The lineup for the 2006 conference boasts more than 80 experts and leading figures in online media. Read more about them.
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Mark Cuban is an NBA franchise owner and digital visionary. He cemented his legend early by selling his computer consulting firm MicroSolutions to CompuServe. A few years later, he sold broadcast.com to Yahoo!, Today, Cuban owns HDNet and the Dallas Mavericks and jointly owns the nation's largest chain of art-house cinemas. He is also a majority partner in Sharesleuth.com, a blog aimed at exposing securities fraud. And he is renowned for blogging about his team, technology and just about anything else.
As deputy director and controller of production for BBC News, Adrian Van Klaveren has editorial, production and financial responsibility for television, radio and online news, with a particular emphasis on new services. He also oversees key technology projects across BBC News. Van Klaveren has been with the BBC for 22 years, starting as a TV news and current affairs producer, then running the BBC's newsgathering operations. Recently, he's overseen BBC News' move into podcasting and video podcasting, and has developed its overall mobile strategy. He has championed the BBC editors' blog, contributing to it himself, as well other blogs based on BBC programs and staff.
PANELISTS
Scott Anderson is the senior political producer for CNN.com and oversees the site's political coverage. Prior to joining CNN in 2005, Anderson was a news producer at washingtonpost.com and a technologist at the Online NewsHour, the Web site of the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. Scott holds a Bachelor's degree in journalism and zoology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a master's degree in communication, culture, and technology from Georgetown University. Content panel coordinator and moderator, Elections
Mike Arrington is the founder of the Crunch Network and editor of TechCrunch, a weblog "dedicated to obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies." Arrington founded edgeio, a classified listings system company. He is on the board of Foldera, a web-based organizer, and is an investor in Daylife, a news startup. He has served as a corporate lawyer, been involved in sales and business development at RealNames and co-founded Achex, which was sold to First Data Corp. He also founded two companies in Canada and was COO at Razorgator. He consulted stints have included SnapNames, Verisign and Spotback. State of the Industry super panelist
Fraser Van Asch, a veteran of 23 years in the newspaper industry, helped to create the pioneering online service of the (Raleigh, N.C.) News & Observer, Nando.net. Over his career and as the industry matured online, he has led business development, editorial, sales and marketing departments. He later converted the Nando destination-based infrastructure into McClatchy's centralized interactive division. Since the McClatchy acquisition, Van Asch's team is responsible for managing the transition, system migrations and vendor relationships. He has local operational oversight in supporting the progressive, efficient growth of the interactive initiatives in the local markets. Commerce panelist, Transforming media.
Linda Barrabee is a program manager in Yankee Group's Wireless/Mobile United States decision service. Specifically, Barrabee assists clients in navigating the increasing value-chain complexities of the emerging mobile content ecosystem. Her research focuses on the competitive landscape, business models, pricing and market segmentation strategies in mobile entertainment. Barrabee is also a project lead for Yankee Group's U.S. Mobile User Survey suite. Barabee previously has worked in business development at a software start-up and spent six years at Pyramid Research, serving the communications industry. She has an MBA from Arizona and her BA from Trinity College in Connecticut. Commerce panelist, WAP
Thomas Brew, deputy editor for distribution at MSNBC.com, left newspapers for online news in 1995. He worked at MSN News for nearly a year before the 1996 launch of MSNBC. Earlier, he'd spent 20 years at newspapers, the last 12 of them at the San Jose Mercury News, the first U.S. daily to publish online. In his youth, he worked as a reporter and editor at three Florida newspapers. Brew has a master's from the University of Florida and has taught at Santa Clara and Stanford universities. Commerce panelist, Church/state challenge
Jennifer Carroll works with Gannett newspapers in developing strategy, readership and content initiatives across all media platforms. She is extensively involved in audience development and works on convergence models across divisions, especially focusing on young readers. She joined the News Department in 2000 as director/news development and was named to her current role in 2006. Among other projects, she is now working with a colleague on a joint venture between Gannett and Arizona State University students and researchers, studying the new media habits of 18- to-25 year-olds. Youth panel moderator
Neil Chase was recently named editor of continuous news at The New York Times after a year as deputy editor for news at NYTimes.com. Neil was previously managing editor of CBS MarketWatch in San Francisco, an assistant professor at Northwestern Universityıs Medill School of Journalism and a page designer and editor of words, photos and graphics at The San Francisco Examiner and The Arizona Republic. Convergence panel moderator, Staffing and structure; ASNE workshop presenter
Joe Cohen is responsible for global strategy and product management of Reuters mobile services. Prior to joining Reuters, Cohen was director for product development at Vindigo, where he built news, information, and location-based applications for WAP, BREW, J2ME, Palm OS, and Windows Mobile. He graduated from Vassar College, cum laude, in 1995. Commerce panelist, WAP
