Meet The Geeks
Howard Rheingold
Howard is a critic, writer, and teacher; his specialties are on the cultural, social and political implications of modern communication media such as the Internet, mobile telephony and virtual communities, a term he is credited with inventing.
He is the author of Tools for Thought, The Virtual Community, Virtual Reality: Exploring the Brave New Technologies of Artificial Experience and Interactive Worlds from Cyberspace to Teledildonics, and Smart Mobs and the editor of Whole Earth Review and The Millennium Whole Earth Catalog, founding executive editor of Hotwired and founder of Electric Minds, which had a mission to chronicle and promote the growth of community online.
In 1998, he created his next virtual community, Brainstorms, a private successful web-conferencing community for knowledgeable, intellectual, civil, and future-thinking adults from all over the world.
Howard is a visiting professor of De Montfort University in the UK and has taught Participatory Media and Collective Action at UC Berkeley, SIMS, Virtual Community/Social Media at Stanford and UC Berkeley and Digital Journalism at Stanford. His current projects include: The Cooperation Project and Social Media Classroom
Blog: http://www.rheingold.com
Twitter: @hrheingold
Friendfeed: http://friendfeed.com/howardrheingold
TOURS: England
Craig Newmark
Craig is the founder and customer service representative of Craigslist, with a goal to keep Craigslist free of spammers and scammers. Newmark is a vocal advocate of keeping the Internet free. In 2006 he donated $10,000 to a non-profit group, NewAssignment.Net, which plans to combine the work of amateurs and professionals to produce investigative stories on the Internet.
Blog: cnewmark.com
Twitter: @craignewmark
Friendfeed: craignewmark
TOURS: England, Israel
Robin Wauters
Robin Wauters is an entrepreneur, blogger, conference organizer, social media consultant, startup advisor and all-around web addict, based in Belgium. He is a writer at TechCrunch and the managing editor of Virtualization.com.
He was one of the first writers to join blognation, an ambitious effort to centralize reports about Web 2.0 startups from around the world into one blog platform. He is mostly known for setting up Plugg, a one-day conference in Brussels aimed to raise awareness for European entrepreneurship as well as the continent’s most promising Web/Mobile 2.0 startups.
He’s also the organizer of the monthly OpenCoffee Club Brussels meetups. Robin combines these efforts with startup life, as a Partner in Oxynade and social media agency Talking Heads.
Blog: http://techcrunch.com/author/robin
Blog: http://virtualization.com
Blog: http://robinwauters.posterous.com
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/robinwauters
Facebook: http://facebook.com/robinwauters
Twitter: @robinwauters
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/robinwauters
TOURS: France
David Spark
David Spark is a new media producer and consultant with more than fourteen years knowledge and experience as a journalist reporting on the tech industry in print, radio, TV, and online. His articles and advice have appeared in more than 25 publications including eWEEK, Wired News, PC Computing, PC World, and Smart Computing. Spark has dispensed his “how-to” advice and punditry on TechTV (formerly ZDTV, now morphed into G4), a cable station about computers and the Internet.
Spark squandered more than a dozen years working as a stand-up comedian and comedy writer for Second City comedy troupe in Chicago. As a journalist, a new media consultant, and an analyst for the Guidewire Group and Gerson Lehman Group, Spark has spent years analyzing and fostering relationships with vendors who provide services in blogging, podcasting, mobile content, interactive TV, online video, social networking, Web 2.0 technologies, and in-game advertising.
Today, Spark can be heard on the radio in a tech advice and news segment called the “Spark Minute” for the progressive talk station, Green 960 online and radio in San Francisco. Spark is also a regular tech contributor for ABC Radio in NYC, a panelist for John C. Dvorak’s “Cranky Geeks,” and a tech commentator on TV for KQED’s “This Week in Northern California.” Spark has hosted two Sprint podcasts, The Communications Insider and phoneIQ, and currently is the host of his own podcast, “Be the Voice.”
Blog: http://www.sparkminute.com/
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidspark
Twitter: @dspark
Website: http://www.sparkmediasolutions.com/
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=davidspark
Friendfeed: http://bit.ly/3pcxJb
Delicious: http://delicious.com/dspark
TOURS: France
Robert Scoble
Robert is a blogger, thought leader, technical evangelist, author, video producer, social media fanboy, and the managing director of Rackspace’s Building43, where he is building a community for people fanatical about the Internet. Scoble is best known for his blog, Scobleizer, which came to prominence during his tenure as a technical evangelist at Microsoft. He has also worked for Fast Company as a video blogger and is the co-author of Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers.
