John launched the Webspinner Foundation.
Spinners are the sealed, signed unit of SI-native compute — what containers did for workloads, Spinners do for the work itself. The Foundation stewards the canon, the reference implementation, and the recognition process.
BTW: The loom is still threading — webspinner.ai opens publicly in Fall 2026.
Inventor.
Technologist.
Builder.
A self-taught programmer since the age of 16. Founder, innovator, and enterprise AI leader — and still building things that don't exist yet.
Founded The Open Systems Group in my garage in 1989. Built it to an Inc. 500 company with over $6 million in annual revenue.
A life spent building things that didn't exist yet.
"I didn't have a roadmap. I had curiosity, a keyboard, and a willingness to stay up all night figuring it out — and that's still pretty much how I work."
I taught myself to program at 16, working on a Burroughs B-1900. No tutorials, no bootcamp — just manuals, midnight oil, and a question I couldn't let go of: what else can this thing do?
My first real job was the night shift at Cook Children's Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas. Writing code while the building was quiet and the work felt, in some small way, like it mattered. That feeling has never left me.
Before I graduated from TCU, I had already founded my first company — PC Company, in 1986. It was the beginning of a pattern: see a gap, build a solution, don't wait for permission.
In the late 1980s I designed and built CGL, a 4th Generation Language generating complete C applications for Unix, and founded Open Systems Group on it. We made the Inc. 500 in 1996 (#127). As the web era arrived, we spun off Para-Docs Software — a document and content management platform — because we could see what was coming: an explosion of enterprise knowledge that nobody would be able to find.
I missed the web revolution while running the firms. That taught me more about timing — and about the relentless pace of change — than any success ever could. I'm genuinely grateful for that lesson.
Today I lead AI-SDLC transformation at Cognizant, and I'm building Webspinner — a return to what brought me into technology in the first place: the joy of invention, and the hope of building something genuinely useful for people.
The sequel to DevOps hasn't been written yet.
I think I know what it looks like.
DevOps changed how software gets built. But the world has moved on — and the disciplines we need have multiplied. Agile, DevSecOps, Platform Engineering, Site Reliability Engineering, and democratized AI are each evolving in parallel, often in silos, often in tension. The next great discipline will weave them into something unified, human, and available to every team — not just the ones at hyperscalers.
Agile
Iterative delivery and adaptive planning — the foundation that everything else builds on.
DevSecOps
Security baked into the pipeline from commit to production — not bolted on at the end.
Platform Engineering
Internal developer platforms that remove friction and give every team superpowers at scale.
Site Reliability Engineering
Software engineering applied to operations — reliability as a feature, not an afterthought.
Democratized AI
AI embedded throughout the development lifecycle — accessible to every engineer, not just ML specialists.
"The next DevOps won't be a framework — it will be a culture. One where security, reliability, delivery speed, and AI-augmented intelligence aren't competing priorities, but a single unified discipline available to every team in every organization. I've spent 45 years watching technology separate the people who understand it from those who don't. I'd like to spend the next chapter changing that."
— John David Marx · Portland, OregonMeet Webspinner — AI for everyone, not just developers.
Webspinner is a local-first Retrieval-Augmented Generation platform that lets anyone have intelligent conversations with their own documents — without prompts, without cloud lock-in, without a computer science degree. It's the tool I wish had existed at every stage of my career.
Four platforms. One vision.
Every piece of the Webspinner ecosystem serves the same purpose: making AI accessible, open, and useful for everyone.
Webspinner Platform
AI-native products and services for the smarter web. The flagship — where local-first RAG meets enterprise intelligence.
Visit webspinner.com →Open Source Ecosystem
The open commons where Webspinners learn, build, and collaborate. Community-driven. No paywalls. No gatekeeping.
Explore webspinner.org →WebspinnerFX
Cognitive content, rendered by intelligence. AI-generated creative media — where imagination meets the machine.
Discover webspinnerfx.com →Webspinner.tv
The cinema for Cognitive Content. Where the ecosystem's videos live — sit down, grab some popcorn.
Watch at webspinner.tv →45 years of building, transforming, and leading.
Experience
Leading enterprise AI-SDLC transformation and mainframe modernization. Engagements include TD Bank and Gilead Sciences (five-year DevOps transformation).
Building a local-first AI RAG platform. MV3 / React / FastAPI / sqlite-vec / Anthropic Claude API. Investor white paper and competitive analysis complete.
Document and content management platform for the enterprise. An early answer to the question AI is still working on today: how do organizations find what they know?
Built on CGL, a proprietary 4GL generating C/Unix applications. One of the fastest-growing private companies in America at its peak.
Founded before graduating from TCU. First company. First lesson in building something from nothing — and in the difference between working for someone else's vision and your own.
First professional technology role. There's something formative about writing code at 2am in a children's hospital — it grounds you in why technology should serve people, not the other way around.
Expertise
Recognition & Milestones
One of the fastest-growing private companies in America — built on a language I designed myself.
A complete 4GL generating C applications for Unix — before most developers had heard of a compiler.
Founded to advocate for knowledge workers in the age of AI — because technology should lift people, not displace them.
Words from people I've been grateful to work with.
Over 45 years I've been fortunate to work alongside remarkable people. What follows are some of the things they've been kind enough to say — shared not as a résumé, but out of genuine gratitude for the collaborations that shaped me.
"I had the pleasure of working with John as our client partner from Red Hat during a critical period where we were facing persistent messaging product challenges impacting several high-priority applications at Moody's..."
"I had the opportunity to work with John Marx during his time as an FSI Director at Red Hat, and he brought a unique energy to every room he entered. A true Renaissance mind, John draws from a remarkably diverse background..."
"John is a technical trainer without peer. He has consistently shown himself as reliable, highly skilled, and a solid team player. He has a knack for taking a complex system and making it not only easy to understand, but also engaging and fun..."
Let's build something together.
I'm available for enterprise AI consulting, SDLC transformation advisory, and strategic technology partnerships. I'm also genuinely interested in connecting with people who believe technology should serve everyone — not just those who already understand it.
Send a message
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