Web Based Education Commission, he also assisted with restructuring US intelligence agencies following 9/11 through involvement with the Markle Foundation Task Force on National Security and related groups.

His governance experience includes board memberships at institutions like the US National Library of Medicine, FermiLab, and Berkeley’s Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, among other scientific and academic organizations.

Currently, Gage advises Malaysia’s international science programs and holds positions with UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy, the Oxford Martin School, and CITRIS at Berkeley. He also serves on the board of Liquid Robotics, a company specializing in autonomous ocean surface vehicles. Furthermore, he supports humanitarian efforts through organizations such as the Tegla Loroupe Peace Foundation, Human Needs Project, and Relief International.

Early life

Born on October 9, 1942, in Long Beach, California, Gage came from a distinguished family. His father, James Robert Gage, served as president of UCLA's Class of 1935, held the rank of Navy captain, and held senior management roles at Douglas Aircraft and McDonnell Douglas Aerospace. His mother, Harriet Doris Burdette, was an educator within the Los Angeles school system. Gage has two siblings: James Collier Gage of Honolulu and Laurie Gage, who is the chief veterinarian at the Marine Mammal Center and an expert on big cats and marine mammals for the USDA.

Education

Gage’s early education took place in Hollywood before relocating to Newport Beach in 1956. While attending Newport Harbor High School, he distinguished himself as student body president, an All-American swimmer, National Merit Scholar, and recipient of the Harvard Book Award, graduating in 1960.

He began his higher education at UC Berkeley in 1960, focusing on Honors Mathematics. In 1961, he studied abroad at Alliance Française and Université de Paris before returning to Berkeley where he became actively involved in the Free Speech Movement. He established UC’s first Community Projects Office under the Associated Students organization, facilitating volunteer placements for over 2,000 students throughout Oakland and Berkeley.

A notable athlete, Gage earned three All-American swimming titles and Pacific Coast championships in breaststroke and water polo. He was a member of prestigious groups such as the Order of the Golden Bear and Big C Society. In 1968, he served as a delegate for Robert F. Kennedy at the Chicago Democratic Convention.

Following this period, he matriculated at Harvard Business School but transitioned to Harvard Kennedy School after one year. He interrupted his studies to contribute to George McGovern’s presidential campaign. Returning to Berkeley later, he completed his undergraduate degree in 1975 and commenced doctoral studies in Mathematical Economics but departed in 1982 to co-found Sun Microsystems.

Political activity

Building on his activism during the Free Speech Movement, Gage became an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War. He participated in Robert Scheer’s 1966 congressional campaign and co-chaired Robert F. Kennedy’s Alameda County campaign in 1968 while also serving as a Kennedy delegate at the Chicago Convention.

While at Harvard, he co-founded the Vietnam Moratorium Committee and led its New England chapter. He orchestrated significant protests including a gathering of 125,000 people at Boston Common and a monumental rally with 400,000 participants at the Washington Monument grounds—the largest mass demonstration in U.S. history at that time—part of nationwide protests involving over two million people.

Gage spearheaded antiwar rallies across several major cities and was listed on President Nixon's Enemies List in 1972. He acted as the primary field organizer for McGovern’s California campaign and subsequently served as assistant press secretary at the national level. He managed press coordination alongside key personnel such as John Podesta. In later political efforts for Jimmy Carter (1976) and Ted Kennedy (1980), he occupied senior press positions and coordinated large-scale events.

In 2008, Gage played a role in Barack Obama’s presidential campaign by organizing grassroots activities in Ankeny, Iowa.

Concert activity

In 1969, Bill Hanley—owner of Hanley Sound, famed for its use at Woodstock and during the Vietnam Moratorium—invited Gage to produce the International Palm Beach Music and Art Festival. The festival showcased prominent performers including B.B. King, Janis Joplin, the Rolling Stones, Sly and the Family Stone, Jefferson Airplane, and Steppenwolf. Despite resistance from Florida officials and challenging weather conditions, attendance reached approximately 100,000 spectators. Notably, this Rolling Stones performance took place just six days before their appearance at the Altamont Free Concert.

Subsequently, Gage managed crisis response efforts for the Louisiana Celebration of Life Festival following two drowning incidents. He also produced the New York Shea Stadium Festival for Peace featuring artists such as Peter Yarrow, Janis Joplin, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Dionne Warwick, and Paul Simon. Additionally, he organized the Philadelphia Peace Concert along with other major events attracting audiences exceeding 100,000 attendees.