Blog: Scobleizer.com
Twitter: @scobleizer
Friendfeed: scobleizer
TOURS: England, France, Israel
Eliane Fiolet
Eliane participated in the blogging tour with IMC and We Blog the World, a Traveling Geeks affiliate. She is the co-founder and editor of Ubergizmo.com, one of the top high technology and consumer electronics blogs in the U.S. and the world, distributed in 6 languages and read in 212 countries. She largely writes about technology, usability, design, and web applications. Among other things, the site is a Webby Award Honoree, has been ranked as a Top100 Blog by PC Magazine, ranks very high in Nielsen’s Blogpulse and was nominated in “Best Technology Blog” at the Bloggie Awards. Ubergizmo is also a media partner with DEMO and Web 2.0.
In her parallel life, she owns a Corporate ID design business that helps companies create great brands. Prior to opening her own agency, Eliane worked for a top design firm, Minale Tattersfield Design Strategy, where she created identities for Fortune 500 companies. She also worked in the video game industry as a designer for an award-winning adventure game.
Eliane is Co-Organizer of the Traveling Geeks France 2009 tour.
Twitter: @ubergizmo
Facebook: Ubergizmo Fan Page
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/eliane
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/ubergizmodotcom
Friendfeed: http://friendfeed.com/ubergizmo
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ubergizmo/
TOURS: France, South Africa
Tom Foremski
Tom is the Editor and Founder of the popular and top-ranked news site Silicon Valley Watcher, reporting on business and culture of innovation. He is a former journalist at the Financial Times and in 2004, became the first journalist from a leading newspaper to resign and become a full-time journalist blogger.
Tom has been reporting on Silicon Valley and the US tech industry since 1984 and has been named as one of the top 50 (#28) most influential in Silicon Valley. His current focus is on the convergence of media and technology — the making of a new era for Silicon Valley. He also writes a column at ZDNET.
Blog: http://www.siliconvalleywatcher.com
Blog: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Foremski/
Twitter: @tomforemski
Friendfeed: tomforemski
TOURS: England, France
Frederic Lardinois
German-born, Frederic writes about Web technology for ReadWriteWeb and has been covering Web 2.0 technologies and social media for several years.
Blog: www.readwriteweb.com
Blog: http://lastpodcast.net
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/frederic-lardinois/8/a8/b77
Blog: http://www.facebook.com/frederic
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/flardinois/
Twitter: @fredericl
TOURS: France
Matthew Buckland
Matthew founded and now heads 20FourLabs, an incubation, innovation division at 24.com, the country’s largest online operation. He previously headed up South African online news publisher Mail & Guardian Online, the oldest on the African continent, which is also co-owned by the UK’s Guardian Newspapers Ltd. He also owns web development and consulting company Creative Spark Interactive.
Matthew developed a passion for all things digital at an early age when, as a seven-year-old, he began programming on his first computer (a ZX Spectrum 48k). He has spoken and guest-lectured on online media issues around the world, including New York, London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Ireland and Kenya.
For what it’s worth, he was in 2009 named one of “SA’s top 100 most influential media and advertising people” by the Annual for his work in new media. The Mail & Guardian also named him one of “300 Young South Africans you should take out to lunch”, (although this has yet to result in any free lunches). He was also named an upcoming New Media “Mogul” by FHM magazine & nominated for the 2009 Men’s Health “Best Man” awards.
Matthew has been involved in the online medium in various capacities, almost since its inception in this country. He worked for the BBC’s commercial website division in London (beeb.com) just before “the crash”, South African portal iafrica.com, M-Net’s Carte Blanche and Avusa (formerly Johncom) Publishing. He is a former chair and founder-member of the local Online Publishers Association and director of Creative Commons, South Africa. He co-founded award-winning editorial blog Thought Leader (a 2008 Webby Honoree) and blog aggregator amatomu.com.
