About the Author

Nick Kew is a veteran developer, with more than twenty years’ professional software and systems experience since graduating from Cambridge University. He is a member of the Apache Web Server core development team and Project Management Committee, and of the Apache Software Foundation. He is lead architect of the Apache DBD framework (Apache/SQL integration) and a major contributor to other subsystems—most notably, filtering and proxying. In addition to his work within the Apache team, Kew’s company WebThing, Ltd., distributes more than twenty modules (specializing in smart XML and other markup-aware applications), and he is responsible for the well-respected ApacheTutor website.

Since the 1980s, Kew has been an enthusiastic proponent of the potential of a ubiquitous IT infrastructure to liberate us from enslavement to accidents of geography, and especially the misery of daily commuting. Now he is working to help make it happen. In addition to his work with Apache, he serves as Invited Expert with the World Wide Web Consortium in its accessibility and quality assurance (QA) activities, and is a member of the Web Design Group.

Kew founded WebThing, Ltd., in 1997 to pursue what had previously been a hobby. His primary professional activity is consultancy in the areas of Apache development and Web QA/accessibility.