Computer career

In 1980, Gage became a member of the Homebrew Computer Club, joining notable figures such as Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Two years later, in 1982, he co-founded Sun Microsystems alongside Bill Joy, Andy Bechtolsheim, Vinod Khosla, Scott McNealy, and others. At Sun Microsystems, Gage was responsible for external relations encompassing marketing, sales, and technical support. He subsequently assumed the roles of Vice President and Director of the Science Office. His duties involved advancing scientific computing and networking while establishing collaborations with academic institutions, research laboratories, intelligence agencies, and international organizations including the World Bank and United Nations.

Gage regularly provided testimony before both the US Congress and various United Nations committees. In 1994, he collaborated with Professor Jianping Wu from Tsinghua University to help found the Network Research Center that later became CERNET, linking more than 1,000 universities across China.

During TED6 in 1995, Gage joined James Gosling to publicly unveil the Java programming language, highlighting its interactive capabilities for web applications. By 2002, Gage had joined the United Nations ICT Task Force to promote worldwide network accessibility and later contributed to the UN Digital Health Taskforce in 2006. He also played a role in initiatives such as the Jordan Network Initiative alongside Cisco CEO John Chambers and Google’s Eric Schmidt under the auspices of the World Economic Forum.

Sun Microsystems reached $25 billion in revenue (adjusted to 2015 dollars) by 2002. Oracle Corporation completed its acquisition of Sun Microsystems in 2010.

Academic career

In 2000, Gage spent a year at the Harvard Kennedy School of Public Policy as a Shorenstein Fellow. He led a course titled "Technology, Journalism and Politics," attended by 90 students, which earned recognition as the "Most Influential Course" from Dean Joseph Nye.

NetDay

Founded in 1995 by Gage along with Michael Kaufman and others, NetDay was the pioneering large-scale crowdsourcing initiative organized through the Internet.

Gage designed interactive zoomable maps that identified the Internet connectivity status of 140,000 U.S. schools and developed web-based sign-up portals for each location. He rallied support from technology companies to assist schools, libraries, and clinics worldwide in gaining Internet access. On March 9, 1996, more than 100,000 volunteers installed Ethernet wiring in 4,000 California schools within a single day. President Clinton and Vice President Gore took part in this effort at Ygnacio Valley High School.

The movement expanded swiftly: within one year, over 70,000 K-12 schools across the United States conducted similar events, spreading internationally to countries such as Korea, Great Britain, France, and others.

In recognition of his leadership with NetDay, Gage was honored with the ACM Presidential Award in 1998 by Association for Computing Machinery President Chuck House.

Human Needs Project

In 2012, Gage collaborated with Connie Nielsen and David Warner to establish the Kibera Town Centre in Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya. This community facility functions as a hub for research and education by employing advanced technologies to provide clean water and wastewater management within one of Africa’s largest urban slums. The center’s borehole delivers over 400 cubic meters of purified water daily to a 1,000 square-meter complex that serves upwards of 1,000 visitors each day with educational programs, career resources, sanitation amenities, a café, laundry services, and financial offerings. Additionally, it supports educational activities for 4,000 students attending Olympic Primary School—Kenya’s largest primary school.

Equipped with high-speed fiber optic infrastructure and a wireless network capable of half-gigabit speeds, the center significantly enhances digital connectivity for residents of Kibera.

Family

John Gage is married to Linda Schacht Gage, who teaches journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. Together, they have two children: Peter Gage, who previously worked with the US Department of Energy and is now affiliated with Renewable Finance, and Kate Gage, a key contributor to the establishment of the USAID Global Development Laboratory, currently holding the position of Senior Policy Advisor for International Science and Technology within the Office of Science and Technology at the White House.

Publications

  • Information Technology and Economic Development, featured in Economic Development, published by Oxford University Press in 1999.
  • Workstations in Science, co-authored with Bill Joy, appeared in AAAS Science on April 26, 1985, Vol 228.

Sunergy Television broadcasts

Gage was responsible for producing more than fifty satellite television programs focusing on technology topics, which were broadcast internationally from cities such as Moscow, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, Beijing, Zurich, Berlin, Santiago, Kuala Lumpur, Cape Town, San Francisco, Paris, and London.

"Moscow and Red Square": 1995 Sunergy 7: September 8, 1993 "Cyberjockying in the 21st Century": featuring Dr. Whitfield Diffie, Carl Malamud, Brewster Kahle, Larry Irving Sunergy 8: "Internet" with Dr. Eric Schmidt, Dr. Vinton Cerf, and Geoffrey Baehr Sunergy 12: January 24, 1995 "Information Highway Access: With Liberty and Justice for All?" featuring Dr. Robert Kahn, Mike Nelson, Eric Schmidt, Deborah Kaplan, Marshall Rose, and Wendell Bailey

Among the prominent episodes are "The Changing Fabric Of Telecommunications" (Sunergy 33), "Next Generation Networking" (Sunergy 25), and "Network Devices Brought to Life" (Sunergy 32).

External links

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