Matthew is a prominent blogger at www.matthewbuckland.com. One of his proudest moments was when some of the world’s biggest blogs — including Techcrunch, Mashable, his favourite site, Wired.com, and technology site Techmeme — tried to break his servers by linking to his blog. His next proudest moment was when his blog scooped “best business blog” at the 2008 SA blog awards. He was also proud to share the stage with Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales in a talk on “Future Web Trends” in 2007.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Rhodes University, with three majors in journalism, philosophy and history. Matthew is a new media graduate and knows no other medium!
His favourite colour is still red.
Blog: www.matthewbuckland.com
Flickr: flickr.com/photos/77665219@N00/
Twitter: @matthewbuckland
Facebook: facebook.com/connectwithmatt
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/pub/0/6a/a08
Skype: matthewbuckland
TOURS: France, South Africa
Beth Blecherman
Beth Blecherman started her career in application development then Senior Manager, Computer Process Integrity, for Deloitte. After senior management she took on family management blogging as her career 2.0. She is a Co-Founder of the Silicon Valley Moms Group, a collaborative of mom blogs across the country, and their first international blog Canada Moms Blog.
Blecherman founded her personal blog, TechMamas.com, as a platform to discuss technology and gadgets for families. Beth vlogs with other female tech bloggers at Gadgetspin.com. She also consults with companies on blogger outreach and social media strategies and speaks at conferences on parenting, social media and technology.
Beth Blecherman/TechMamas.com was chosen as one of the Nielson Power Mom 50 influencers. On Twitter as @TechMama she was choosen as one of the 25 Influential Moms to Follow on Twitter and BizTechDay’s 25 Influential Business Women in the Bay Area. Beth is on the Board of Advisors for MommyTech at CES.
Blog: http://www.siliconvalleymomsgroup.com
Blog: http://www.techmamas.com
Twitter: @techmama
FriendFeed: http://friendfeed.com/techmama
Facebook: http://facebook.com/techmamas
TOURS: France
Jerome Tranié
Jerome Tranié is the founder of PDA France which was renamed Mobi France in 2007 and is now one of the top mobile blogs in Europe and the leading online magazine about the mobile industry. The site has a forum and covers reviews as well as news. He was previously headquartered in Silicon Valley with Iambic Software, a company that develops solutions for handheld devices and smart phones.
He is also the organizer of the Mobility Party in Paris, which has now had 4 editions and continues to flourish with one event drawing more than 1,500 participants alone. He also launched w3sh, a blog about gadgets, art, fashion, and lifestyle, and during a stint in Asia over the past few years, he started a site focused on mobile accessories called MaxiMobileShop in 2007.
Blog: http://www.mobifrance.com
Blog: http://www.w3sh.com
Twitter: @mobifrance
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jerometranie
TOURS: France
Kim-Mai Cutler
Kim-Mai is a writer for VentureBeat, a leading blog about technology innovation, capital investments and venture funding, with content ranging from digital media, mobility, social networking, advertising, video and music content to video games and green technology. Her area of coverage includes emerging technologies, Web 2.0 and social media, with an emphasis on startups.
Previously, she wrote for Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones in New York, Los Angeles, London and Buenos Aires, where she focused on debt capital markets and foreign exchange. She was born and raised a stone’s throw from Apple headquarters in Cupertino by a devout Hewlett-Packard family.
Blog: http://www.venturebeat.com
Skype: kimmaicutler
Twitter: @kimmaicutler
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com
TOURS: France
Ewan Spence
Ewan Spence is a blogger, author and writer based out of Edinburgh, Scotland. In addition to his own blog, he has contributed and contributes to BBC News, BBC Magazine (online), The Stage (UK Arts and Entertainment Newspaper), Computing (VNU), iProng Magazine, IT Pro, O’Reilly’s Make Magazine, Palmtop Magazine, Podcast User Magazine, UK Tech and UK Mobile Blognation, PDA Essentials, Mobile Messaging 2.0 and All About Symbian.
He wrote the book Rapid Mobile Enterprise Development for Symbian OS and has audio program commissions for BBC Radio 5 Live – Through the Night and Pods and Blogs, Computer Outlook Talk Radio Show and Talk 107. He also regularly speaks at and moderates panels at high profile technology conferences around the world.
