Community Track
MILBLOGGING: Are MilBlogs Still Relevant?
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM, S208
In the wake of a successful military surge in Iraq, waning media attention and an election year, are MilBlogs as relevant to the national conversation on war as they once were? Matthew "Blackfive" Burden enlisted in the military when he was seventeen. After serving as a Sergeant in Airborne and Special Operations units, he received a Commission as an Armor (Cavalry) Officer. Matt served in units in across the globe in many military areas before working as an Intelligence Officer for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). After a sixteen year career, he left the military in July of 2001.
To honor the sacrifice of a good friend who gave his life in Iraq to save a convoy, Matt began Blackfive.net to support the military and military families, tell the stories that are not getting told in the media, and raise public awareness of the sacrifices being made. Blackfive.net is one of the most popular military blogs and has garnered many awards.
As a result of the military blogging phenomenon, Simon & Schuster published "The Blog of War" which Matt authored and edited - a book about the effects of Web 2.0 on the military and bloggers' stories from war.
Matt has a Masters of Science degree (Computer Science) from the University of Chicago where he received the Faculty Award. He also has an MBA from the University of Illinois. When not blogging, studying, or playing with his kids, Matt works as an executive in the IT field for a firm in Chicago. And if he had more time, he'd open a pub where veterans would get their first Guinness "on the house." (Paratroopers would get two).
Ward Carroll is the editor of Military.com, responsible for all news, editorials, commentaries, and other content on the site and in newsletters.
During his 20-year Navy career Ward served in four different F-14 squadrons accumulating more than 2,800 flight hours in operations that included five extended aircraft carrier deployments to hostile regions. His last tour on active duty was at his alma mater, the U.S. Naval Academy, where he taught English, leadership, and ethics. He retired at the rank of commander. Immediately following his retirement, he worked as the communications director for the V-22 Osprey program at the Naval Air Systems Command.
Ward’s writing has appeared in a wide variety of periodicals including Golf World, Hits, and Proceedings. He was editor of Approach magazine as a lieutenant and in recent years wrote the popular “Grampaw Pettibone” column for Naval Aviation News. His three novels about a Tomcat pilot -- Punk's War (2001), Punk's Wing (2003), and Punk's Fight (2004) -- have been widely praised for their realistic portrayals of a Naval Aviator's life. He earned the Naval Institute Press’ “Author of the Year” honors in 2001. He has two other published works: The Aide (2005) and Militia Kill (2006). He currently blogs at Defensetech.org and his personal site, wardcarroll.com.
Ward’s military decorations include the Strike Flight Air Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, and the Navy/Marine Corps Commendation Medal (four awards). He is married with two teenaged sons and splits his time between southern Maryland and San Francisco.
See also:
Sept. 20 at 2:45 PM: LIVE DoD Bloggers' Roundtable
Phillip Carter started the "Intel Dump" blog in November 2002, focusing on the intersection of law and national security. Phil has written for The New York Times, Washington Post, Slate, and other publications. He served nine years in the Army as an MP and civil affairs officer, including a deployment to Iraq in 2005-06. Following his service, Phil attended law school and joined the firm McKenna Long & Aldridge, where he practices national security and government contracts law. Phil is currently on leave from his blog and law practice, serving in Chicago as the national veterans director for Obama for America.
Greyhawk began the blog The Mudville Gazette in March, 2003, and the MilBlogs Ring - the first "community" of military bloggers - later that year. He has blogged from Iraq in 2004-2005, and again in 2007. In 2006 he started MilBlogs, a multi-author blog/chat forum for milbloggers. In 2008 he created MilBlogs TV, launching the milblogs 'brand' into yet another new media frontier.
The Mudville Gazette has experienced steady growth since it's founding in 2003. Mudville has been mentioned on Fox News, USA Today, MSNBC, WaPo and CNN, as well as in a cover story in Army Times.
Though fellow military members (from young people considering a military career to veterans of America's past wars) are probably more frequent visitors to Mudville, the site is more popular among civilians looking for insight into the military or reports from the frontlines of the war on terror they cannot find in the MSM.
See also:
Sept. 20 at 5:00 PM: MILBLOGGING: The New Cadre of War Reporters
First Sergeant CJ Grisham is a 14 year career Soldier stationed in Alabama.
