Kevin Rose
Encyclopedia
Kevin Rose is an American Internet entrepreneur
who co-founded Revision3, Digg
, Pownce
, and Milk. He also served as production assistant and temporary co-host at TechTV
's The Screen Savers
.
and lived in Oregon before his family moved to Las Vegas
, Nevada
, where he spent most of his childhood. He became an Eagle Scout
with the Boy Scouts of America
. Rose transferred to Vo-Tech High School in Las Vegas in 1992. He then attended the University of Nevada Las Vegas, majoring in computer science
but dropped out in 1998. He worked for two dot-com startups
through CMGI.
for The Screen Savers. He began appearing on-air, in "Dark Tip" segments, and on Unscrewed with Martin Sargent
where he provided information on developing computing activities. He became a regular co-host when Leo Laporte
left TechTV on March 31, 2004. On March 25, 2004, Comcast
's G4 gaming channel announced a merger with TechTV which resulted in a round of layoffs. Rose moved to Los Angeles to stay with G4. On May 22, 2005, Rose reached an agreement with G4 that released him from his contract and went on to create Systm
and later, Revision3.
co-host Alex Albrecht
. On November 14, 2007, he was a contestant on a game show
at NewTeeVee Live. On March 11, 2009 and April 16, 2010, Rose was a guest on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
along with fellow Diggnation host Alex Albrecht
.
while he was still working on The Screen Savers at TechTV. Rose founded Revision3 in Los Angeles, California
with Jay Adelson
and David Prager
in April 2005. On July 1, 2005, Rose and Alex Albrecht
started the weekly podcast, Diggnation
, which summarizes top stories submitted by Digg users. On October 3rd, 2011, Alex and Kevin announced that they will be retiring the weekly Diggnation show at the end of the year. The final show is scheduled to tape on December 30th, 2011.
formed Digg
, a technology link website
. The website was publicly launched on December 5, 2004. In 2007, he was named to the MIT
Technology Review
TR35
as one of the top 35 innovators in the world under the age of 35. On September 1, 2010, Rose was replaced as CEO by Matt Williams, a former general manager of consumer payments at Amazon. On March 18, 2011, Rose resigned from his position at Digg.
On June 27, 2007, Rose launched a micro-blogging
site named Pownce
which was closed down in less than a year. In April 2011, the technology blog TechCrunch
reported on the funding of "Milk". The company is focused on creating mobile applications. The first application to be release is Oink, a tool for ranking real-world items.
, Twitter
, Foursquare, Dailybooth
, NGMOCO, SimpleGeo, 3crowd, OMGPOP
, Square
, Facebook
, Chomp and Formspring.
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
who co-founded Revision3, Digg
Digg
Digg is a social news website. Prior to Digg v4, its cornerstone function consisted of letting people vote stories up or down, called digging and burying, respectively. Digg's popularity prompted the creation of copycat social networking sites with story submission and voting systems...
, Pownce
Pownce
Pownce was a free social networking and micro-blogging site started by Internet entrepreneurs Kevin Rose, Leah Culver, and Daniel Burka. Pownce was centered on sharing messages, files, events, and links with friends. The site launched on June 27, 2007, and was opened to the public on January 22, 2008...
, and Milk. He also served as production assistant and temporary co-host at TechTV
TechTV
TechTV was a 24-hour cable and satellite channel based in San Francisco featuring news and shows about computers, technology, and the Internet. In 2004, it merged with the G4 gaming channel which ultimately dissolved TechTV programming...
's The Screen Savers
The Screen Savers
The Screen Savers was a live American TV show on TechTV. The show launched concurrently with the channel ZDTV on May 11, 1998. The Screen Savers originally centered around computers, new technologies, and their adaptations in the world...
.
Early life
Rose was born in Redding, CaliforniaRedding, California
Redding is a city in far-Northern California. It is the county seat of Shasta County, California, USA. With a population of 89,861, according to the 2010 Census...
and lived in Oregon before his family moved to Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
, Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
, where he spent most of his childhood. He became an Eagle Scout
Eagle Scout (Boy Scouts of America)
Eagle Scout is the highest rank attainable in the Boy Scouting program of the Boy Scouts of America . A Scout who attains this rank is called an Eagle Scout or Eagle. Since its introduction in 1911, the Eagle Scout rank has been earned by more than 2 million young men...
with the Boy Scouts of America
Boy Scouts of America
The Boy Scouts of America is one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with over 4.5 million youth members in its age-related divisions...