Website: http://www.ewanspence.com/
Blog: http://www.ewanspence.com/blog/
Blog: http://www.allaboutsymbian.com
Blog: http://mobilemessaging2.com
Twitter: @ewan
Tumbler: http://ewanspence.tumblr.com/
Podcast: http://psp.thepodcastnetwork.com/
TOURS: France
Amanda Coolong
Amanda Coolong is CCO, executive producer and host of TechZulu. She has interviewed hundreds of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and influencers at every major industry conference, and is an active beta tester for many of the products she encounters. Amanda has over a decade of experience bringing technology brands to market on an international scale. Amanda has been a guest on every show that starts with “This Week In,” including Leo Laporte’s This Week in Tech, Jason Calacanis’s This Week In Startups and Mahalo’s This Week In YouTube. She has appeared on Rich DeMuro’s The Synched Up Show and WebMasterWorld with Vanessa Zamora. She also contributes to magazines and online sites that focus on technology, entertainment and lifestyle.
While still a student, Amanda created Emerson’s first daily news broadcast, produced and delivered the news on WERS.fm, and served as a producer for the Evvy Awards, the nation’s leading student-run awards show.
Blog: http://www.techzulu.com
Blog: http://www.techzulu.com/videos.html
Twitter: @acoolong
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/amandacoolong
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/acoolong
TOURS: France
Renee Blodgett
Renee is co-founder of Traveling Geeks. She is also the CEO and founder of Magic Sauce Media, a new media consultancy dedicated to communications, social media, viral marketing and branding strategies and campaigns, where she coaches and consults to organizations, individuals and companies worldwide. She has launched companies and products from 11 countries, lived in 10 and explored more than 65.
She is also the founder and editor of We Blog the World, a blog dedicated to global storytelling and the latest developments in social, cultural and technology trends and blogs at Down the Avenue, a blog that focuses on technology, social media trends, marketing, PR and culture. She has been blogging for more than ten years and is passionate about where emerging technologies and social media can bridge the gap across the continent.
Renee has held advisory board positions on b5 Media, a global new media network, Cozmo Media, which taps into community to put video content in front of the right audience, Toktumi, a virtual home office VoIP phone solution, Radus, a dynamic media rich social network and content aggregator, BlogHer, the first conference and group blog dedicated to women bloggers, which now has nearly 20,000 blogs in its global network and PopTech, an innovation conference whose goal is to accelerate the positive impact of world changing people and ideas.
Blog: http://www.downtheavenue.com
Blog: http://www.weblogtheworld.com
Twitter: @magicsaucemedia
Twitter: @weblogtheworld
Smugmug: http://weblogtheworld.smugmug.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/reneeblodgett
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/reneeblodgett
TOURS: England, France, Israel, South Africa
Olivier Ezratty
Olivier Ezratty is a freelance ICT digital media strategy consultant who helps startups and large organizations shape their product, value and business strategies. He is involved in numerous startup and innovation communities: as a teacher of innovation strategies at Ecole Centrale Paris, as a coach for early stage organizations such as Scientipole Initiative and Finarea, and as an angel investor in Internet/software startups.
Additionally, he helps corporations like the L’Oréal, Crédit Agricole, PagesJaunes.fr and Netgem shape their digital consumer experience strategies and build a related innovations ecosystem. He also shares in-depth industry analysis and creative common licensed reports on his blog “Opinions Libres,” including a Guide for Entrepreneurship in the Digital Space in France and a yearly lengthy report on the trends in the Consumer Electronics space after each CES every January.
Previously, Ezratty was a software development engineer and R&D lead at Sogitec, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dassault Aviation, creating professional electronic publishing software solutions. He has also worked at Microsoft France where he launched Visual Basic and Windows NT, as well as a number of partner programs. He also served as the Director of the Developer and Platform Evangelism Division, where he organized the launch of the .NET platform.
Blog: http://www.oezratty.net
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/ezratty
Facebook: http://bit.ly/4BNW9c
Twitter: @olivez
TOURS: France
Rodrigo Sepúlveda Schulz
Rodrigo Sepúlveda Schulz is the co-founder and CEO of vpod.tv, a multimedia platform enabling corporations to create their own convergent InternetTV channels. He blogs at Sepulveda.net, which ranks among the top blogs in Europe and tweets extensively @rodrigo. Vpod.tv has received numerous Innovation awards in Europe and the USA and angel investors and advisors include serial entrepreneurs Martin Varsavsky (Fon), Loïc Le Meur (Seesmic) and Xavier Niel (Iliad/free.fr).
