Gnutella Pioneer Gene Kan: dead at 25

Kan died June 29. A soft-spoken man with a talent for coining phrases that cut neatly through technical complexities, Kan fell into the limelight almost accidentally. Shortly after the release of Gnutella by America Online employee Justin Frankel, Kan and several friends set up a portal site intended to serve as an information hub for Gnutella developers. Kan helped write an early version of Gnutella designed to work on the Unix operating system, and he and his partners wanted to help bring together fragmenting efforts to extend the original technology.

With interest in file swapping running high, the site drew journalists as well as developers, and Kan quickly became an unofficial ambassador between the non-technical world and peer-to-peer coders.

“Gene contributed much to the industry, specifically in the peer-to-peer (P2P) space,” Sun said in a statement Monday. “Gene brought new ideas to the organization and stretched our thinking. Gene was a trusted friend and colleague, and we will miss him greatly.” In moments not dedicated to coding, Kan was an aficionado of fast cars and street racing. He was also working on several new projects, including a peer-to-peer content distribution system dubbed Gnougat and a new technology for streaming MP3s. A memorial fund is being set up in Kan’s name at UC Berkeley. Donations can be sent to the following address: In memory of Gene Kan; Manager, Gift Stewardship; College of Engineering; University of California, Berkeley; 201 McLaughlin Hall; Berkeley, Calif., 94720-1722.