Rob Curley began as vice president of product development for Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive on Oct. 2. In his new role, Curley will lead a team dedicated to the rapid development and deployment of new tools for journalists and viewers across all WPNI properties. Curley joins WPNI from the Naples (Florida) Daily News where he directed new media and convergence. In 2001, the Newspaper Association of America named Curley its New Media Pioneer of the Year. Curley's online development teams at the Lawrence (Kansas) Journal-World, the Topeka (Kansas) Capital-Journal and the Naples Daily News garnered numerous online journalism awards. Convergence panelist, Staffing and structure
Mike Davidson is CEO of Newsvine, the Seattle-based online news media company. Before co-founding Newsvine in 2005, Davidson worked for several years as art director and manager of media product development at both ESPN and the Walt Disney Internet Group. Davidson's blog -- Mike Industries -- is among the most visited interactive design and technology blogs around, garnering over 300,000 page views a month and referenced frequently in places like the New York Times and MSNBC. State of the Industry super panelist
As NASA's Internet services manager, Brian Dunbar manages the editorial content of the NASA Web portal, including mission coverage, feature stories, live TV streaming and podcasts. In his 11 years in the job, the site has grown from a static site of several hundred pages to a dynamic, customizable Web portal. In addition to covering major news events such space shuttle missions and Deep Impact's collision with a comet in 2005, the portal has brought together many of NASA's decentralized Web efforts into one location, making it easier for the public to find information. Content panelist, Energizing storytelling
Joris Evers is CNET News.com's security reporter, covering news in the area of worms, viruses, hacking, identity theft, software security, and more. He has been writing about technology for more than a decade and has appeared in various print and broadcast media to comment on security news. Joris always had a passion for technology, he grew up in the Netherlands where he graduated from college with a degree in print and online Journalism and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in early 2003. Content panelist, Made for the media
Stanley Farrar is managing editor for SeattleTimes.com, which is a finalist in the service journalism category for a piece on doctors who practice despite charges of sexual misconduct. Farrar, a longtime Times staffer who previously worked on the paper's design and graphics side, is also a member of the University of Washington's advisory board for its master's program in digital media. Content panelist, Using the Web for good
Jon Fine is the media columnist for BusinessWeek. Previously he covered print media for Advertising Age, where he arrived just in time to observe magazines' and newspapers' dizzying fall from their dot-com-fueled heights. His freelance work has appeared in GQ, Spin, ESPN The Magazine, and Newsday, where he wrote the "Pushing 30" column. In an alternate life as a musician, Fine's played in bands that have released several LPs and CDs. Fine was born in Texas and raised in the wilds of suburban New Jersey. He is a graduate of Oberlin College. Commerce panelist, Church-state challenge
Alex Foster is an avid reader who consumes about two books a month - outside of school. He likes band, chorus, drama and sports - and loves listening to music (favorite band: Beatles). He spends up to three hours daily on the computer (games, e-mails), "random stuff," he says, and he sometimes films - and edits - his little brother playing with the neighbor's dog. Youth panelist
Ron Fournier, 43, is co-founder and editor in chief of HOTSOUP.com, a social networking site for opinion drivers. Until June, Fournier was chief political writer for The Associated Press. In 2005, Fournier was a fellow at Harvard University's Institute of Politics, where he began work on "Applebee's America: How Successful Political, Business and Religious Leaders Connect with the New American Community." He won the White House Correspondents Association Merriman Smith award for his coverage of the Sept. 11 attacks from inside the executive mansion. Fournier began his journalism career at the Hot Springs, Ark., Sentinel Record in 1985. Convergence panelist, Elections
Mary Lou Fulton is vice president of audience development for The Bakersfield Californian, where she led the start-up of The Northwest Voice, one of the first participatory media publications in the newspaper industry. She started as a print journalist, working for the AP and the Los Angeles Times, and moved to the online world in 1995 where she has held leadership positions at washingtonpost.com, America Online and GeoCities.com. She returned to newspapers in 2003, joined The Californian to lead new product development efforts, including its award-winning social media platform that powers participation for the Northwest and Southwest Voice, Bakotopia.com and its flagship site, Bakersfield.com. Content panelist, Developing voices
J. Carl Ganter is managing editor of MediaVia LLC, a Michigan-based firm that specializes in long-form, multimedia journalism projects and consulting. Ganter is a photojournalist, writer, and broadcast reporter and his reportage in one form or another has appeared in most major magazines, newspapers and on CBS, NBC, and NPR. Ganter is also a presenter at the University of North Carolina's Multimedia Bootcamp. He has been a visiting faculty member at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies and lecturer at the Visual Edge workshops. He holds an M.S.J. in magazine writing and investigative journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. Convergence panelist, MoJos.