Previously, as acting CEO, he was instrumental in the successful launch and recent sale of Glowria, a leading European online movie service. In 2004, he led the mobile strategy team for AOL Europe, redefining the group’s online and mobile presence. Earlier, Rodrigo was a principal with Gemini Consulting, and a manager (founder of the e-business practice) at KPMG Consulting France, leading large scale European e-commerce (pan-European launch of Manutan.com) and media projects (global launch of OMD’s online sites). He started his career as a consultant to the European operations of Intel and Novell.
He is a sought-after speaker at media & Internet events worldwide including the Monaco Media Forum, DigitalHollywood, LeWeb3, LIFT, AdTech, Plugg, X-Innovation, ERA, Netcamp, and a regular speaker in the Entrepreneurship classes at INSEAD.
Blog: http://sepulveda.net
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/rsepulveda
Facebook: http://facebook.com/rodrigo.sepulvedaschulz
Flickr: http://flickr.com/rsepulveda
Twitter: @rodrigo
TOURS: France
Jim (”Sky”) Schuyler
Sky (“Yup, just call me ‘Sky’ — if Sting and Bono and Madonna can have just one name, then so can I”) is CTO of Traveling Geeks as well as CTO of The Dalai Lama Foundation, an international foundation for ethics and peace. He is also the CEO and founder of Red7, which provides technology strategy, business systems and technology infrastructure for mixed-reality technologies – real-world games and experiences for public spaces.
He and his company are also involved in online security activities to protect organizations that guard and promote free speech around the world. Sky is best known as an e-learning pioneer who started companies in educational software, including DesignWare (Britannica Software). His most recent full-time executive gig was as VP Internet Technology & Development for Leapfrog Enterprises (educational toys for children).
Blog: blog.red7.com
Twitter: @jimsky7
TOURS: England, France
Sarah Lacy
Sarah is an award-winning journalist and columnist at BusinessWeek and the editor-in-chief of TechCrunch. She has been a reporter in Silicon Valley for nearly a decade, covering everything from emerging technology startups to large publicly traded companies. Sarah co-hosts the Web video show Yahoo Tech Ticker. She is also the author of Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good, which also goes under the title “The Stories of Facebook, YouTube and MySpace.”
Blog: Sarahlacy.com
Blog: www.techcrunch.com
Twitter: @sarahcuda
Friendfeed: sarahcuda
TOURS: England, Israel
John Gartner
John participated in the blogging tour with IMC and We Blog the World, a Traveling Geeks affiliate. He is Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Matter Network, which is dedicated to the world of renewable energy, plug-in hybrids, urban planning, eco travel, corporate responsibility, and energy efficiency.
John has been covering computer, internet, green transportation, alternative energy, clean technology and corporate sustainability for over 20 years, working in both editorial and reporter roles across a broad number of magazines, blogs and websites.
Prior to Matter Network, John started Wired.com’s Autopia auto blog in 2005, and worked as an editor and writer at Wired News, TechTV, TechWeb, and Windows Magazine. He has also written for numerous other publications including Inc.com, Environment News Service, REVENUE Magazine and MIT Technology Review. John is also a contributing blogger to Marketing Shift, a well renowned blog on marketing and branding trends.
Twitter: @matter-network
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups.php?ref=sb#/group.php?gid=11764581754
Blog: www.matternetwork.com
Blog: www.marketingshift.com
TOURS: South Africa
Mona Gable
Mona participated in the blogging tour with IMC and We Blog the World, a Traveling Geeks affiliate. Mona is a political blogger for The Huffington Post where her posts on the 2008 presidential election and on Hillary Clinton’s candidacy have been linked to by numerous websites, from ABC News.com to The Drudge Report. In addition to blogging, Mona is an award-winning journalist and essayist whose work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Salon, Ladies’ Home Journal, Family Circle, Health, LA magazine, Wall Street Journal, Child, and the San Francisco Chronicle.
She is a contributor to the new Seal Press anthology “The Maternal Is Political: Women Writers at the Intersection of Motherhood and Social Change.” Her essays have also been published in two bestselling anthologies, “Mothers Who Think: Tales of Real-Life Parenthood,” which won the
American Book Award and the bestselling anthology “A Cup of Comfort for Mothers and Daughters.” She is currently working on a memoir, a portion of which will be published in West this spring. Since 2004, she has taught creative nonfiction and personal essay in the Writers Program at UCLA Extension.
