SPEAKER BIOS

Lillian Ball is a media artist and environmental activist working in New York. She is developing an interactive game installation about an ongoing wetland preservation project on the North Fork of Long Island. "Go Eco" is loosely based on the ancient Asian game of go and uses video/ sound projection to encourage cooperation while guiding players through the preservation process. A multidisciplinary background in anthropology, ethnographic film, and sculpture inform her work. She has received numerous awards including a New York State Foundation for the Arts - Fellowship in Computer Arts, a John-Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in Visual Arts, and a National Endowment for the Arts Grant in Sculpture. Her new media installations have been exhibited most recently @ Wood Street Galleries in Pittsburgh, "Groundworks" @ Carnegie Mellon, and "The Drop" @Exit Art in NYC. www.lillianball.com

Russell W. Bessette, M.D., was appointed Executive Director of the New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR) by Governor George E. Pataki. He was the Director of the Instrument and Devices Clinical Laboratory at the Center of Advanced Technology (CAT) at Buffalo from 1985-1989. He has been a leader in academic research for more than 30 years in the fields of science and technology. He has authored or co-authored more than 55 peer-reviewed academic publications, reports and research papers and has authored eight textbook chapters on reconstructive surgery. Most recently, Dr. Bessette served as the Executive Director of the Buffalo Technology Transfer Center at Sister's Hospital. Prior to his appointment to NYSTAR, Dr. Bessette rose through the academic ranks and was appointed a Clinical Professor in the Department of Surgery (Reconstructive Plastic Surgery) at the State University of New York at Buffalo's School of Medicine. Dr. Bessette also served as a member of President George Bush's Transition Team for the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Ian Bogost is an academic videogame researcher, game designer, and educational publisher. Ian is Assistant Professor of Literature Communication and Culture at Georgia Institute of Technology, where he teaches and researches in undergraduate and graduate programs in digital media. Bogost's current research interests include videogame criticism (the subject of a forthcoming book from MIT Press, Unit Operations: An Approach to Videogame Criticism) and videogame rhetoric (including the function of ideology, politics, advertising, and education in games). Ian is also the founder of two companies, Persuasive Games, a game studio that designs, builds, and distributes electronic games for persuasion, instruction, and activism and Open Texture, a publisher of cross-media education and enrichment materials for families. He has over a decade of experience in digital media production for film, music, games, advertising, and eBusiness.

Harry Borrelli is a media artist, designer, and currently a senior interactive designer for the American Museum of Natural History where he likes to think of himself as a conduit between the scientific staff and visiting public. For the Museum of Natural History, he's involved in the concept and development of educational based interactive media for both permanent exhibitions and traveling shows. He holds a Bachelors of Fine Arts in photography from Rhode Island School of Design, and a Masters of Professional Studies from NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Programs.

Cornelia Brunner is the Associate Director of the Center for Children and Technology. Dr. Brunner has been involved in the research, production and teaching of educational technology in a variety of subject areas for forty years. In addition to conducting research projects about the relationship between learning, teaching, and technology, she has designed and implemented educational materials incorporating technologies to support inquiry-based learning and teaching in science, social studies, media literacy, and the arts. She has worked extensively with staff and students in a variety of school environments on curriculum development projects, teacher support and training, and informal education. She has taught experimental courses at Bank Street College and the Media Workshop New York, in which teachers are introduced to new technologies, learn how to integrate technology into their curriculum, and learn how to use multimedia authoring tools to design their own educational programs. Dr. Brunner has also been an industry consultant for the design of educational and entertainment products for children of all ages during the last forty years.

Asi Burak is currently the producer and lead artist for the PeaceMaker project at the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University. He was previously VP of Marketing and Product Design at Axis Mobile LTD., where he helped to introduce innovative wireless applications to a world-wide market while fostering relationships with companies such as Motorola and MTV. A former senior art director at Saatchi & Saatchi, the second largest advertisement firm in Israel, Asi was first introduced to advanced systems for communication and analysis as an officer in the Israeli Intelligence. He holds a BA in Design from the Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem.

Heather Chaplin has been a business and culture writer for ten years, writing The Reluctant Capitalist column for Salon, and the media critic column for American Demographics. Before leaving to write Smartbomb, she was a senior writer at Fortune Small Business, and is currently working on a book with maverick billionaire businessman Sam Wyly about American entrepreneurship. Chaplin also has an essay in The May Queen, a collection from prominent women writers in their 30s, due out from Penguin Books in March 2006. She has also written for the The New York Times, Fortune, Details, and New York Magazine, among other publications.