He joined the Army in October 1994 after realizing he needed a little
structure and discipline in his life. The purple hair was also beginning to
clash with his plaid shirts and he realized that a career at the Taco Bell
drive through wasn't doing anything to get him the girls. His father is
retired from the Navy and his grandfather served in the European theater
during WWII as a belly gunner and bombardier of a B24. He started his blog,
[A Soldier's Perspective](http://www.soldiersperspective.us), after returning
from OIF1 in 2003 and realized that he needed an avenue to tell his story
and as a way of therapy to deal with his own demons of combat. Eventually,
his blog morphed into a way to tell the Soldiers' story about the realities
of combat on the ground. Seeing that media coverage was overwhelmingly
biased against the war effort, he went through great efforts to put out the
success stories and highlight the heroes of our military. CJ continues that
tradition along with providing a military perspective to political issues
affecting the armed services and its members. He is 100% dedicated to
taking care of Soldiers, whether or not they are his. CJ is happily married
to his hot wife, Emily, and they have three beautiful children. His goal is
to retire from the military and begin a political career at the state or
national level. Or teach JROTC - whichever happens first! CJ also
started [They Have Names](http://www.theyhavenames.com), a site dedicated to the memory of our fallen troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
SPORTS BLOGGING: Promoting Your Content - Establishing a Following in the Sports Blogosphere
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM, S209
Whether you are new to the blogosphere or a sports blogging vet, marketing your site efficiently and effectively is key. Hear some of the most well-known personalities in the sports blogosphere discuss how they got themselves noticed and how you can create more exposure for your site in any stage of your blogging career. Ryan Corazza is the Blog Manager at Mouthpiece Sports. He also
contributes to The Daily on ESPN the Mag, is a co-founder of
Inside the Hall and has written for AOL's FanHouse.
As managing editor of Yardbarker.com, Dewey works with sports publishers and athletes to produce and promote original sports content.
A 16-year sports mainstream media professional, Brooks is the owner of the
SportsByBrooks website and has made weekly appearances on KNBC-TV and ESPN Radio (KSPN-AM) in Los Angeles.
See also:
Sept. 20 at 12:15 PM: SPORTS BLOGGING: Capitalizing on Traffic - Monetizing Sports Blogs
Alana was formerly the head producer for AOL's FanHouse, interim blog editor at Yahoo! Sports, and adviser at Ballhype. She has blogged as Miss Gossip since 2006 and is currently working at Yardbarker.
Elie, "The Embedded NBA Correspondent," has been covering the NBA since
1997. He has worked in television news (for CBS and FOX) and online outlets
such as AOL's FanHouse, HoopsHype and the LA Daily News.
Co-host of The Basketball Jones NBA podcast, J.E. Skeets has written for Deadspin, AOL Sports' FanHouse, and currently, Yahoo! Sports' "Ball Don't Lie" blog. He lives in Toronto, ON.
See also:
Sept. 21 at 11:00 AM: SPORTS BLOGGING: Emerging Trends & Transitions in Sports Blogging
GODBLOGCON: The Missional Church in the Internet Age
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM, S210
Andrew Jones, social entrepreneur and mission consultant, will explore the phenomenal rise of faith blogging over the past decade and what it will take to see the church fully utilize this window of opportunity. Born in New Zealand but has been living in the UK for 4 years.
Andrew is married to Debbie (American) and we have 5 kids born in USA,
Australia and Czech Republic. Andrew has been a pastor for 9 years and a
missionary for many more. He has been a mission consultant for the Baptist
General Convention of Texas, Dawn Ministries and have been the Director of
the Boaz Project for the past 8 years. His work has taken him to over 40
countries and has focused on the global emerging culture. He began blogging
in 1997 with and in 2001 reached the Number 3 top blogspot blog (Blogger
Forum, 2002). Currently Andrew blogs at www.tallskinnykiwi.com.
See also:
Sept. 20 at 11:00 AM: The Missional Church in the Internet Age
MILBLOGGING: MilBlogging as a Community
12:15 PM - 1:15 PM, S308
A fascinating look at how the milblogging community was built, what its achieved and how deep and wide its reach has become. We’ll explore how milblogging gives a voice to supporters, parents and spouses of service members, and how that voice is effectively used to support an entire military community. Beth, aka FbL - Fuzzilicious Thinking (Speaker)
Beth was a “typical civilian” before discovering milblogs in 2004. After milblogger Chuck Z was wounded in 2005, she co-founded Project Valour-IT with the support of the milblog community. Valour-IT has since distributed over 2,700 adaptive laptops for the wounded, and under Beth’s leadership, bloggers unite each Veterans Day in a friendly fundraising competition.
Beth received a 2006 Milbloggie for Fuzzilicious Thinking, and a 2007 Deutsche Welle Best of the Blogs jury award for using the Valour-IT project blog to coordinate and fundraise. She also writes for the respected Castle Argghhh! milblog, and telecommutes from her patio as Assistant to the President of Internet-based troop support non-profit Soldiers’ Angels.
Mrs Greyhawk is co-author of the Mudville Gazette and MilBlogs, an endeavor begun in 2003 by her husband Greyhawk. They created the MilBlogs Ring - an informal association of 2700 members of current and former Soldiers, Sailers, Airmen and Marines and their family members sharing their stories from the front lines of combat zones and elsewhere around the world. Mrs G currently manages the MilBlogs Ring and The MilBlog Community on the Truth Laid Bear.