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/2/aba/892
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=691909448&ref=profile
Twitter: @monalg
TOURS: South Africa
Zadi Diaz
Zadi participated in the blogging tour with IMC and We Blog the World, a Traveling Geeks affiliate. She is co-founder and principal of Smashface Productions, a new media production focused on developing original online video content, creating co-productions with traditional media, building and cultivating online communities and providing interactive consulting serivces.
Zadi is also the Executive Producer of several internet shows, vlogs and audio podcasts, including: EPIC-FU, New Mediacracy, Vidlicious, ZadiDiaz.com and others. Her coverage focus and interests include new media, social media, digital Hollywood, video, education, online collaboration, emerging technologies & aesthetics in video & filmmaking, and online youth culture.
Her work has been highlighted in The New York Times, Forbes Magazine, CBS Evening News, Business Week, and The Independent, among others. Recent work on EPIC-FU, a site about Internet culture, has garnered a Webby Award. She is the co-founder of Pixeloden, an annual screening festival held in LA recognizing innovation in global online video.
Previously, she worked as a theatre producer/director, playwright and art director. She is also a member of the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences (IADAS), as well as a member of the Transatlantic Network 2020, an international cultural initiative founded by the British Council.
Twitter: @zadi
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/profile.php?id=516065806&ref=profile
Seesmic: http://seesmic.com/zadi
YouTube: http://youtube.com/karmagrrrl
BlipTV: http://zadidiaz.blip.tv
Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/zadi
Flickr: http://flickr.com/photos/karmagrrrl
TOURS: South Africa
Susan Bratton
Susan is CEO and co-founder of Personal Life Media, a leading podcast network dedicated to everything and anything that impacts our lives, including health, fitness, relationships, and more. She is also the Vice Chairman, Association for Downloadable Media, the Chair Emeritus and on the Board of Directors for the AdTech Conferences, and is an Advisory Board Member of ZEDO, Inc., Jingle Networks, NewsForce, Inc., Powered, Inc., Collarity, Inc., Merchant Circle, Inc. and the Silicon Valley American Marketing Association. She is an avid speaker on advertising and social media.
Podcast: DishyMix
DishyMix: in iTunes
DishyMix : Fan Club
Blog: Dishymix.com
Twitter: @susanbratton
Friendfeed: susanbratton
LinkedIn: susanbratton
Facebook: http://profile.to/susanbratton/
Flickr: luvlotus/
TOURS: England
Graeme Wood
Graeme participated in the blogging tour with IMC and We Blog the World, a Traveling Geeks affiliate. He has written and edited for The Atlantic since 2006. Prior to his role at The Atlantic, he was a freelance writer in the Middle East and has written for a number of diverse publications and online sites, including Slate, Salon.com, The Walrus and Modern Drunkard. Graeme covered politics and defense for Jane’s and the war in Iraq as a freelancer.
He also blogs at The American Scene, an ongoing view of politics and culture and contributes a regular series of travel dispatches to The Smart Set, which a widely read travel and literary site. He has an AB in Philosophy from Harvard University and a certificate in Arabic from the American University in Cairo.
Twitter: @gcaw
Blog: http://theamericanscene.com
Blog: http://www.thesmartset.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=790475482&ref=profile
TOURS: South Africa
David Sasaki
David participated in the blogging tour with IMC and We Blog the World, a Traveling Geeks affiliate. He is the Director of Rising Voices, a global citizen media outreach initiative of Global Voices Online. He manages a portfolio of small-scale projects around the developing world that use citizen media to effect social change.
Prior to his current focus on outreach, he served as Global Voices’ Latin America Regional Editor, monitoring the Latin American blogosphere, highlighting key content and translating select posts from Spanish to English.
Sasaki transitioned into online journalism after working as a freelance web developer and English instructor in Monterrey, Mexico. He now splits his time and residence between North and Latin America and writes frequently at Rising Voices, Global Voices, and on his own personal blog.
Blog: http://el-oso.net
Blog: www.globalvoicesonline.org
Blog: http://pbs.org/idealab
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/oso
Twitter: @oso
TOURS: South Africa
Susan Mernit
Susan is the CEO of Peoples Software Company, a Web 2.0 social media startup devoted to making it easier for people to connect with each other. Previously, she was an executive at Yahoo! Personals, a technology and media consultant and a former vice president at Netscape and America Online.