Kate Connally is a VP at Atom Entertainment (formerly AtomShockwave) where she manages AddictingGames.com, the web's source for the best free online games. AddictingGames receives over 12 million unique visitors per month. The primary demographic is between ten and thirty years old. The site has also recently promoted the "Darfur is Dying" game.

Mary Flanagan describes herself as "inventor-designer-activist, NYC; professor + director, tiltfactor research group, Hunter College." Mary has published multiple articles and book chapters on digital culture, and girls in cyberspace, as well as experimental games and research projects for girls. She is the editor of reload: rethinking women + cyberculture, and is co-author of SIMilarities, Symbols, Simulacra and the forthcoming reskin. http://www.maryflanagan.com

Skawennati Fragnito is the Network Coordinator and Community Liaison for Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace (AbTeC), a research network of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal new media creators academics. She is also Artist-at-Large with Urban Shaman gallery, as well as an independent curator, writer, and community activist. For over ten years Skawennati has been the director and primary curator for CyberPowWow, the pioneering Aboriginally-determined online gallery and chat space. Though she has battled and vanquished past addictions to Tetris and SSX Snowboarding, she considers herself new to the gaming world. To learn more about her projects, please visit her website at www.skawennati.net

Stephen K. Friedman is General Manager of mtvU, MTV Networks' channel solely dedicated to college students and college life on-air, online and on campus. In this position, Mr. Friedman oversees all aspects of the college-based network, including programming, marketing, and distribution. mtvU can be found on more than 730 college campuses and universities across the country reaching 7 million students.

Lauren Gelman is the Associate Director of Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society (CIS), where she writes and speaks about the interaction of new technologies and the law, represents clients, consults, and supervises students. She also teaches at the Law School and is an Adjunct Lecturer in Stanford's School of Engineering. Prior to joining CIS in 2002, Ms. Gelman was Corporate Counsel for RealNames Corporation. She also spent six years in Washington, DC as the Public Policy Director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and as the Associate Director of Public Policy for ACM, the largest association of computer scientists in the world. Ms. Gelman received a B.S. in Biology and Society from Cornell University, an M.S. in Science, Technology and Public Policy from George Washington University, and her law degree from Georgetown University. She served on the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) Secure Flight Working Group at the Department of Homeland Security. She currently sits on the Board of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, blogs at http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blogs/gelman/ and is a member of the California Bar.

Carl Goodman is deputy director and director of Digital Media at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, New York, where he oversees all public programmatic aspects of the Museum and supervises its use and study of computer-based media and technologies. For the Museum of Moving Image, Carl produced many online projects intended for audiences with broadband internet connections, including The Living Room Candidate (2004), which presents and interprets hundreds presidential campaign television commercials from 1952-2004; and Sloan Science Cinematheque (2005), which is devoted to uses of science & mathematics-related themes in film and television narrative entertainment, and made possible by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Kevin Greaney is President and CEO of Children's Progress, where Mr. Greaney is instrumental in the business development, capital raising, sales and marketing, and management of Children's Progress. Mr. Greaney started and managed several small businesses in the education field over the last 15 years. Prior to co-founding Children's Progress, Mr. Greaney served as Director at the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE). He taught at-risk youth in East Harlem and the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn. Mr. Greaney was pivotal in the implementation of the internationally acclaimed NFTE Young Entrepreneurs Program in multiple states. Mr. Greaney was a Robert A. Taft Fellow and a Price Fellow, and was recognized with the Congressional Award Gold Medal for his achievements in public service.

Steven Johnson is the best-selling author of four books on the intersection of science, technology and personal experience. His writings have influenced everything from the way political campaigns use the Internet, to cutting-edge ideas in urban planning, to the battle against 21st-century terrorism.

Barry Joseph, Director of the Online Leadership Program at Global Kids, holds a BA from Northwestern University and an MA in American Studies from New York University. Barry came to GK through the New Voices Fellowship of the Academy for Educational Development, funded by the Ford Foundation. He has broad experience in human rights work and computer technology, with work experience at Web Lab and @radical.media. Barry leads a number of initiatives that are translating Global Kids' programming onto the Internet and he also has supervised GK trips to Croatia and the UN World Conference Against Racism, in Durban, South Africa. Outside of Global Kids, Barry serves as an elected official of Brit Tzedek v'Shalom, the American Jewish pro-Israel, anti-occupation organization. Barry has also taught Web-design at New School University, the School of Visual Arts, and Parsons School of Design.