For several years now Mrs. G has published a daily compilation on the Dawn Patrol of the latest posts from frontline milbloggers, providing readers a rare glimpse of the war on terror through the eyes of those most directly engaged in the battle. As the 'home' of the MilBlogs, The Mudvile Gazette is generally regarded as the place to go to see what's happening in the world of the military blogs.
I've been an Army Wife for many years, and have a few to go. I'm the Mom of an Army Veteran, and Mom in law of an Army Veteran. Decided that Parents of Serving Military of any Service need a place to go to ask questions, read, vent and understand they are not alone. Found others who thought the same, and just jumped in!
LAW - Liberal Army Wife. Decided when the only military wives blogs I could find were conservatives - that the Liberals in the Army Family needed to be heard. It's heartening to find more and more of "us" making our voices heard - loudly!
One person - and a couple of different perspectives!
Sarah has been an Army wife for six years now. Her husband is currently on his
second deployment to Iraq. Last time he didn't have running water, but this time, he gleefully notes, he "pees in Saddam's toilet." Sarah spends her time on one of two activities: 1) blogging at SpouseBUZZ.com and TryingToGrok.com, or 2) crocheting afghans for wounded troops and knitting preemie caps for the local hospital. She's learning to knit with the laptop balanced on her knees so she can do both at the same time.
Guard Wife is the moniker Melinda Warthman adopted when she began blogging for SpouseBuzz.com. Prior to her SpouseBuzz affiliation, she had been blogging on her own since 2002. Melinda is a 30-something Army National Guard spouse who recently graduated from law school and sat for the July bar exam. Melinda's family includes her ARNG husband, their two young daughters, Annie the golden retriever and Henry the chocolate lab.
SPORTS BLOGGING: Capitalizing on Traffic - Monetizing Sports Blogs
12:15 PM - 1:15 PM, S309
Sports blogs are growing rapidly in popularity and establishing a solid reputation in the world of online advertising. This means more and more opportunities arising for the effective monetization of traffic by sports bloggers. Experts from around the industry will share their success stories in sports blog monetization, as well as offer their thoughts on what the future holds for monetization in the sports blogosphere. Enrico Campitelli Jr. - The 700 Level (Founder, Lead Blogger)
Founded the Philly sports blog The700Level.com and is also one of the original bloggers at AOL's FanHouse. Loves everything Philadelphia and is an MBA student at GWU.
Keith is the President of CoveritLive. Since its launch in late 2007,
CoveritLive.com has been used by bloggers and mainstream media to provide
live blogging and Q&A sessions to millions of readers around the world.
A 16-year sports mainstream media professional, Brooks is the owner of the
SportsByBrooks website and has made weekly appearances on KNBC-TV and ESPN Radio (KSPN-AM) in Los Angeles.
See also:
Pete Vlastelica is the CEO of Yardbarker. Prior to co-founding the company
in 2006, Pete managed Business Development at the Walt Disney Internet Group
in London and ran Business Development at Plumb Design.
POLITICAL BLOGGING: The Political Blogosphere in Transition
12:15 PM - 1:15 PM, S310
The political blogosphere was born after the divisive 2000 presidential election and has matured rapidly in the eight years since. The selection of a new president in 2008 will be a key transition for political bloggers who have been inspired or infuriated by the policies of George W. Bush. How will the "netroots" and the "rightroots" react? Austin Bay writes both novels and non-fiction. Bay's A Quick and Dirty Guide to War: Fourth Edition (an assessment of current and potential armed conflicts, co-authored with James Dunnigan) will be published in October 2008 by Paladin Press. His third novel, The Wrong Side of Brightness, was published by Putnam/Jove in 2003. Austin is currently working on his fourth novel.
Bay writes a national security column for Creators Syndicate. His
commentaries run on National Public Radio's Morning Edition. He has appeared as a guest analyst on CNN, C-SPAN, Fox News, and ABC News Nightline.
Bay, who has had two commercial wargames published, served for four years as a consultant in wargaming at the Pentagon. He holds the rank of Colonel
(Armor) in the U.S. Army Reserve. In 1999 Bay served as deputy commander of a Hurricane Mitch recovery operation in Guatemala.
Bay is now retired from the US Army Reserve, but was recalled to active duty
and served in Iraq in 2004.
Bay has a B.A. from Rice University and a Ph.D. in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University. He is a graduate of the U.S. Army War College. He currently teaches for The University of Texas' Plan II Undergraduate Honors Program.
On the web his work appears at austinbay.net, creators.com,
http://austinbay.thearenausa.com, pajamasmedia.com, and strategypage.com .
