Ivan Pope

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Ivan Pope
Ivan Pope in Oxford Street.jpg
Ivan Pope on Oxford Street, London in 2008
Born1961 (age 64–65)
OccupationTechnologist
Years active1990s–present
Father Marius Pope
Relatives Pat Pope (brother)
Website https://www.ivanpope.com/

Ivan Pope (born 1961) is a British technologist involved in a number of early internet developments in the UK and internationally. He is credited with coining the term cybercafe at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts. Pop was a founder of two of the first online magazines: The World Wide Web Newsletter and later .net magazine in the UK. In 1994, he founded Webmedia to professionalise the process of website design and development. In 1995, he was involved with the creation of the domain name management company NetNames. Pope is now a writer and a noted proponent of the dérive.

Contents

Biography

Pope was born in 1961, the son of Patricia Pirard, a French national, and Marius Pope, a south-African-born journalist of Lithuanian Jewish descent. His younger brother is the photographer Pat Pope. [1]

Work

3W and internet magazines

The World Wide Web Newsletter office, Hackney Steve Bowbrick in the 3W office.png
The World Wide Web Newsletter office, Hackney

After graduating from Goldsmiths College with a BA in Fine Art in 1990, Pope worked as an artist with Loophole Cinema for five years. [2] The World Wide Web Newsletter (later 3W magazine) was created by Pope at the Goldsmiths College Computer Centre early in 1993. [3] The magazine was conceived as a general information source to promote internet use. Its name was taken from the World Wide Web project of Tim Berners-Lee, and the first issue was published in late 1993, reporting at the time that "there are under 100 web servers in the world".

The success of 3W enabled Pope to leave Goldsmiths College and pursue web development full-time. In 1994, he exhibited 3W magazine in the inaugural London Internet World exhibition and was subsequently hired by Time Out magazine in London to provide consultancy on its early web development initiatives.

Later that year, Pope joined Future Publishing to work on the launch of .net, the first consumer internet magazine. Based in Future Publishing's Bath offices, he served as Assistant Editor and contributed extensively to the magazine's content during its first year of publication.

Cybercafe

In March 1994, Pope was invited to curate an internet component for an arts symposium at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. [4] Inspired by reports of a cafe in the United States that offered bulletin board access, he coined the term cybercafe for a weekend event held in the ICA theatre as part of the exhibition "Towards the Aesthetics of the Future". [5] The event featured Apple Macs on cafe-style tables to provide public access to the internet. [6] Pope is credited with originating the concept of an internet cafe, [7] although earlier internet-enabled cafés had existed. [5]

Later in 1994, Pope and internet artist Heath Bunting planned to open London's first cybercafe, but were preempted by Cyberia. [8]

Together with Steve Bowbrick, Pope founded Webmedia, an early web development company whose first offices were located in the basement of Cyberia. [9] Webmedia aimed to professionalise the design and development of websites, a structured approach that was largely absent at the time. The company expanded rapidly over the next two years, securing early web accounts from clients such as Lloyds Bank and Lufthansa. [10]

Netnames and Nominet

While managing Webmedia and working within the emerging web industry, Pope identified a need for organised domain name registration services. In 1995, he founded NetNames, a company established to manage global domain name registrations for companies and individuals. [11] In 1996, Pope publicly objected to the manner in which Nominet began registering UK domain names for an annual fee, expressing concern over the lack of regulation and oversight. [12]

In 1997, Pope separated NetNames from Webmedia. In 2000, he sold NetNames to Netbenefit NBT, then a UK company listed on the London Stock Exchange. Following this acquisition, Pope joined Netbenefit's board and briefly served as its chair before leaving the company in 2001.

By the late 1990s, Pope had played a significant role in the formation of Nominet UK, the not-for-profit organisation responsible for managing the .uk domain name namespace. [13]

Start-ups

In 2006, Pope founded Snipperoo, a widget management company, and became a prominent blogger and commentator on web widgets. He spoke at industry events including WidgetsLive! and Widgetcon. On 6 December 2007, he created Widgetygoodness, Europe's first conference dedicated to web widgets, held in Brighton. [14]

Pop was also the founder of several other start-ups, including Fabrivan, [15] [16] Thingmakers [17] and Shapie Me. [18]

Bibliography

See also

References

  1. ↑ Ben Hatton (18 June 2018). "Appeal launched to help photographer Pat Pope after major stroke". Kentlive News. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  2. ↑ "Loophole Cinema". Gregpope.org. 5 August 2011.
  3. ↑ "Ivan Pope – Technology – The Guardian". The Guardian. 5 October 1999.
  4. ↑ Baker, Nick. "BBC - Internet Café Hobo: Busy in Accra". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 21 March 2025.
  5. 1 2 The Weird, Sketchy History of Internet Cafes Gizmodo. (20 November 2015). Bryan Lufkin
  6. ↑ "Computers: More theorists than you could shake a stick at: Rupert". The Independent. 18 March 1994. Retrieved 22 January 2026.
  7. ↑ Esharenana E. Adomi (editor), Security and Software for Cybercafes, 2008. ISBN   978-1599049052
  8. ↑ Tom Wilkie (12 August 1994). "Computers: Cybernaut replays love game on the Net: Tom Wilkie meets a 'geek' comedian running a computer cafe to complement his one-man show in Edinburgh". The Independent.
  9. ↑ Think Big. Stay Small. Make Money Wired. (December 1996). Steve Shipside.
  10. ↑ Richard Poynder (2 June 1997). "Web Designers Face a Squeeze". The Wall Street Journal.
  11. ↑ NetBenefit Acquires NetNames Internetnews.com. (16 December 1999). John Lewell.
  12. ↑ "UK Web site owners to be charged for co.uk address". Network News. 17 April 1996. Archived from the original on 14 November 1999.
  13. ↑ "the internet – think global act local – a brief Nominet history of uk domains". Trefor.net. 25 November 2010.
  14. ↑ "Widgety Goodness 2007 – Europe's first Widget Conference". Responsesource.com. 23 October 2007.
  15. ↑ Summary: 24 September: 3D Printing- How Far Will It Go? Cybersalon.org. (16 August 2013).
  16. ↑ 5 -- Ivan Pope -- Looking Sideways Lookingsideways.net (6 October 2013). Andrew Sleigh.
  17. ↑ "Get started with 3D printing". The Guardian. 11 March 2014.
  18. ↑ "3D printing: adding another dimension to marketing's future". Econsultancy.com. 5 June 2015.
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