Sunir Shah

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Sunir Shah
Born	Sunir Shah Niagara Falls, Ontario
Nationality	Canadian
Occupation	website designer
Known for	founding MeatBallWiki
Website Sunir.org

Sunir Shah is a Canadian web designer best known for creating one of the first wikis, MeatBallWiki. He has been an influence on many websites, including Wikipedia.^{[citation needed]}

While growing up in Mississauga, Shah's father bought him a Vic20 computer at the age of four. At first Sunir didn't like it, but then, he had learned to operate it.^[1]

Shah was a participant of Ward Cunningham's WikiWikiWeb, where a growing conflict about "Meta-wiki discussions about the nature of Wiki itself [which] consumed the community" prompted him to found MeatBallWiki (with the help of Clifford Adams) as a venue specifically dedicated to such meta discussions.^[1]

“	That's it, I figured. I'm going to build a community. Not only that, a community that builds communities. And damn us if we don't change the world.	”
—Sunir Shah on MeatBallWiki^[1]

Shah has been a panelist or speaker at various conferences about wikis and related topics such as WikiSym, Wikimania or Wizards of OS (where he lead a workshop about Wikipedia together with Jimmy Wales and Erik Möller in 2004).^[2]

He has been quoted as an expert on wikis by mainstream media such as the Associated Press, which attributed the following metaphor to Shah:

At its core, a Wiki is an empty room, devoid of furniture and decoration. Visitors bring the personality and mission, turning the Wiki into a library, a party or a conference room.^[3]