Bridget Magnus is a Realtor in Las Vegas. She developed a
love for research in grad school, and brings her experience as a
research analyst both to her career and to her writing. Bridget has
been active in online communities since 1996, and has been blogging
since 2003. She blogs on a variety of topics, including politics, real
estate, politics, the economy, health/fitness, and random things she
finds amusing. You can find her writing at www.TheModerateVoice.com,
www.ShortWoman.com, and www.BridgetMagnus.com. Her other interests
include reading, cooking, video-gaming, and Japanese language/culture.
Rob Neppell is founder and president of Kithbridge, Inc. (see booth 310) and is best known online by the pseudonym "N.Z. Bear". In 2002, Rob created the first and still-definitive blog tracking system, The TTLB Blogosphere Ecosystem, and over the past six years has earned a reputation as one of the key innovators in the new world of weblogs and citizens' media. For his efforts online, Rob was awarded the first-ever “Blogger of the Year” award in March 2007 at the Conservative Political Action Conference, and is a member of The Heritage Foundation's New Media Advisory Board. Rob is co-founder with Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds of Porkbusters, and spearheaded the "Secret Hold" effort which resulted in the passage of the historic Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act. In September 2007, in recognition of his work as founder of The Victory Caucus, Rob was honored to be invited to the White House with a small group of bloggers to spend an hour with President Bush discussing the war in Iraq and the role of online media in the educating the public about the conflict.
See also:
Sept. 21 at 3:00 PM: POLITICAL BLOGGING: The Mixing Bowl
Roger L. Simon has been blogging since 2003 and is the co-founder and CEO of Pajamas Media. He is the author of 10 novels, including the eight prize-winning Moses Wine detective novels. He is also a screenwriter who received an Academy Award nomination for his adaptation of Isaac Singer's "Enemies: A Love Story" in 1989. He taught screenwriting at the American Film Institute and Sundance Institute and served on the board of the Writers Guild of America. He is a former president of the West Coast branch of PEN and a former vice president of the International Association of Crime Writers. His first non-fiction book – "Blacklisting Myself: A Hollywood Apostate In An Age of Terror" -- will be published in January.
Pam Spaulding - Pam's House Blend
Pam Spaulding is the editor and publisher of Pam's House Blend, honored as Best LGBT Blog in the 2005 and 2006 Weblog Awards. A regular contributor to the progressive blogs Pandagon and The Bilerico Project, Spaulding has also guest blogged on Firedoglake, Glenn Greenwald's Unclaimed Territory on Salon, OurChart.com, The Rude Pundit, and Americablog. Spaulding received the 2006 Distinguished Achievement Award from The Monette-Horwitz Trust for making significant contributions toward the eradication of homophobia. She lives Durham, North Carolina with her wife Kate; they legally married in Canada in 2004.
Pam's House Blend covered the 2008 Democratic National Convention as a member of the credentialed press pool.
LIVE DoD Bloggers' Roundtable
2:45 PM - 3:45 PM, S408
Military officials from the Department of the Army will join us for a LIVE Bloggers' Roundtable to discuss operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. These officials will be taking audience questions. Mr. John Donovan is a retired soldier, the son of a retired soldier, and the grandson of a soldier of the Great War, and can trace a martial lineage back to a member of Roger's Rangers. He views himself as the least distinguished of the lot, and his ribbon rack reflects that. Like his father and grandfather, he served the guns of the Field Artillery. He also dabbled in Operations and was one of the first Simulations Operations officers to be named in that career field. In addition, he has a brief as a WMD response planner, and has worked as a military historian. He's classic middle class, with a Master's that he paid for, but doesn't use.
Since he hung up the tye-dyed green clothing, he has worked as an analyst for a middling-sized defense contractor, doing mostly simulation development, management, and of late, analytical work. He raised the ramparts of Castle Argghhh! in September of 2003, as a place to explain what the media could not or would not (or when they did, badly), as well as to provide a forum to show that people who happened to own a whole lot of firearms weren't necessarily menaces to society, waiting to suddenly burst forth in a roseate fire of mayhem and malice.
He blogs things military, 2nd Amendment, and politics, and is prone to posting bad jokes now and then. When he's not being a gadfly to DoD about getting their story out, he is a gentleman farmer. He is married to a fellow blogger, has one son, eight cats, two dogs, two horses, five goats, and an uncounted number of chickens and guinea fowl, plus 7 horses a-boarding. All resident on the 80 acre motte and bailey in northeast Kansas, where he and his wife sit in the hot tub after putting up the hay and wave at the blue-bloods flying overhead as they travel from coast to coast marveling at the bitter people clinging to bibles and guns below them.
All that clinging is a challenge, since we also like big margaritas (rocks and salt, please) and have to keep at least one hand free for those.
Ward Carroll is the editor of Military.com, responsible for all news, editorials, commentaries, and other content on the site and in newsletters.