Bob Kerrey is president of The New School in New York City. For twelve years prior to becoming president of The New School, Bob Kerrey represented the State of Nebraska in the United States Senate. Before that he served as Nebraska's governor for four years.

Raph Koster is a dynamic speaker, celebrity game designer and powerful author. He has worked as the Chief Creative Officer at Sony Online Entertainment, and been behind such vital games as Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies. His recent book "A Theory of Fun for Game Design" features both cartons and distilled wisdom and has been released to great acclaim in the US, Japan, China and Korea.

Frank Lantz is the Creative Director and co-Founder of area/code, a New York game studio that creates large-scale, real-world games. Before starting area/code, Frank was the Director of Game Design at gameLab, a developer of online and downloadable games. Frank has also worked as a freelance game designer on projects for Cartoon Network, Lifetime TV, and VH1. Between 1988 and 1998, he was Creative Director at R/GA Interactive, a New York digital design company. For over 10 years, Frank has taught game design at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program, the School of Visual Arts, and the New School. His writings on games, technology and culture have appeared in a variety of publications.

Ellen LaPointe is Vice President, Strategic Initiatives at HopeLab. HopeLab's first project is Re-Mission -- a video game developed for adolescents and young adults with cancer. Founded in 2001, HopeLab is a non-profit organization that combines rigorous research with innovative solutions to improve the health and quality of life of young people with chronic illness.

Pathfinder Linden (aka John Lester) joined Linden Lab in 2005, bringing experience in online community development as well as a background in the fields of healthcare and education. Previously he was the Information Technology Director in the Neurology Service at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he pioneered the use of the web in 1993 to create online communities for supporting patients dealing with neurological disorders. He also held an academic appointment at Harvard Medical School, where he created online collaborative environments for professors and students to advance the case-based teaching method in medical education. John is currently a Community Manager in Second Life, where he works to improve the integration of new Residents into Second Life, to expand communication and feedback loops between Residents and Linden Lab employees (Lindens), and to work with educators interested in using Second Life as part of an academic curriculum.

Colleen Macklin chairs the Communication Design and Technology department at Parsons The New School for Design. Collaborative research projects and partnerships include UNESCO's Africa Animated project, and LiveSupport, an open source application for grassroots radio broadcasting sponsored by the Open Society Institute. Interaction design for clients such as Citibank, France Telecom, Moët, Thomson. BFA, Media Arts Pratt Institute, graduate studies in computer science, CUNY and International Affairs, The New School.

Franklin Madison, Jr. , recently named one of Crain's Tech 100, a listing of the Top 100 individuals in technology in New York City as chosen by Crain's NY Business, joined ITAC in 1999 as Technology Program Coordinator, and within four months was promoted to Technology Program Director. He is responsible for the strategic development and implementation of new programs to assist high-tech firms in NYC and managing the FastTrac Programs. He is also the SBIR Regional Specialist for NYC, Long Island and the Mid-Hudson Regions and Program Manager for the NASA's SATOP Program (Space Alliance Technology Outreach Program. Franklin also works one-on-one with CEOs of high tech companies, providing technical assistance in the areas of business plan development, access to capital from private and public sources, R&D assistance, and technology partnerships.

Leonard Majzlin is an Adjunct Professor in the Educational Communications and Technology Graduate Program, housed in the Department of Administration, Leadership and Technology, in NYU's Steinhardt School of Education. He developed and presently teaches their courses on "Media Use In Cultural Institutions and Shared Public Space" and "Professional Applications of Educational Media in NYC." He is a member of the American Association of Museums, of N.A.M.E., and the A.A.M.'s Standing Professional Committees on Museum Education, and Media & Technology. Mr. Majzlin also writes, directs and/or produces media for cultural institutions, visitor centers, museums as well as for corporate clients. He has contributed media and/or interpretive planning for, among others, the Eldridge Street Synagogue Restoration Project, The New York City Transit Museum, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, the Arizona Historical Society, The Jewish Museum and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Hardy Merriman is the director of programs and research at the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict. Mr. Merriman has worked in the field of strategic nonviolent conflict since 2002. Prior to coming to ICNC, Mr. Merriman worked for three years with Dr. Gene Sharp at the Albert Einstein Institution (AEI) in Boston, Massachusetts. Mr. Merriman contributed a chapter to and edited Dr. Sharp's latest book, Waging Nonviolent Struggle: 20th Century Practice and 21st Century Potential. While at AEI, Mr.Merriman also provided editorial support for several shorter publications, such as There are Realistic Alternatives and The Anti-Coup. In addition to his work in the field of strategic nonviolent conflict, Mr. Merriman has worked as a teacher in Zimbabwe, done field research in India and Tibet, and managed an electoral campaign for a mayor in the Seattle, Washington area.He received his BA in political science from Oberlin College.