Adam Glenn is an independent online consultant, with clients including NBC Universal Chairman Bob Wright, Columbia Journalism School and Rodale. He has held posts with a wide variety of news media in New York and Washington, most recently as senior producer at ABCNews.com. She has specialized in coverage of business, health, science, technology and the environment, and has taught overseas in an environmental journalism fellowship. Citizen journalism is a major interest; last year he formed I, Reporter, a citJ training business and blog, with E-Media Tidbits Editor Amy Gahran. Breakfast and flat-panel discussions moderator and coordinator
Herndon Graddick is supervising producer at Current TV and manages the Google Current news division. Prior to joining Current, Graddick worked at CNN in New York, where he helped launch "Paula Zahn Now" and "Live From the Headlines" with Paula Zahn and Anderson Cooper. Previously Graddick served as communications director for the John F. Kennedy Jr. Institute and Reaching Up, a non-profit founded by Kennedy to foster worker education programs. Graddick began his career at Miramax Films working in the office of the president of publicity and corporate communications. He was graduated from UCLA. State of the Industry super panelist
Mireille Grangenois was named vice president advertising of The Baltimore Sun in April 2005. In that role, Mireille has oversight of more than 200 print, online and targeted product sales staff for the 25th largest market in the country. Prior to that appointment Grangenois was vice president/marketing and interactive media of The Baltimore Sun from January 2002 to April 2005. She served as vice president of baltimoresun.com, previously called SunSpot, from June 2000 to January 2002. Prior to Tribune, Grangenois was sales director/major retail accounts for Washington Post Newsweek Interactive from 1998 to 2000. Her career began in 1978 as a Baltimore Sun reporter. A native of New York, Grangenois holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from New York University. She serves on the board of Center Stage, a regional theater company in Baltimore and is a member of the National Association of Minority Media Executives and the National Association of Black Journalists
Kurt Greenbaum is online news director for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, where he oversees the newspaper's web site, STLtoday.com. Greenbaum also serves as newsroom coordinator of the paper's multimedia partnerships with local broadcast media. Before joining the Post-Dispatch, Greenbaum worked for 13 years at the Sun-Sentinel in South Florida as a reporter covering education, courts, and municipal government. Content panel moderator, Using the Net for good
Jonathan D. Hart is a member of the law firm of Dow Lohnes PLLC, where he practices in the firm's Media and Information Technologies group out of Washington, D.C. He specializes in the representation of media and technology companies on a broad range of commercial, transactional, operational and content matters. He is on the faculty of The Stanford Professional Publishing Courses and is author of Internet Law: A Field Guide (BNA Books 2006). Jon clerked for United States Circuit Judge Jerome Farris and United States District Judge Almeric Christian. He is a graduate of Middlebury College and Stanford Law School. Commerce panel moderator and coordinator, Internet law
Stan Heist of WBFF-TV in Baltimore is the National Press Photographers Association Television News Photographer of the Year. His work is distinguished by crisp editing and extensive use of natural sound. After graduating from the University of Dayton in 1996, he joined a station in Dayton and moved on to Richmond, Va., where he worked his way up to chief photographer in two years and earned a trip to the 2000 NPPA NewsVideo Workshop. Four years later he moved north to WBFF-TV in Baltimore. In his first year he was named the NPPA Region 3 Photographer of the Year. Storytelling workshop leader
Retha Hill is founding chief editorial officer of BET.com and vice president for content development for BET Interactive, where she is the executive in charge of content strategy, convergence and integration with the BET Network. BET.com was honored with Best Online News Project award from the National Association of Black Journalists in 2003 and two in 2002. BET.com has won recognition for its groundbreaking work on the Black family. Retha is an adjunct professor of journalism in the graduate school at the University of Maryland.Hill has also worked as an executive producer at Washingtonpost.com and as a reporter for The Post, beginning in 1987. Commerce panel moderator, Making money on big stories
Journalist/programmer Adrian Holovaty is editor, editorial innovations, for Washingtonpost.com and Newsweek Interactive. His innovations include the creation of an interactive crime map of Chicago, which received the Knight/Batten Award for Innovations in Journalism in 2005. He also created the U.S. Congress Votes Database, which is a finalist for the 2006 Knight/Batten Award. Before joining WPNI, Holovaty played a lead role in making the websites of the Lawrence (Kan.) Journal World the most innovative and highly acclaimed of any newspaper in America. Content panelist, Automation
Jim Iovino is managing editor of nbc4.com in Washington. He has worked for Internet Broadcasting since 2000 -- as a news editor for thepittsburghchannel.com and as senior news editor of nbc4i.com in Columbus, Ohio. He started his career as a sports writer in Pittsburgh, and also co-founded an online National Hockey League magazine. His awards include a 2005 regional Edward R. Murrow Award for best broadcast-affiliated Web site, large market; a 2004 Online Journalism Award for Breaking News - Small Sites (Serial Shootings); and three Best Broadcast Web Site awards from Ohio's SPJ chapter. Convergence moderator, Developing Web skillsets. Convergence moderator, Web skillsets