During his 20-year Navy career Ward served in four different F-14 squadrons accumulating more than 2,800 flight hours in operations that included five extended aircraft carrier deployments to hostile regions. His last tour on active duty was at his alma mater, the U.S. Naval Academy, where he taught English, leadership, and ethics. He retired at the rank of commander. Immediately following his retirement, he worked as the communications director for the V-22 Osprey program at the Naval Air Systems Command.
Ward’s writing has appeared in a wide variety of periodicals including Golf World, Hits, and Proceedings. He was editor of Approach magazine as a lieutenant and in recent years wrote the popular “Grampaw Pettibone” column for Naval Aviation News. His three novels about a Tomcat pilot -- Punk's War (2001), Punk's Wing (2003), and Punk's Fight (2004) -- have been widely praised for their realistic portrayals of a Naval Aviator's life. He earned the Naval Institute Press’ “Author of the Year” honors in 2001. He has two other published works: The Aide (2005) and Militia Kill (2006). He currently blogs at Defensetech.org and his personal site, wardcarroll.com.
Ward’s military decorations include the Strike Flight Air Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, and the Navy/Marine Corps Commendation Medal (four awards). He is married with two teenaged sons and splits his time between southern Maryland and San Francisco.
See also:
Sept. 20 at 11:00 AM: MILBLOGGING: Are MilBlogs Still Relevant?
Pete Geren joined the Department of Defense in September of 2001 to serve as Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense with responsibilities in the areas of inter-agency initiatives, legislative affairs and special projects.
Prior to joining the Department of Defense, Geren was an attorney and businessman in Fort Worth, Texas.
From 1989 until his retirement in 1997, Geren was a member of the U.S. Congress, representing the Twelfth Congressional District of Texas for four terms. He served on the Armed Services, Science & Technology and the Public Works and Transportation Committees during his tenure in the Congress.
Geren received his BA degree from the University of Texas in 1974 and his JD from University of Texas Law School in 1978.
ENTERTAINMENT: Social Media & the Writers' Strike: Blogs, Fans & Community
2:45 PM - 3:45 PM, S409
This panel, the first of two sessions about Social Media and the Writers' Strike, will offer an overview of how the writers used social media during the strike to inform the public, encourage and reward fan support and keep union members motivated. We will focus on community-developed sites like United Hollywood and the inpact of fan support as we discuss the overall impact of social media (vs. mainstream media) on the outcome. Jeffrey Berman's first spec script was purchased by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard at Imagine Films. Since then he has written scripts for Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures and The Walt Disney Studio, as well as several independent film companies. In the television market, Berman has written and sold several MOWs including The J.K Rowling bio-pic for NBC television and The Last Rainmaker for Hallmark. Recently, Berman co-founded UnitedHollywood.com and was producer/co-host of UnitedHollywood Live. He also created and hosts, The Write Environment, a compelling series of one-on-one interview with some of today's most prolific writers. He ran the Pencils for Media Moguls campaign during the strike; read more here http://tvdecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/jeff-berman/
See also:
Erica Blitz, who often goes by the online handle ProgGrrl, is co-editor of the BATTLESTAR GALACTICA fansite Galactica Sitrep, and blogs about miscellaneous TV, film and pop culture at FanGrrl Magnet. She currently works in film marketing in New York City and has a background in both film and music marketing. For a closer look at how Sitrep covered the WGA strike from the fan perspective, check out the site's tagged posts here.
Susan Getgood is a marketing & social media consultant who is also a huge science fiction and fantasy fan, especially of the Whedonverse and Battlestar Galactica. Sites related to those fandoms was where she got much of her initial information about the strike, and formed the initial inspiration for the Writers Strike panels. She has been involved in online marketing since the early 90s, and watched the web evolve from the first browsers to the interactive communities we participate in today. Since 2004, her firm GetGood Strategic Marketing has been advising organizations of all shapes and sizes on integrated social media and marketing strategies that will help them meet their customers online, build their brands and drive revenue. Prior to that, Susan was a senior marketing executive at an Internet software company. She writes two blogs, Marketing
See also:
Sept. 20 at 5:00 PM: ENTERTAINMENT: Social Media & the Writers' Strike: How User-Generated Content Won the War of the Words
Sept. 20 at 12:15 PM: Marketing to (Mommy) Bloggers
Mark Verheiden was Co-Executive Producer of the Peabody Award winning television series BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, screenwriter of the Fall 2008 feature MY NAME IS BRUCE (starring Bruce Campbell), and screenwriter on the original feature film ARK (Sony Pictures). Past work includes writing and producing the first three seasons of SMALLVILLE, writing the scripts for the feature films TIMECOP & THE MASK, and many graphic novels including THE AMERICAN, ALIENS, PREDATOR, THE PHANTOM, SUPERMAN and SUPERMAN/BATMAN. His blog can be found at http://verheiden.blogspot.com
How Financial Blogs Influence the Markets
2:45 PM - 3:45 PM, S410
Alternative media are rapidly becoming a critical part of the information flow for both professional and retail investors. When the subprime crisis emerged, blogs were telling the story months before the mainstream media took notice. This session will explore why financial blogs are often better positioned than traditional media to uncover and understand emerging trends. The panel will also look at blogonomics – which blogs might be the next acquisition targets and why; the impact of microblogging in the financial space; and how blogs are starting to act more like traditional publishers and vice-versa. Barry Graubart is Vice President, Product Strategy and Business Development for [Alacra](http://www.alacra.com), publisher of [Research Recap](http://www.researchrecap.com), which aggregates alternative and traditional financial and investment information. Alacra is also the host of the [Premium Content Ad Network](http://www.alacra.com/products/pcan.asp) an affiliate widget that enables financial and business bloggers to better monetize their sites. Graubart is also author of the [Content Matters blog](http://www.contentmatters.info) and can be found tweeting @graubart.