Doug Nelson is the CEO of Kinection. Doug has built his career on a passion for teaching and a flair for integrating technology and learning. Since graduating from Yale University, he has taught at the kindergarten, university, and corporate executive levels. He spent five years with Apple Computer managing educational market development and then online services in Asia, and ran an educational software startup in Japan. In 2000 he founded the eLearning company Kinection, which designs and develops learning games and simulations for corporate, government, and non-profit clients.

Rob O'Neill is an artist, programmer and researcher working at the intersection of art and science. He holds an undergraduate degree in anthropology from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York where he focused on anatomy and biological anthropology. Rob holds an MFA from Parsons School of Design in Design and Technology with a focus on visualization. Previous professional experience include: researcher in Cultural Resources in the Division of Anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History; Character Technical Director at PDI/Dreamworks on "Shrek 4d", "Shrek 2" and "Madagascar"; Character and Research Technical Director at Charlex/Launch and Studio Technical Director at Eyebeam. He is on the faculty of Digital Arts and a Research Associate in the new Digital Arts Lab at Pratt Institute.

Chinwe Onyekere, M.P.H., works on the Disparity Team and the Pioneer Portfolio as a Program Officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Before joining RWJF in June 2002, she was a researcher for a joint Harvard Medical School and Weill Medical College of Cornell University project, "Cultural Competence in Health Care." For this project, she investigated the emerging frameworks of and practical approaches to cultural competence.

Jerry Paffendorf is Futurist in Residence with the Electric Sheep Company, the first company providing professional services for the emerging 3D Web AKA the metaverse. He also serves as Research Director of the Acceleration Studies Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to improving our understanding of accelerating technological change, its drivers and implications. A curator of ideas about change and the future, Jerry helps put together the Accelerating Change, State of Play, Second Life Community Convention, and Metaverse Roadmap Summit conferences. Jerry holds a BFA from Montclair State University in New Jersey, and an MS in Studies of the Future from the University of Houston. He lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Joost Raessens is Associate Professor of New Media Studies at Utrecht University, The Netherlands, and visiting professor in the Communication Studies Department (UCLA) during the spring quarter 2006. He studied philosophy, film, and French, at the Radboud University (Nijmegen, The Netherlands) and the Sorbonne (Paris, France). In 2001, he obtained his Ph.D. in philosophy for his thesis on the cinema books of the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze (Philosophy & film. Viv®e la différence: Deleuze and cinematographic modernity (Damon, 2001). In 2003, he was conference chair of the inaugural Dgital Games Research Conference 'Level Up,' organized by Utrecht University in close collaboration with DiGRA (Digital Games Research Association). He co-edited the conference proceedings: Level Up. Digital Games Research Conference 2003. He also co-edited the Handbook of Computer Game Studies (The MIT Press, 2005). He is member of the editorial board of Games and Culture. A Journal of Interactive Media (Sage Publications).

David Rejeski is the Director, Foresight and Governance Project at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. Rejeski was appointed the first Flum Scholar at the Wilson Center in July 2000. He heads The Serious Games Initiative which is housed at the Wilson Center. Prior to his work at Wilson Rejeski worked at the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Policy (EPA), and in 1994 was assigned to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). Rejeski's focus at the Wilson center concerns long-term challenges facing the United States as well as finding ways to make policymakers and government leaders think more insightfully about long term decision making. He feels that games are one tool that may help immensely in building long-term thinking skills among not only government officials but the general public at-large.