. Rose transferred to Vo-Tech High School in Las Vegas in 1992. He then attended the University of Nevada Las Vegas, majoring in computer science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
but dropped out in 1998. He worked for two dot-com startups
Dot-com company
A dot-com company, or simply a dot-com , is a company that does most of its business on the Internet, usually through a website that uses the popular top-level domain, ".com" .While the term can refer to present-day companies, it is also used specifically to refer to companies with...
through CMGI.
Television
Rose was hired as a production assistantProduction assistant
A production assistant, also known as a PA, is a job title used in filmmaking and television for a person responsible for various aspects of a production...
for The Screen Savers. He began appearing on-air, in "Dark Tip" segments, and on Unscrewed with Martin Sargent
Unscrewed with Martin Sargent
Unscrewed with Martin Sargent was a late night American television show focusing on the comedy of technology. It was produced at TechTV and aired from May 26, 2003 to December 2004...
where he provided information on developing computing activities. He became a regular co-host when Leo Laporte
Leo Laporte
Léo Gordon Laporte is an Emmy Award winning, American technology broadcaster, author, and entrepreneur. A former resident of Providence, Rhode Island, he now lives in Petaluma, California with his wife Jennifer and two children, Abby and Henry....
left TechTV on March 31, 2004. On March 25, 2004, Comcast
Comcast
Comcast Corporation is the largest cable operator, home Internet service provider, and fourth largest home telephone service provider in the United States, providing cable television, broadband Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers in 39 states and the...
's G4 gaming channel announced a merger with TechTV which resulted in a round of layoffs. Rose moved to Los Angeles to stay with G4. On May 22, 2005, Rose reached an agreement with G4 that released him from his contract and went on to create Systm
Systm
Systm was a weekly video podcast produced by Revision3, geared toward “the common geek”, a “This Old House” for geeks, hosted by Patrick Norton and David Calkins, and focused on do it yourself projects.-History:...
and later, Revision3.
Guest appearances
Kevin Rose appeared on the first episode of R&D TV alongside DiggnationDiggnation
Diggnation is Revision3's flagship video podcast produced weekly. It is hosted by Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht, who had previously hosted TechTV's The Screen Savers together. Its main purpose is to discuss some of the top stories from Digg, the social news and bookmarking website developed by Rose...
co-host Alex Albrecht
Alex Albrecht
Alexander Jennings Albrecht is an American television personality, actor and podcaster who resides in Brentwood a suburb of Los Angeles, California...
. On November 14, 2007, he was a contestant on a game show
Game show
A game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...
at NewTeeVee Live. On March 11, 2009 and April 16, 2010, Rose was a guest on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon is an American late-night talk show hosted by Jimmy Fallon on NBC. The show premiered on March 2, 2009, as the third incarnation of the Late Night franchise originated by David Letterman....
along with fellow Diggnation host Alex Albrecht
Alex Albrecht
Alexander Jennings Albrecht is an American television personality, actor and podcaster who resides in Brentwood a suburb of Los Angeles, California...
.
Podcasting
Rose began podcasting on July 24, 2003, with the release of the first episode of thebrokenThebroken
thebroken is a video podcast produced by Revision3, focusing on software cracking, computer intrusion, and other "questionable activities". It was hosted by Kevin Rose and Dan Huard, with Ramzi as a regular comical feature, and geared toward anyone interested in computer security. The show...
while he was still working on The Screen Savers at TechTV. Rose founded Revision3 in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
with Jay Adelson
Jay Adelson
Jay Adelson is an is an American Internet entrepreneur. His Internet career includes Netcom, DEC's Palo Alto Internet Exchange, co-founder of Equinix, Revision3 and Digg, and CEO of SimpleGeo, Inc before they were purchased by Urban Airship.In 2008, Adelson was named a member of Time Magazine's...
and David Prager
David Prager
David Lawrence Prager is one of the co-founders and Vice President of Special Projects for Revision3. He has also worked for ZDTV, TechTV, and G4.-Early life:...
in April 2005. On July 1, 2005, Rose and Alex Albrecht
Alex Albrecht
Alexander Jennings Albrecht is an American television personality, actor and podcaster who resides in Brentwood a suburb of Los Angeles, California...
started the weekly podcast, Diggnation
Diggnation
Diggnation is Revision3's flagship video podcast produced weekly. It is hosted by Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht, who had previously hosted TechTV's The Screen Savers together. Its main purpose is to discuss some of the top stories from Digg, the social news and bookmarking website developed by Rose...