Prior to Alacra, Barry served as Chief Marketing Officer for Leadership Directories. He previously held several leadership roles with semantic technology provider ClearForest. Prior to that, he held various product, marketing and general management roles with divisions of Primedia, the Washington Post and McClatchy Newspapers. Barry sits on the board of the content division of the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) and chairs its Social Media Action Committee. As a senior fellow at the Kauffman Foundation, Paul Kedrosky shares his experience as a technology entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and academic to explore new programming opportunities for the Foundation in the areas of
entrepreneurship, innovation, and capital markets. Previously, he was the executive director of the William J. von Liebig Center in San Diego, Calif. Using an innovative seed capital program, the Center catalyzes the commercialization of technologies from the internationally ranked University of California, San Diego.
Kedrosky is a venture capitalist, media personality, and entrepreneur. He is a sought-after speaker; an analyst for CNBC television; a columnist for TheStreet/RealMoney; the editor of Infectious Greed, one of the best-known business blogs on the Internet; and he is frequently quoted in major publications around the world. He has published more than 300 articles in academic and non-academic publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and Harvard Business Review. He also is the chair of the Money:Tech conference in New York.
Kedrosky also is a venture partner with Ventures West, one of the longest standing institutional venture capital firms in North America. In that capacity his interests include consumer technologies, media, semiconductors, and life sciences. He is currently on the board of Marqui Corporation, a marketing automation software firm, as well as Dabble DB, a hosted data management company.Earlier in his career, Kedrosky founded the technology equity research practice at HSBC James Capel. As a highly ranked technology equity analyst, transactions with which he was involved created in excess of a billion dollars in public market value. He was one of the first analysts to cover Internet companies, as well as making early and timely calls in networking and communications.
Kedrosky has also been a successful entrepreneur. In 1999 he financed and launched one of the first hosted blogging services, GrokSoup. The service grew to more than a thousand subscribers.Kedrosky obtained his undergraduate degree in engineering from Carleton University, his MBA from Queen's University, and his Ph.D from the University of Western Ontario.
James Ledbetter is Editor, the Big Money, a new financial website launched
by Slate.com.
Prior to joining Slate, Ledbetter served as deputy managing editor at
CNNMoney.com.Previously, he was a senior editor at Time, working for the
magazine's European edition. He is the author of Starving To Death on $200
Million: The Short, Absurd Life of The Industry Standard (Public Affairs,
2003), and Made Possible By...: The Death of Public Broadcasting in the
United States (Verso, 1997). Ledbetter is also the editor of Dispatches for
the New York Tribune: Selected Journalism of Karl Marx, published in 2007 by
Penguin Classics. Ledbetter is the former editor-in-chief of The Industry
Standard Europe, a former staff writer for The Village Voice, and has
written about politics and media for Slate, GQ, The American Prospect, The
Washington Post, The Nation, The New York Times, Vibe, Mother Jones, and
many other publications.
Born in Toronto, live in Phoenix with a loyal wife (11 years, 12.5 in
Canadian), two awesome kids and a dachshund. Schools - University of Western Ontario, Arizona State University, American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird).
I currently manage a hedge fund and have done so since June of 1998. The
fund has evolved into a long only fund with approximately 50 percent in
equities and 50 percent in private investments.
In the Summer of 2006, I created Wallstrip and with the help of Adam Elend,
Jeff Marks, Lindsay Campbell and a hard working crew we have created over
300 shows. In May 2007, Wallstrip was purchased by CBS and I continue to
work with CBS and Wallstrip today. I am a partner in two other funds called Knight's Bridge Capital Partners . The Howard Lindzon blog can be found at howardlindzon.com
Felix Salmon first started blogging (although it wasn’t called that at the time) when he joined Bridge News in 1999 as Latin America Editor. He would link to news stories on the wire, add snarky commentary, and do the whole thing on a fixed page in reverse chronological order.
