Jordan Casey has been dubbed "the youngest app developer in Europe" -- and he wants to encourage other young people to get involved in technology.
Casey is a self-taught programmer from Ireland. After convincing his grandmother to buy him an HTML handbook aged nine, he created his own Club Penguin fan site and a few years later, seeking a new challenge, decided to develop an iPhone app. With the help of a self-forged letter from an 'Apple executive' that he sent his own parents, they duly bought him an Apple Mac -- and his journey as a young entrepreneur began.
"I developed my first app just for experimentation," he told the audience at WIRED NexGen. "I didn't see any commercial value in it. But then it went to number one in the App Store [UK games chart] and I realised it could be a huge business opportunity for me."
Since then, Casey has built a number of apps. After his teacher lost a log book, full of a year's worth of exam results and attendance records, he was inspired to create a cloud-based service for teachers to store such records more securely.
It was "not very popular" with his schoolmates, he joked.
Casey's latest project, KidsCode, is an attempt to get young people involved in programming. "I've been programming since I was 9 and as I've progressed I've become very passionate about it. I want to inspire the next generation of creative thinkers."
KidsCode is an online virtual world, again inspired by Club Penguin, that combines multiplayer fun with programming. Users can log on, create characters and code their own world, as well as creating their own games with friends. It teaches them the fundamentals of programming as well as teaching collaborative and creative skills. "I see programming as an artform," Casey said.
Despite his huge success, Casey acknowledged that it's not always been easy for him.
"Being a young entrepreneur has its downsides. Sometimes people don't take you seriously. But you also get a head start. Being young and knowing what you want to do, there's nothing stopping you. If you know what you want to do, don't let your age hold you back."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