She has launched several corporate media websites since introducing Scholastic Press on AOL, including the children’s educational site Yuckiest Site on the Internet with Jeff Jarvis and she has served as the editor of New Jersey Online.
She is also a founding partner of the consulting firm 5ive Corp and a frequent speaker at online media and technology conferences, personally organizing the “social media” gathering BlogOn. She is a senior fellow at the Media Center, a think tank established by the American Press Institute, and an advisory board member of the digital media archive Ourmedia.
She has also written poetry and served as writer-in-residence for the Teachers & Writers Collaborative. Her short story “Bella” was adapted into a TV movie in 1982.
Blog: www.susanmernit.com
Blog: www.blogher.com/blog/susan-mernit
Twitter: @susanmernit
Friendfeed: www.friendfeed.com/smernit
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/susanmernit
TOURS: Israel
Cathy Brooks
A classically trained journalist, Cathy’s past covers a broad spectrum from editing to broadcast management, talent casting and guest booking. Cathy also has curated the content for several of the technology industry’s leading conferences.
Cathy hosts and produces a Social Media Hour, a live, call-in, talk show on which industry leaders and average folks share their experiences and tell their stories. Previously she created and hosted “I of Innovation,” a weekly talk show for the Guidewire Group, a global analyst firm focused on emerging markets and technologies and was in charge of business development for Seesmic. She also launched “Six Minutes With”, a weekly podcast series for Network World.
Cathy also produced two of Guidewire Group’s conferences – Innovate!Europe and Leadership Forum and played a role in content curation for LeWeb, the largest technology gathering in Europe.
Blog: http://www.otherthanthat.com
Twitter: @cathybrooks
TOURS: Israel
Nic Haralambous
Nic participated in the blogging tour with IMC and We Blog the World, a Traveling Geeks affiliate. He is a serial entrepreneur, blogger and firm advocate of citizen journalism. He is the founder of the award-winning blog South Africa Rocks and also contributes to other blogs.
Nic is currently the Product Manager for Social Networking at Vodacom and believes that mobile phone will be the medium to take media to the masses. Formerly, he was the manager for Zoopy, an online and mobile social media community, where users upload, share and interact with videos, photos, audio and notes.
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/nicharalambous
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/nicharalambous
Twitter: @nicharry
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shuttterview/
Blog: http://nicharalambous.com
Lifestream: http://nicharalambous.me
Blog: http://sarocks.co.za
TOURS: South Africa
Deborah Shultz
Deborah Shultz leads Altimeter’s Innovation and Best Practices business focused on bringing together the ecosystem of emerging technologies including investors, start-ups, businesses, end users, service providers, and thought leaders for experimentation, active learning and real-world application.
Most recently, she architected the Procter & Gamble Social Media Lab to study the impact of the social web on customer relationships and the business benefits of “open innovation,” and sits on P&G’s Digital Advisory Board.
She has worked with and advised startups, Fortune 50s and VC’s on technology adoption and is a regular speaker at tech and business conferences.
Blog: : http://www.deborahschultz.com/
Twitter: : @debs
LinkedIn: : http://www.linkedin.com/pub/deborah-schultz/0/9/a61
TOURS: Israel
Simon Barber
Simon co-organized and participated in the blogging tour with IMC and We Blog the World, a Traveling Geeks affiliate. Simon is the US Country manager for the International Marketing Council (IMC) of South Africa, a public-private partnership set up to promote a positive South African brand image for South Africa. It was IMC which sponsored and hosted the bloggers in late 2008 in South Africa.
Simon’s primary responsibilities are to tell South Africa’s story, help others tell it in ways that resonate with US business people, decision makers, media and travelers, and to develop new channels for getting the story out. He joined the IMC after 20 years as US correspondent for leading South African newspapers Business Day, the Sunday Times and the Cape Times.
He remains a weekly columnist for Business Day. He runs the IMC’s BrandSouthAfricaBlog.com and also blogs to Izwi at www.izwi.com and Thoughtleader.co.za. The South African blogging tour is being sponsored by The International Marketing Council.