Jeff Jarvis blogs about media and news at Buzzmachine.com. He is associate professor and director of the interactive journalism program the City University of New York's new Graduate School of Journalism. He also writes the new media column for The Guardian. Until 2005, he was president and creative director of Advance.net. Previously, Jarvis was creator and founding editor of Entertainment Weekly; Sunday editor and associate publisher of the New York Daily News; TV critic for TV Guide and People; and a columnist for the San Francisco Examiner. He is a constant for Daylife, a news startup, and About.com. State of the industry super panelist
Since CFO.com's launch in October 2000, deputy editor David M. Katz has written and edited articles on risk management, insurance, auditing, accounting and compensation. In 2006, he won a Bronze Award for original Web commentary from the American Society of Business Publication Editors. In 2004 and 2005, his articles won the award for excellence in financial journalism (electronic media) from the New York State Society of CPAs. David, who studied at Northwestern's Medill School and holds an MA in creative writing from the City University of New York, was a long-time assistant managing editor of National Underwriter, Property & Casualty. Convergence panelist, Breaking news
Jordan King, 15, 11th grade, Sidwell Friends, Washington, D.C. starts his mornings checking the weather online ("it's faster"), typically checks CNET for news or information about computers and technology, and occasionally creates Web sites about gaming. He likes RSS feeds because "you can choose what you want to know." Youth panelist
Staci D. Kramer is executive editor of paidContent.org, a 24/7 news site covering digital media and entertainment and a 2005 OJA finalist. Formerly a contributing editor at Inside.com and an editor at large for Cable World, Kramer has written for Time, Life, Sportds Business Journal, the Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, Editor & Publisher, St. Louis magazine and others. She is based in University City, Mo. Content moderator, Transforming media
Courtney Lowery is the managing editor and co-founder of New West.Net, an online magazine and blogging network devoted to covering the culture, economy and politics of the Rocky Mountain West. Before moving to Missoula, Montana to launch New West in 2005, she worked as a reporter for Lee Newspapers and the Associated Press in Helena, Montana and Omaha, Nebraska. With the help of a J-Lab New Voices grant, she also recently founded -- with her alma mater, the University of Montana -- a citizen journalism effort to create an online rural news network for small Montana towns that have lost their newspapers. Content panelist, Developing voices
Sarah Lumbard, director of loyalty marketing, has been involved in product strategy, development, management and marketing at Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive for six years. She is responsible for leading efforts to reach audience and advertisers beyond the Web for washingtonpost.com, Slate, Newsweek, and BudgetTravelOnline. In that role she has led strategic planning for e-mail newsletter programs, rss feeds and advertising, and mobile services including downloadable applications like Avantgo and Mobileplay, newly launched mobile sites, and text alerts programs. Lumbard has also served as WPNI's director of business strategy and development and product management director for recruitment products. Commerce panelist, WAP
A journalist and broadcaster working in the online space since the mid-1990s, Paul Maidment joined Forbes in January 2001 in a dual position as editor of Forbes magazine and website. During his editorship, Forbes.com has become the No. 1 business news Web site, earning min's Best of The Web award for Editorial Excellence in 2003 and 2004. Since he redesigned the site and reorganized the editorial operation, traffic has increased several-fold. Maidment received several honors for his work, including at the FT.com and for Newsweek cover stories. Revolution magazine listed him as one of 100 most influential people in UK new media.
Tom Mallory is The San Diego Union-Tribune's liaison to its website, SignOnSanDiego, and the newsroom's resident evangelist for online. He has been a newsman in Southern California for more than 20 years, covering criminal justice and public safety and overseeing investigations, special projects and the U-T's Sunday paper. His work moved all the way online last year, when he put together a new team to cover breaking news for the web. (And he is making a personal stand in not capitalizing "internet" and "web," because someone has to do it.) Content track coordinator; Convergence panel moderator, Breaking news
Maureen Mann moved to rural New Hampshire six years ago and found it difficult to find out about local issues, candidates or events. Media coverage of any kind was almost nonexistent. With the encouragement of others, she applied for a "citizen journalism" grant from J-Lab. With its receipt our project was born. Prior to moving to New Hampshire, she taught social studies, english and psychology in a public high school for over 30 years. In 2006, because of her work in starting The Forum, she was presented the Sherburne Award for service to the community. Content panelist, Developing voices.