Ian V. Rowe is the vice-president of strategic partnerships and public affairs for MTV: Music Television. His department oversees MTV's on-air, online and off-air "pro-social" campaigns that build awareness of issues of importance to the MTV audience, and that encourage young people to take action to address those issues, such as Choose or Lose which in 2004, helped to mobilize nearly 22 million young people to vote. He now oversees MTV's new pro-social initiative, think MTV, which informs and engages viewers to take action on the domestic and global issues that matter most and affect their lives, whether it be education, sexual health, discrimination, the environment, or global issues like the fight against preventable disease and extreme poverty. Prior to MTV, Ian was the director of strategy and performance measurement for USA Freedom Corps at the White House, the President's initiative on community and national service. Ian was also founder and president of Third Millennium Media, a media consulting business. Ian spent two years on staff at Teach For America, holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a degree in computer science engineering from Cornell University.

Aaron Ruby is the co-author of Smartbomb, a book on the videogame industry selected by the New York Times and Book Sense as a 2005 editor's pick. Aaron is a former biophsyicist and screenwriter who has written for publications as diverse as Cell and Entertainment Weekly. Aaron has appeared on Talk of the Nation and CBS Sunday Morning as well as dozens of other national and local media outlets.

Katie Salen is a designer interested in the connections between game design, interactivity, and play. She wears many hats, including the directorship of the graduate Design and Technology program at Parsons School of Design, and has worked on a range of projects for clients such as Microsoft, SIGGRAPH, the Hewlett Foundation, gameLab, the Design Institute, the Director's Guild of America, mememe Productions, Salty Features, the Buckminster Fuller Institute, and others. Co-author (with Eric Zimmerman) of Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals, a textbook on game design (MIT Press), as well as the Game Design Reader (MIT Press), she is also member of Playground, a design team focused on large-scale, experimental, real-world games. She has been an international mentor and lecturer with Xmedia Lab (Sydney 2003 and Singapore 2005), a prestigious international masterclass environment where selected companies and project teams work directly on their own games, animation, and graphics ideas with some of the world's leading new media creators and producers.

Sandra Schulberg founded the Independent Feature Project and IFP Market, and co-founded First Run Features and the NY Documentary Film Center. She has also served on the advisory boards for ITVS and the Sundance Film Festival. In her producing career, she specialized early on in raising international film finance, and spent over a decade in Europe as a senior executive for the PBS drama series/movie company, American Playhouse, and for the German media fund, Hollywood Partners. As an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University's Graduate School of the Arts, she teaches International Co-Production. Her numerous movie credits include the Oscar-nominated "Quills," written by Doug Wright and directed by Phil Kaufman, and Ann Hu's Shadow Magic, filmed in Beijing. In 2001, she founded Phobos Entertainment and Phobos Books, and began to explore the universe of interactive entertainment. In 2003, in response to the U.S. "democratization" initiatives in the Broader Middle East, she created a retrospective of Marshall Plan films, entitled "Selling Democracy," that is currently touring North America.

Suzanne Seggerman is co-founder and co-director of Games for Change (G4C), a part of the Serious Games Initiative. G4C's mission is to provide support, visibility and community to organizations and individuals using digital games for positive social change, with special assistance to non-profits and foundations entering the field. She is also a director at think tank Web Lab, whose mission is to develop innovative new media and cross-media projects that bring fresh perspectives and new voices to the discussion of public issues. At Web Lab she works on a variety of projects, including the Crossover Project and the Loop. Her background in online media includes community-oriented interactive environments and the design of non-traditional games.

David Williamson Shaffer is an Assistant Professor of Learning Science in the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Shaffer is a former teacher, curriculum developer, teacher-trainer and game designer. He has taught grades 4-12 in the United States and abroad, including two years working with the Asian Development Bank and U.S. Peace Corps in Nepal. Dr. Shaffer taught in the Technology and Education Program at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education. He is also a game scientist at the Academic Advanced Distributed Learning Co-Laboratory. Dr. Shaffer studies how new technologies change the way people think and learn. Dr. Shaffer's most recent work is Games for Thought: a new and powerful way of looking at school, technology, and even thinking itself--a model of education for a high-tech, digital world of global competition. Dr. Shaffer has a M.S. and a Ph.D. from the Media Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Brooke Singer is a media artist and arts organizer who lives in Brooklyn. Her most recent collaborations utilize wireless (Wi-Fi, mobile phone cameras, RFID) as tools for initiating discussion and positive system failures. She is currently Assistant Professor of New Media at Purchase College, State University of New York, and co-founder of the art, technology and activist group Preemptive Media. www.bsing.net/blog