TOURS: South Africa
Ayelet Noff
Ayelet Noff has over ten years of experience in the hi-tech industry. She was ICQ’s Marketing Manager for four years and also held various executive marketing positions in different startups. In 2007 Ayelet started Blonde 2.0, a consultancy firm that specializes in helping brands use social media tools such as social networks, the blogosphere, and social software to create brand awareness and an online buzz.
She writes for her own blog, Blonde 2.0 which covers emerging technologies and social media, as well as for the Next Web, Social Media.biz, Adhocnium and TechCrunch UK.
Blog: http://www.blonde20.com/blog/
Blog: http://thenextweb.com
Blog: http://www.socialmedia.biz
Blog: http://www.uk.techcrunch.com
Twitter: @blonde20
Friendfeed: ttp://friendfeed.com/blonde20
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ayelet
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/ayelet
TOURS: England
Meghan Asha
Meghan writes for and produces video for the blog Non Society based in New York, which covers technology trends and technology as it relates to pop culture. She calls herself an unapologetic geek.
Blog: http://www.nonsociety.com/meghan
Twitter: @meghanasha
Friendfeed:http://friendfeed.com/meghanasha
TOURS: England
Graeme Addison
Graeme is best known for several books on South Africa’s history of innovations, including the Edge Series: Innovation Nation, comprising The Hidden Edge, The Leading Edge, and The Competitive Edge: Creating Innovations.The latter is a textbook for business schools explaining how to plan a firm’s innovation strategy.
Graeme, who holds a BA in Economics from Wits University and honours in Eng.Lit from Unisa, started his career as a newspaper reporter on the Cape Times, and worked for the Rand Daily Mail, The World, The Star, London Evening Standard, Sunday Tribune and Sunday Times. In the 1970s he lectured in journalism at Rhodes University, launching the first science writing course there.
He has won numerous Mondi and Pica awards for freelance feature journalism, and has twice been runner-up in the national science writing awards sponsored by the National Research Foundation.
TOURS: South Africa
Jeff Saperstein
Jeff is the co-founder of Traveling Geeks, and is an author, teacher, consultant and enabler in how technology can be used to create organic growth in economic development for regions and success for organizations.
His work and personal fulfillment is in helping others to be successful through applications of education, business, and relationships. Jeff teaches at San Francisco State University, European School of Management in Paris, at Cisco and other corporations.
His published books and case studies are focused upon best practices for innovation (Toyota: Driving the Mainstream Market to Purchase Hybrid Electronic Vehicles is one of the top ten most popular business case studies for business schools). Jeff has worked with government, private corporations, and NGO’s to use marketing leveraged by technology, metrics, and processes to increase growth.
Website: http://www.creatingregionalwealth.com
Blog on Israel: http://www.sapermktg.wordpress.com
TOURS: England, Israel
Chris Morrison
Chris participated in the blogging tour with IMC and We Blog the World, a Traveling Geeks affiliate. He is a freelancer and writes about emerging technology and sustainability. Chris wrote about clean-tech and environmental issues for VentureBeat, with occasional forays into gaming and semantic technology.
He started his journalism and blogging career writing about technology for Business 2.0 magazine, but quickly realized new media was the ticket when that institution closed its doors in 2007. Prior to VentureBeat, Chris also covered public equities and regulatory issues.
Twitter: @chrismorrison
TOURS: South Africa
Phil Jeudy
Co-organizer: France 2009; Passionate about high tech since the beginning of his career, Phil has also held various financial positions in international companies over the past twenty years. He is currently the founder of Altaide, whose aim is to bridge innovation and emerging technologies between Silicon Valley and France. He surveys the latest market trends and brings that knowledge to its clients and prospects. His wealth of expertise in strategic council, technology investments and human resources guides French companies, helping to bridge the gap between their efforts in the states and their on-the-ground activities in Europe.
Phil is a Board Advisor for startups WatZatSong.com (music community portal) and Dreamshake.com (make your dreams come true), and is the the U.S. correspondent for YouVoxTech, a high tech collaborative website, and ServicesMobiles.fr, a site dedicated to the Mobile industry. In Paris, he is the organizer of Barcamp, which focuses on Mobile, Video and Open Source and leads the Ignite events. Blog: http://philjeudy.com/
Twitter: @philj
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jeudy
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/4philippejeudy
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/philjeudy/