Andrew Mar is an attorney at the Microsoft Corporation supporting the MSN Media Network, including MSN Video and MSN Entertainment.His practice focuses on intellectual property licensing and counseling, original content production and finance, internet, First Amendment, and rights of publicity matters. Prior to Microsoft, Andy was associated with Davis Wright Tremaine where he represented newspapers, television stations, book and magazine publishers, and online services in media, access, newsgathering, defamation, intellectual property, advertising and related matters. Andy is a graduate of New York University School of Law. Commerce panelist, Internet law
Kate Marymont is executive editor of The News-Press (Fort Myers, Fla.), where she among leaders in Gannett's push toward developing mobile journalists (mojos) who blanket communities.
She began at the Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader in 1977 and held several positions before moving to the Nashville Banner in 1981. Marymont returned to Springfield in 1982 as assistant managing editor/local. In 1988 she became metro editor at the Arkansas Gazette ( Little Rock), rising to AME in 1991. She joined The News Journal (Wilmington, Del.) in 1992 as executive news editor, returning to the News-Leader as ME in 1994. Marymount has been executive editor since 1999. Convergence panelist, MoJos.
Jeff Mayers is president of WisPolitics.com, an online political and government news service in Madison that operates IowaPolitics.com, WisPolitics.com, WisBusiness.com, WisOpinion.com and other news services. WisPolitics.com, the flagship news service, launched in June 2000. A former AP editor and reporter and political writer for the Wisconsin State Journal, Mayers has been in the news business since graduating from George Washington University in 1981. He also has a graduate degree from UW-Madison. Mayers has co-authoring "Wisconsin Golf Getaways'' and "Exploring Wisconsin Trout Streams'' and editing "Catching Big Fish on Light Fly Tackle." He also has written for regional and national publications. Convergence panelist, Elections
Kevin McKean is the vice president and editorial director of Consumers Union (CU), nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine and ConsumerReports.org. McKean oversees the editorial content and design for all of CU's publications, including ConsumerReports.org, the nation's largest publication-based subscription Web site. McKean began at AP, becoming a science writer. He later joined the staffs of Discover and Money magazines, later founding Money.com. He also was assistant managing editor/business and finance at Time Inc. New Media, and executive editor at Forbes.com, editorial director at PC World, and CEO and editorial director of InfoWorld Media Group. He is a graduate of Yale. Commerce moderator, Church-state challenge
Jonathan McCarthy is the editor for Newsday Interactive, a post he has held since May 2006. McCarthy currently oversees the news gathering process for all Newsday Interactive sites, including Newsday.com. Prior to this role, he was the Long Island Editor for Newsday.com, the Special Projects Editor for Newsday and NYNewsday.com as well as the Executive Producer for Newsday.com. In that role he oversaw numerous redesigns and focused on streamlining newsgathering and site production. His leadership has been key in implementing major initiatives, including Newsday.com's breaking news and updating program, convergence efforts, migration in publishing platforms and content for strategic markets. Content panelist, Using the Net for good
Logan Molen is vice president of interactive media at The Bakersfield Californian, where he oversees bakersfield.com and mobile media. He most recently was managing editor at The Californian, where he played key roles in a radical print redesign and steering the newsroom from a print-first approach to a strong web-first, multimedia focus. That multimedia includes a variety of text-messaging efforts. Commerce panelist, WAP
Emily Murphy is the multimedia director at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (ajc.com). She recently moved back home to Atlanta from Washington where she was a multimedia producer for USAToday.com. She has worked in print and online at National Geographic and was a broadcast news producer at CNN in Atlanta before moving to the online world. Murphy received an Emmy for her work at CNN for coverage of the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park Bombing and was awarded the Ted Scripps Fellowship in Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado in 1999. She graduated from Vanderbilt University with a major in history. Content panelist, Energizing storytelling
Rachel Nixon is deputy world editor of the multi-award-winning BBCNews.com. In her eight years with the website she has led its coverage of key global stories including the 2004 U.S. presidential elections and the Iraq war, and has pioneered tri-media projects across BBC TV, radio and online. She also reported from Bali at the time of the 2002 bombing. Rachel spent two years as the site's day news editor and was briefly lured to television where she worked as a producer on an international news program broadcast on BBC World. Convergence panelist, Election
Ron Parsons is assistant managing editor, Yahoo! News, where he oversees the editorial desk, managing the staffing and presentation of breaking news for the Internet's most-trafficked news destination. Parsons joined Yahoo! in 1999, and has played an integral role in developing the infrastructure and news processes, as well as many signature features, including the "Most Popular" pages. Parsons has worked as a reporter and editor for the Arizona Daily Star and San Antonio Express-News' print and online editions, and in Web development at IBM. Parsons holds a master's in journalism and a bachelor's in English literature from Arizona. Content panelist, Automation
Pankaj Paul is the managing editor for niche and new initiatives at the News Journal in Delaware. He has responsibility over the non-daily publications and the copy, design, graphics, online and photography teams. He previously served as the director of design & presentation at the newspaper. He earlier worked at the San Jose Mercury News where he was the news design & graphics director. Paul has won several awards from the Society of News Design and also from state press associations. Convergence panelist, Developing Web skillsets.