Benjamin Stokes is Co-founder and Co-director of Games for Change (G4C), the national umbrella organization supporting and advancing social change through digital games. Previously, Benjamin was the E-Learning Architect at NetAid, where he trained high school students to reach 150,000 of their peers in the fight on global poverty. Benjamin has also managed the United Nations online volunteering service. Before NetAid, Benjamin produced research tools and virtual fieldtrips for the more than 43,000 high schools served by Bigchalk/ProQuest publishers. At the CREA House, Benjamin helped develop a living wage standard for the U.S.-Mexico border region. Benjamin has studied abroad in Senegal; at Haverford College he co-founded the anti-sweatshop student alliance.

Douglas Thomas is an associate professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. He is editor of Games & Culture: A Journal of Interactive Media and has published widely on issues of technology and culture. His recent books include Hacker Culture (University of Minnesota Press ) and Technological Visions: The Hopes and Fears that Shape New Technologies (Temple University Press). He is currently working on two book projects: Power, Play and Performance: Studying Virtual Worlds and, with Joshua Fouts, Play & Politics: Games, Civic Engagement, and Social Activism.

Bill Tomlinson is an Assistant Professor of Informatics and Drama at the University of California, Irvine, and a researcher in the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2). His research focuses on the fields of human-computer interaction, autonomous agents, real time animation and interactive educational systems. His work has been published and exhibited at venues including the ACM SIGGRAPH conference, the Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems conference, the Computer Supported Collaborative Learning conference, the Game Developers Conference, Discovery Science Center, Ars Electronica and the Sundance Film Festival. His interactive projects have been reviewed by CNN, the Wall Street Journal, Sculpture Magazine, Scientific American Frontiers, the LA Times, Wired.com and the BBC. He holds an A.B. in Biology from Harvard College, an M.F.A. in Experimental Animation from CalArts, and S.M. and Ph.D. degrees from the MIT Media Lab.

Jake Troy spent five years with Andersen's Business Consulting group and later as a management consultant for Centocor, Inc. a division of Johnson & Johnson. Mr. Troy's background includes software development, educational multimedia, e-commerce, systems design and IT management. Mr. Troy holds a Bachelor of Arts from Franklin & Marshall College and earned his MBA from Columbia Business School. Jake is currently involved in a startup producing educational games.

Andreas Ua'Siaghail is President/CEO/Producer at 23 YYZee (Producers of Pax Warrior). As a Visual Artist, Photographer, award-winning Radio Broadcaster and Interactive Designer, Andreas Ua'Siaghail has led teams designing and producing web sites and computer based training for Fortune 100 clients. Excited and passionate about the opportunities for richmedia, Andreas has held to a consistent viewpoint: The story to be told - the message - is paramount. And a compelling narrative requires the fluent communication of not just information but ideas, values, emotion and thought.

Drew Ann Wake has spent the past decade developing exhibitions for museums and science centers in Canada, the United States and Europe. She has developed twenty computer games to help people explore complex social and environmental issues. The best known is Missing, a mystery which shows children the tactics used by sexual predators on-line. The URL is www.livewwwires.com

Marc Weiss is Executive Producer of WebLab, an organization he founded in 1997 to develop the potential of the World Wide Web as a new communications medium. WebLab's first project, in association with PBS Online, is the Web Development Fund, designed to underwrite and provide visibility for innovative Web sites on the issues of our times. Weiss created P.O.V., the Peabody and Emmy Award-winning public TV series, in 1986, and was its Executive Producer until 1995. In early 1995, Weiss set up P.O.V. Interactive, public TV's first interactive website, and beginning in 1996, he developed a series of demonstration sites designed to engage viewers on issues raised by P.O.V. films. He has been active in the production, distribution, programming and promotion of independent documentaries for over 25 years. He was a founding board member of AIVF; co-founder and executive director of Media Network; and a co-founder of ICAP, a non-profit agency which sold independent films to cable television.

Connie Yowell is Senior Program Officer at the MacArthur Foundation, which is dedicated to helping groups and individuals foster lasting improvement in the human condition. Through the support it provides, the MacArthur Foundation fosters the development of knowledge, nurtures individual creativity, helps strengthen institutions, participates in the formation of effective policy, and provides information to the public, primarily through support for public interest media.