In 2000, Felix started handcoding his own blog at geocities.com; it wasn’t long until felixsalmon.com (his personal blog) and memefirst.com (a group blog) were formed. By that time, he had
It wasn’t until 2006 that Felix embraced his econoblogospheric destiny, launching economonitor.com for Roubini Global Economics and glorying in the title of Content Strategist. After MILBLOGGING: The New Cadre of War Reporters
5:00 PM - 6:00 PM, S508
Reporting from the Green Zone is not an option for this gritty band of milbloggers. Today’s technology enables milbloggers and embedded reporters to report directly from the battlefield. We’ll talk with some of these milbloggers about their experiences in the combat zone. I founded Milblogging.com in September 2005. Prior to Milblogging, I ran a military blog from Afghanistan while I was deployed with the Army National Guard during Operation Enduring Freedom V. My original military blog "The National Guard Experience" was written as a means to stay in touch with family, friends, and supporters while on deployment. During my deployment I decided to create an aggregator site of military-related blogs from around the world. Milblogging is an internet database for organizing military blogs. It’s main attraction is its index of military blogs from all over the world. In late September 2005, I launched the website. In an effort to accelerate the spread of soldier-journalism, Milblogging was acquired by Military.com in January 2006. In June 2007, I was deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom as an Infantryman running Convoy Security missions throughout Iraq and continued to maintain Milblogging.com as well I participated in Deborah Scranton's film "Bad Voodoo's War". I returned back to the U.S. in May 2008.
Greyhawk began the blog The Mudville Gazette in March, 2003, and the MilBlogs Ring - the first "community" of military bloggers - later that year. He has blogged from Iraq in 2004-2005, and again in 2007. In 2006 he started MilBlogs, a multi-author blog/chat forum for milbloggers. In 2008 he created MilBlogs TV, launching the milblogs 'brand' into yet another new media frontier.
The Mudville Gazette has experienced steady growth since it's founding in 2003. Mudville has been mentioned on Fox News, USA Today, MSNBC, WaPo and CNN, as well as in a cover story in Army Times.
Though fellow military members (from young people considering a military career to veterans of America's past wars) are probably more frequent visitors to Mudville, the site is more popular among civilians looking for insight into the military or reports from the frontlines of the war on terror they cannot find in the MSM.
See also:
Sept. 20 at 11:00 AM: MILBLOGGING: Are MilBlogs Still Relevant?
Before assuming editor duties at Defense Tech, Christian spent five
years with the Military Times newspapers in Springfield Va., as a senior
writer. He has covered military operations worldwide, embedding with
Army and Marine units in both Iraq and Afghanistan, observing detention
facilities at Guantanamo Bay, covering humanitarian missions in Lebanon
and New Orleans, participating in training exercises at military bases
from California to Florida and reporting on military policy and budgets
in the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill.
In 2005, Christian was awarded the Associated Press Managing Editor's
Association award for investigative journalism after exposing that the
Marine Corps had fielded tens of thousands of body armor vests to troops
in Iraq that had not passed quality assurance testing by government
auditors. He was also part of an Emmy-nominated documentary team that
followed a group of Marine Corps officers from their first days of
officer training to the battlefields of Iraq.
In 2008, Christian became Military.com's first embed with his return to
Iraq, and featured his experiences on his blog, From The Front.
Raised in Charlottesville, Va., and a graduate of the University of
Virginia, Christian lives on Capitol Hill with his wife Catherine, baby
daughter Eliza, and his Jack Russell terriers Noor Whali and Banjo. When
he's not sniffing around for the latest defense and military news, he
likes to take advantage of any opportunity to slip out of town to go
hunting, fishing or surfing.