As supervising producer at CNN.com, Manuel Perez leads the site's breaking news coverage, shaping original stories and multimedia features and coordinating long-term projects. His area of responsibility includes oversight of CNN Exchange, a new section of CNN.com that invites users to get involved in the news by sharing their photos, video, stories and opinions. He has been with CNN.com since 2001. Before making the switch to online journalism, he was a reporter at the Washington Post and at New York Newsday, where he was part of the staff that won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for spot news coverage. Content panelist, Developing voices
Tom Planchet has been managing editor at WWLTV.com since 2001 after spending one year writing for the site and 18 years in the sports department at WWL-TV. With absolutely no technical knowledge, he came to the Internet with a desire to be part of something new and innovative. A local news junkie, he loves having the ability to put out a mini-newspaper on the web with all its challenges. During Katrina, he found the Internet was uniquely qualified to provide local news to displaced citizens who otherwise might have had no word about what was happening in their particular neighborhoods. Content panelist, Using the Net for good
Christina Pino-Marina is a video journalist who creates and edits multimedia projects for washingtonpost.com, including written stories and video segments that integrate technology and online storytelling. Pino-Marina wrote for USA Today and the El Paso Times before joining washingtonpost.com as a reporter in 2000. She became a part of the Web site's multimedia department in 2003. In 2005 she became the first female video journalist to win multiple first place awards in the White House News Photographers Association's annual television contest. Pino-Marina graduated from North Carolina-Wilmington, double majoring in Spanish and English, and specializing in professional and creative writing. Convergence panel moderator, Mojos.
Chuck Rose began his journalism career at The Washington Post. His discovery of a Macintosh Plus with a 20-megabyte hard drive started a journey in digital storytelling. After eight years developing desktop publishing techniques Rose turned his attention to multimedia and CD ROM development. As newspapers began to invest in "new media," Rose in 1995 became design director at washingtonpost.com. Today Rose is art director for USATODAY.com, which he joined in 1997. In that time he has created editorial graphics, sales and advertising solutions and, for the past five years, has concentrated on website design and development. Content moderator, energizing storytelling. Content panel moderator, Energizing storytelling
Kenneth Richieri became general counsel of The New York Times Company in January 2006. He served as deputy general counsel from 2001 until 2005, becoming vice president in December 2002. He was senior counsel since January 1989. He joined The New York Times Company in January 1983 as legal counsel. Before joining the Times Company, Mr. Richieri was an associate at Cahill Gordon & Reindel from October 1976 through December 1982. Mr. Richieri received an A.B. degree in political science from Brown University in 1973 and a J.D. degree from Harvard Law School, graduating cum laude, in 1976. Commerce panelist, Internet law
Chet Rhodes is deputy multimedia editor, Breaking News for washingtonpost.com. He oversees the production and editing of daily news video for the site. Rhodes has also designed and installed a live television production studio for the company as well as video editing facilities. Rhodes is leading a project that trains Washington Post print journalists in shooting video for washingtonpost.com Before joining washingtonpost.com Rhodes taught for 10 years as an instructor of Broadcast Journalism at the University of Maryland's College of Journalism. He also worked as a radio news director in local radio and as an editor and chief engineer with the UPI radio network. Convergence panelist, Web skillsets; ASNE workshop presenter
Ken Sands is online publisher of The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash. The newspaper's website received the General Excellence award for medium sites in the 2005 Online Journalism Awards, and is a finalist again in 2006. The site was named the Best Overall News Site in its category in the 2006 Digital Edge Awards, and the newspaper's entertainment site was named the Best Entertainment Site in the 2006 Digital Edge Awards. SpokesmanReview.com has been an industry pioneer in blogging and in transparency. Content panel moderator and coordinator, Automation
Jan Schaffer is executive director of J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism, which spotlights and rewards innovations in interactive and participatory journalism and which funds citizen media ventures. A former Business Editor and a Pulitzer Prize winner for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Schaffer launched J-Lab in 2002 at the University of Maryland to help newsrooms use innovative computer technologies to engage people in important public issues. J-Lab is the successor to the Pew Center for Civic Journalism, a $14 million project Schaffer led for 10 years. Content panel moderator, Developing voices
Kevin Sites is a multimedia journalist who often works as a one-man unit, using portable, digital technology to report, write, edit and transmit his stories from conflict areas around the world. He has covered war zones in Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia. as a non-embedded correspondent for CNN, Sites provided viewers with independent reports from the frontlines of Northern Iraq. He has worked in local, cable and network news, including ABC's This Week with David Brinkley and NBC's Nightly News with Tom Brokaw. Convergence panelist, MoJos.
