caption death_date death_place work_institution birth_place article_title field birth_date alt residence known_for image spouse name alma_mater
kotok at csail in 2006 26 may 2006 cambridge , massachusetts digital equipment corporation , world wide web consortium philadelphia , pennsylvania alan kotok
 computer science 9 november 1941 shoulder a checked shirt with a blank white background high portrait of man in his sixties in united states world spacewar ! , computer chess wide web consortium , digital equipment corporation , alan kotok-20060510 . jpg judith kotok alan kotok massachusetts institute of technology , clark university
alan kotok

alan kotok -lrb- november 9 , 1941 -- may 26 , 2006 -rrb- was an american computer scientist known for his work at digital equipment corporation -lrb- digital , or dec -rrb- and at the world wide web consortium -lrb- w3c -rrb- .
steven levy , in his book '' '' , describes kotok and his classmates at the massachusetts institute of technology -lrb- mit -rrb- as the first true hackers .
kotok was a precocious child who skipped two grades before college .
at mit he became a member of the tech model railroad club , and after enrolling in mit 's first freshman programming class , he helped develop some of the earliest computer software including a digital audio program and what is sometimes called the first video game -lrb- `` spacewar ! '' -rrb- .
together with his teacher john mccarthy and other classmates , he was part of the team that wrote the kotok-mccarthy program which took part in the first chess match between computers .
after leaving mit , kotok joined the computer manufacturer dec , where he worked for over 30 years .
he was the chief architect of the pdp-10 family of computers , and created the company 's internet business group , responsible for several forms of web-based technology .
kotok is known for his contributions to the internet and to the world wide web through his work at the world wide web consortium , which he and digital had helped to found , and where he served as associate chairman .