ENTERTAINMENT: Social Media & the Writers' Strike: How User-Generated Content Won the War of the Words
5:00 PM - 6:00 PM, S509
The use of user generated content during the Writers Strike to both inform and entertain further validated the importance of the Internet medium. This panel, the second of two about Social Media and the Writers Strike, will dive deeper into the impact of websites and videos written (and often performed) by the writers and distributed through YouTube, United Hollywood and other Internet sites. Why did they work so well, and how has user generated content changed the entertainment landscape? What lessons can we apply to our own endeavors, personal, professional and corporate? Jeffrey Berman's first spec script was purchased by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard at Imagine Films. Since then he has written scripts for Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures and The Walt Disney Studio, as well as several independent film companies. In the television market, Berman has written and sold several MOWs including The J.K Rowling bio-pic for NBC television and The Last Rainmaker for Hallmark. Recently, Berman co-founded UnitedHollywood.com and was producer/co-host of UnitedHollywood Live. He also created and hosts, The Write Environment, a compelling series of one-on-one interview with some of today's most prolific writers. He ran the Pencils for Media Moguls campaign during the strike; read more here http://tvdecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/jeff-berman/
See also:
Sept. 20 at 2:45 PM: ENTERTAINMENT: Social Media & the Writers' Strike: Blogs, Fans & Community
Michael Colton writes for film and television, and is currently working on a new Fox animated show set to air next spring. He and partner John Aboud also appear regularly as panelists on VH1's "Best Week Ever," "I Love the 80s" and other shows. Before moving to L.A., they ran the Web magazine Modern Humorist, and prior to that, Colton was a staff writer for the Washington Post. During the writers strike, Colton & Aboud created the much-discussed parody website AMPTP.com (now housed at AMPTP.humortron.net). Joss Whedon praised them as "heroes," which is obviously an understatement.
Susan Getgood is a marketing & social media consultant who is also a huge science fiction and fantasy fan, especially of the Whedonverse and Battlestar Galactica. Sites related to those fandoms was where she got much of her initial information about the strike, and formed the initial inspiration for the Writers Strike panels. She has been involved in online marketing since the early 90s, and watched the web evolve from the first browsers to the interactive communities we participate in today. Since 2004, her firm GetGood Strategic Marketing has been advising organizations of all shapes and sizes on integrated social media and marketing strategies that will help them meet their customers online, build their brands and drive revenue. Prior to that, Susan was a senior marketing executive at an Internet software company. She writes two blogs, Marketing
See also:
Sept. 20 at 12:15 PM: Marketing to (Mommy) Bloggers
Sept. 20 at 2:45 PM: ENTERTAINMENT: Social Media & the Writers' Strike: Blogs, Fans & Community
POLITICAL BLOGGING: Macaca Mania
5:00 PM - 6:00 PM, S510
Online political junkies bemoan the fact that politicians are too cautious and don't engage in genuine, freewheeling conversations with "the people." But are the people, with new media in hand, actually fostering less straight talk and interactivity by "tracking" politicians with video cameras and tape recorders, and constantly replaying and mashing up every political gaffe, no matter how minor? K. Daniel Glover is the executive producer of Eyeblast TV, a video-sharing site and online social network created by the Media Research Center. He also writes at the Eyeblast blog, Video Done Right. Glover has 17 years of journalistic experience in Washington, with most of that time at National Journal and Congressional Quarterly. He headed Technology Daily and wrote Beltway Blogroll for National Journal. Glover also is the publisher and executive producer of AirCongress, a portal to audio and video of, by and about Congress. And he has other blogs about presidential homes and the tax burden in America.
Jane Hamsher is the founder of firedoglake.com. Her work has also appeared on the Huffington Post, Alternet and The American Prospect. She has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, Al Jazeera, PBS and the BBC, and is the author of the best-selling book Killer Instinct. She has produced such films as Natural Born Killers and Permanent Midnight. Firedoglake is best known for its groundbreaking coverage of the Valerie Plame case and live-blogging of the Scooter Libby trial. FDL is the home of the Blue America column and Accountability Now PAC, and FDL readers helped raised more than $500,000 for progressive candidates in 2006, $250,000 for '08 candidates, and more than $500,000 to hold them accountable to the voters.
Jon Henke is a strategic manager at New Media Strategies in Arlington, Va., where he has consulted for the Fred Thompson presidential campaign and other public affairs clients. Previously, he was the new media adviser to Senate Republicans in Mitch McConnell's Senate Republican Communication Center, where Congressional Quarterly said he “launched one of the first and most successful blogger outreach operations on the Capitol Hill, one that has served as a template for other offices.” Henke has been a blogger for 5 years at QandO.net and TheNextRight.com.
Matthew Sheffield is president of Dialog New Media, a marketing firm specializing in political technology for campaigns, non-profits, and businesses. Working with the Media Research Center, he created NewsBusters.org in 2005 as the first-ever collaboration between a major Washington policy group and the blogosphere.
In 2006, Sheffield launched "NewsBusted," a twice-weekly fake news comedy show that is one of the most popular political vlogs on the web.
A weekly technology columnist for the Washington Times, Sheffield and his work have been quoted and cited by every major American newspaper and cable news channel.
Matthew Yglesias is senior editor at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. He holds a BA in philosophy from Harvard University. His first book, Heads in the Sand, was published in May 2008 by Wiley. Yglesias previously worked as an associate editor at The Atlantic, as a staff writer at The American Prospect and as an associate editor at Talking Points Memo. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, the Guardian, Slate, The Washington Monthly, and other publications. Yglesias has appeared on Fox News and MSNBC and has been a guest on many radio shows.
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