Jennifer Sizemore, vice president and editor in chief of MSNBC.com, oversees newsroom and drives editorial strategy for the No. 1 news site on the Web. Sizemore also holds the title of executive producer at NBC News. Sizemore, 38, joined MSNBC.com in June 2005 as deputy editor for news. Previously she was deputy managing editor for news at the Houston Chronicle and an assistant managing editor at both the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle. A Seattle native, she graduated from the University of Washington in political science and earned her master's at Northwestern. Convergence panelist, Elections
Clifford M. Sloan is publisher of Slate Magazine and vice president, business affairs and general counsel of Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive. WPNI publishes washingtonpost.com, Newsweek.com, Slate.com and BudgetTravelOnline.com. Sloan has served in various government positions, including Associate Counsel to the President of the United States (1993-95), Assistant to the Solicitor General at the U.S. Department of Justice (1989-91), Associate Counsel in the Office of Independent Counsel (Iran-Contra) (1987-88), and Law Clerk to Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens and U.S. Court of Appeals Judge J. Skelly Wright. Sloan also has taught the law of cyberspace at several local universities.
Mary Specht, 20, is a senior at American University in journalism. A Scripps Howard Foundation scholarship winner, Specht has interned at USA TODAY, washingtonpost.com and is now an intern at the U.S. State Department. Never far from her laptop, she knows she is unusual for her age: She downloads Slate's "Explainer" podcast for when she jogs, and she checks a dozen feeds on her Google Homepage five times a day. But she can also explain why her non-journalism friends like odd and weird news, and why texting and AIM replaced e-mail. Youth panelist
Fiona Spruill was named Editor of the Web Newsroom for The New York Times in July 2006. She joined NYTimes.com in 1999 as an intern and since then has served as a business and international news producer, a night editor, a home page editor, Associate Editor and Deputy Editor in charge of the features sections. In the last three years, she led the editorial side of the site redesign, the launch of TimesSelect, and the redesign of the travel, movies and theater sections. She is currently responsible for managing the 50 producers and editors behind NYTimes.com. Fiona has a bachelor's degree in public policy from Duke University. Commerce panelist, Big stories can make money
Jane Ellen Stevens is a freelance multimedia journalist, consultant and lecturer at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's worked for the Boston Globe, the San Francisco Examiner, and founded a syndicated science and technology feature service. She's written for magazines, including National Geographic, worked for New York Times Television as a videojournalist, and has done multimedia reporting for such Web sites as Discovery Channel Online and MSNBC.com. She consults with newspapers making the transition to Web-centric newsrooms, training journalists in multimedia, assists in redesigning newsroom and beat structure, and develops special Web sections. Content panelist, Energizing storytelling
Patrick Stiegman is the senior director and executive editor of news, sports and premium Products for ESPN.com. Stiegman, who joined the award-winning site in April 2004, oversees ESPN.com's public and premium Sports Channel content development, including news, commentary and analysis regarding the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, College football and basketball, tennis, golf, auto racing, boxing, soccer, Olympics and other areas. He also oversees Fantasy sports editorial coverage and ESPN.com's editorial integration with ESPN Television, ESPN Radio, ESPN The Magazine and Mobile ESPN. Stiegman spent five years as vice president/editor of the interactive division of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Convergence panelist, Staffing and structure
Ron Stitt joined Fox Television Stations in New York in May, and is responsible for digital media strategy and execution for Fox's 35 owned television stations and new network, MyNetworkTV. Prior to Fox, he was VP, Digital Media for the ABC owned tv stations and led that group through launch and two major redesigns between 1999 and 2006. Stitt began his career in various research, marketing and sales promotion capacities with Katz Television, NBC and Disney/ABC. He's a graduate of Ryerson University in Toronto, and holds a master's degree in telecommunications management from Syracuse University. Commerce panelist, Transforming media
Sarah Stuteville is the lead reporter and one of the founders of The Common Language Project, a nonprofit, multimedia online magazine devoted to humane reporting of stories not typically covered by mainstream media sources. She studied media studies at Hunter College in New York City, and has recently returned to her hometown of Seattle, WA, after seven months on the road in Asia, reporting with the CLP. She was the 2005 winner of the Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism and has won several Independent Press Association Awards, including the 2004 award for best feature article. Content panelist, Energizing storytelling
As vice president and general manager for NPR Digital Media, Maria Thomas leads NPR's strategic positioning from a radio company to a multimedia company. The NPR Digital Media group creates, implements and evangelizes NPR's digital media strategy for all non-radio formats, including online and mobile products, technology, distribution strategies and operational plans. She works to build loyalty and brand value by creating and distributing programming in non-linear, visual and on-demand formats. Maria began her career on Wall Street where she spent five years in corporate and project finance with Kidder, Peabody & Co. Maria holds an MBA from Northwestern and a BS in accounting from Boston University.