, which summarizes top stories submitted by Digg users. On October 3rd, 2011, Alex and Kevin announced that they will be retiring the weekly Diggnation show at the end of the year. The final show is scheduled to tape on December 30th, 2011.
Startups
In 2004, Rose, Owen Byrne, Ron Gorodetzky, and Jay AdelsonJay Adelson
Jay Adelson is an is an American Internet entrepreneur. His Internet career includes Netcom, DEC's Palo Alto Internet Exchange, co-founder of Equinix, Revision3 and Digg, and CEO of SimpleGeo, Inc before they were purchased by Urban Airship.In 2008, Adelson was named a member of Time Magazine's...
formed Digg
Digg
Digg is a social news website. Prior to Digg v4, its cornerstone function consisted of letting people vote stories up or down, called digging and burying, respectively. Digg's popularity prompted the creation of copycat social networking sites with story submission and voting systems...
, a technology link website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
. The website was publicly launched on December 5, 2004. In 2007, he was named to the MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
Technology Review
Technology Review
Technology Review is a magazine published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It was founded in 1899 as "The Technology Review", and was re-launched without the "The" in its name on April 23, 1998 under then publisher R. Bruce Journey...
TR35
TR35
The TR35 is an annual list published by MIT Technology Review magazine, naming the world's top 35 innovators under the age of 35.Some of the most famous winners of the award include Larry Page and Sergey Brin , Linus Torvalds , Jerry Yang , Jonathan Ive , Mark Zuckerberg...
as one of the top 35 innovators in the world under the age of 35. On September 1, 2010, Rose was replaced as CEO by Matt Williams, a former general manager of consumer payments at Amazon. On March 18, 2011, Rose resigned from his position at Digg.
On June 27, 2007, Rose launched a micro-blogging
Micro-blogging
Microblogging is a broadcast medium in the form of blogging. A microblog differs from a traditional blog in that its content is typically smaller in both actual and aggregate file size...
site named Pownce
Pownce
Pownce was a free social networking and micro-blogging site started by Internet entrepreneurs Kevin Rose, Leah Culver, and Daniel Burka. Pownce was centered on sharing messages, files, events, and links with friends. The site launched on June 27, 2007, and was opened to the public on January 22, 2008...
which was closed down in less than a year. In April 2011, the technology blog TechCrunch
TechCrunch
TechCrunch is a web publication that offers technology news and analysis, as well as profiling of startup companies, products, and websites. It was founded by Michael Arrington in 2005, and was first published on June 11, 2005....
reported on the funding of "Milk". The company is focused on creating mobile applications. The first application to be release is Oink, a tool for ranking real-world items.
Investments
Rose invested in GowallaGowalla
Gowalla is a location-based social network. Users 'check in' at Spots in their local vicinity, either through a dedicated mobile application or through the mobile website. As a reward users will sometimes receive virtual "items" from check-ins. Items have developed to become a promotional tool for...
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
, Foursquare, Dailybooth
DailyBooth
DailyBooth is a photoblogging website designed for users to take a photo of themselves every day with a caption, in order to document and share their life with others, thus the slogan "your life in pictures." It is similar to social-networking websites such as Twitter in that you can follow other...
, NGMOCO, SimpleGeo, 3crowd, OMGPOP
Omgpop
Omgpop is a casual online multiplayer gaming website built entirely in Flash. Omgpop states on its homepage that it is "a place to hang out, play free online multiplayer games, and make friends....
, Square
Square (company)
was a Japanese video game company founded in September 1983 by Masafumi Miyamoto. It merged with Enix in 2003 and became part of Square Enix...
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
, Chomp and Formspring.