Dixon had been a self-employed web developer after leaving a position as a systems analyst at GlaxoSmithKline.

Stack Overlfow is a free site where anyone can ask software development questions and solicit community responses. The user experience was very carefully crafted by Atwood and Spolsky, two of the most high profile cutting edge developers around. An enthusiastic user community appears to have sprung up since the site launched in September. Here's our review of the site when it launched.

We love reporting on first hires here on the RWW Jobwire and we're very excited for the Stack Overflow team. Atwood described the thinking behind hiring Dixon today on the company blog.