Barbara Wall, vice president/associate general counsel for Gannett Co., advises Gannett's newspapers and broadcast stations on libel and privacy, intellectual property and online developments. Wall joined Gannett in 1985. From 1979 to 1985 she practiced law in New York City with the law firm of Satterlee & Stephens. She has written and lectured on the First Amendment, intellectual property rights and the emerging law of the Internet. She serves on the Newspaper Association of America's Legal Affairs Committee and the National Judicial College's Center for Courts and Media. Wall earned her bachelor's and law degrees from the University of Virginia. Commerce panelist, Internet law
Leslie Walker is the Washington Post columnist who between 1998 and July wrote "DotCom," "a weekly chronicle of how the Internet is turning businesses upside down while putting new power in the hands of ordinary people." On a whirlwind September tour, she visited Yahoo!, eBay, Google, Electronic Arts, Microsoft and Amazon. In the mid-1990s, Walker served as editor of washingtonpost.com. Walker is serving as technology editor through December, leaving The Post to pursue new challenges, including writing a novel. Her 1989 true crime book, "Sudden Fury," became a New York Times bestseller and a made-for-TV movie. State of the industry super panel moderator
Joan Walsh is editor in chief at Salon.com. Her work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Vogue and the Nation. She won 2004 and 2005 Western Magazine Awards for her columns about local politics. Before starting at Salon, she was a consultant to the Rockefeller Foundation, the Annie E. Casey Foundation and California's James Irvine Foundation. She is on various boards of directors. An avid baseball fan, she is the author of "Splash Hit: The Pacific Bell Park Story" and also "Stories of Renewal: Community Building and the Future of Urban America." She lives in San Francisco. Content panelist, Transforming media
Amy Webb is the founder and Editor In Chief of Dragonfire (http://www.dfire.org), an independent, interactive non-profit news and culture magazine that launched the summer of 2005. Before that, she spent a decade covering business, technology and media for Newsweek (Tokyo bureau), The Asian Wall Street Journal (Hong Kong) and The Indianapolis Star. She maintains a personal site at mydigimedia.com. Content panelist, Automation;
Nedra Weinstein is the president of Arden Consulting, an organization development consulting firm which provides a multitude of services to clients both in the private and public sectors. Nedra is frequently called upon to coach teams, managers and leaders that are dealing with challenging and contentious organizational issues. Clients include Sun Microsystems, Fleishman-Hillard, WashingtonPostNewsweek Interactive, and the Environmental Protection Agency. She has been an adjunct aculty member at George Washington and American universities. Convergence panelist, Staffing and structure.
Ashley Wells is MSNBC.com's creative director, leading the site's design, interactives and concepts teams. He has specialized in made-for-the-web news presentations that encourage viewer participation with roles ranging from producer, designer and video editor to developer, project manager and general agitator. Ashley is willing to do just about anything to experiment with new technologies for storytelling, like wearing this 360-degree video helmet cam - in public. See it and more of his team's work in action at http://risingfromruin.msnbc.com. Before joining MSNBC, Ashley worked at KCAL-TV in Los Angeles. He is a Pepperdine graduate and misses Malibu's surf. Content panel moderator and coordinator, Made for the media
Elizabeth "Elsi" Wu, 16, attends Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Md. Wu says she's "addicted to Facebook" and spends about 1.5 hours a day posting photos and keeping up with dozens of friends online. Every day she checks her horoscope, reads entertainment gossip and monitors her fantasy football team on Yahoo! Sports. Elsi writes for her school's award-winning online student newspaper and wants to be a sports writer someday. She likes news online because "it's accessible to everyone." Youth panelist
Will Yurman is a staff photojournalist at the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, where he has been a longtime innovator in multimedia storytelling. He teaches multimedia storytelling at the Rochester Institute of Technology and has conducted numerous multimedia workshops for the National Press Photographers Association's Northern Short Course. His work features elegant design and strong visual content, driven by natural sound and the subject's own words. He is a 1983 graduate of the State University New York at Albany. He is a former NPPA Region 2 Photographer of the Year. Storytelling workshop leader.
