DAVID MATHISON

David Mathison is a media consultant, speaker, entrepreneur, and publisher of BE THE MEDIA (10/07). From 1998-2002 he was founder and CEO of the Kinecta Corporation, a syndication services provider for publishers including Reuters, the Financial Times, the Economist, Fidelity Investments, and Yahoo. Kinecta is now part of Oracle. From 1994-1999, Mathison was Vice President with Reuters, the world’s largest news agency, where he pioneered standards-based online syndication. He serves on the Boards of the Media Freedom Foundation, The Mountain Play, and Webhood, and served on the Board of Conveners for the Marin Community Media Center. Mathison received a Masters degree in International Affairs from Columbia University in 1995.

MARTIN ANAYA

Martin Anaya is a filmmaker, business owner and community media executive. He specializes in "Media Convergence", a multi-disciplinary strategy using various platforms to deliver unified communications and marketing messages.

Mr. Anaya is the Executive Director of Pacifica Community Television (PCT), founded in 1963. In just three short years, Martin directed the largest transition in the station's history with the implementation of video server, V.O.D. and streaming technologies plus public education on their use. In addition to being one of the nations oldest stations, PCT is now a modern 21st century Community Media Center.

Martin is also current president of the Northern California Film Foundation and executive director of The Sacramento International Film Festival. With innovative programs like "Current Visions", a joint venture with international cable channel "Current TV", the festival gives filmmakers opportunities beyond the traditional live event and serves as the perfect example for 'Media Convergence'.

Mr. Anaya owns a private media consulting Business (Anaya Media) creating TV programs, films and new media for a select group of clients. Mr. Anaya's philosophy is to expand reach and democratize the playing field for small businesses, non-profit organizations and individuals wishing to communicate important messages in the current media landscape.

JAY APRIL

Jay April is President/ CEO of Akaku: Maui Community Television and an experienced national cable television expert with a specialty in telecommunications policy, cable regulation and community programming. One of the pioneers of the PEG access concept in the United States, and a founding member of ACM, April is today helping to lead a statewide media justice movement to protect Hawaii's community access centers from derelict agency regulation and a corrupt campaign to subject PEG access to an illegal RFP process. A prolific videographer, April has produced, directed, written and shot hundreds of television segments and commercial spots in a variety of genres. He was also responsible for the successful start up of E! Entertainment Television as founding producer. His documentaries about ecology and American culture have been called, "prolific and passionate" by The Wall Street Journal, "poignant" by the LA Weekly, and "provocative" by The Los Angeles Times. In recent years, Mr. April has specialized in documentaries about Hawaiian culture.

KATHY BISBEE

Originally from western Maine, Kathy is the executive director of Community Media Access Partnership (CMAP) serving the communities of Gilroy, Hollister and San Juan Bautista, CA. Kathy was previously the director of marketing and development at Community Television of Santa Cruz County.

Currently completing a masters in Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) with a concentration in Public Relations at Golden Gate University in San Francisco, Kathy knows the power of messaging, story and community engagement. As a community organizer in five states for the Public Interest Research Groups (PIRG), Kathy directed issue-oriented campaign offices, advocated for public policy issues, generated press hits, and implemented community engagement strategies. As a director of marketing for Silicon Valley start-ups, Kathy launched regional and national internet communications and digital storytelling products, created marketing campaigns and developed business and community partnerships.

Kathy produced five years of CruzioTV, a monthly technology education program at Community Television in Santa Cruz, CA. Her social documentation projects have been featured in three film festivals and as a 2008 winner of a Hometown Video award. Kathy has credits on many video productions, as producer/director, host, camera operator, line producer, editor and executive producer, including as co-producer on "Cafe Maya," a documentary about agro-ecology, sustainability and community organizing among the Maya of Guatemala. Cafe Maya was recently named as a finalist for the 2008 Western Area Video Awards.

Kathy currently serves on the regional board of the Alliance for Community Media-West, and was an organizer for the Access Without Borders Conference in 2008. When she's not working, driving, on the phone, or editing, Kathy can be found kayaking on the Monterey Bay.

PAUL CONGO

Paul Congo has been active in community and independent media for over thirty-five years. Paul brings experience from previous positions in Colorado, Texas and other states. He has served on the national Board of the Alliance for Community Media and has been an independent videographer and documentarian. He serves as AMP's Executive Director.

BETH MCCONNELL

Ms. McConnell, Executive Director, joined the Media and Democracy Coalition staff in May 2007, and works to link together local, state and national organizations around media reform campaigns and provide strategic back-up support to those efforts. Ms. McConnell has fifteen years of public interest advocacy experience, most recently as the Director of the Pennsylvania Public Interest Research Group (PennPIRG) from 2002 through 2007. During her tenure as Director of PennPIRG, Ms. McConnell led the organization to victories including winning the release of patient safety data from hospitals that can save lives, giving consumers tools to protect their personal information from would-be identity thieves, defeating a plan by the IRS that would have allowed the sale of consumers' tax returns, and expanding health care access to tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians. Ms. McConnell began her public interest career in 1993 as a Citizen Outreach Director with the Fund for Public Interest Research, and has extensive experience working with the media, developing strategic campaign plans, training emerging leaders, policy development and analysis, fundraising, crafting effective messages and coalition building.

RON COOPER

Ron Cooper is the current Treasurer for the ACM Western Region and the Executive Director for Access Sacramento. He has served on the ACM West regional Board for the past 18 years and was awarded the ACM 2003 Buske Award for his regional leadership activities. Access Sacramento manages public access channels 17 & 18 on Sacramento County cable systems (265,000 HH) and "The Voice" community cable radio. Both channels and "The Voice" are streamed 24/7 at www.AccessSacramento.org Celebrating its ninth year, Access Sacramento organizes an annual fundraising event - the "Place Called Sacramento" Film Festival. PCS has now produced 88 short films about the people and places that make the region a great place to live. Films from the past four years are available on-demand at the web site. In addition, Comcast Northern California posts community events, "Hometown-TV", and high school and college sports, "Game of the Week", using their regional "On-Demand" digital service. Access Sacramento facilitates 12-15 new programs per day - "making a difference, one voice at a time".

JASON DANIELS

Jason Daniels is the executive director of Medfield.TV and has been working with video on the web since 2003. He has been involved with the DigitalBicycle project and more recently with Drupal as a tool for furthering community media.

CATHERINE DAY

Catherine Day is Affiliate Distribution Manager for Link TV and its representative in Los Angeles, CA. Link is an independent non-commercial television network dedicated to bringing an international perspective to American audiences, available in 31 million U.S. homes receiving satellite television on DIRECTV channel 375 and DISH Network channel 9410. Select programs are shown on more than 50 urban cable systems, including New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and San Francisco, on many college campus channels and streamed worldwide on the Internet.

Catherine is an environmental and human rights activist committed to fighting for free speech, freedom of information, and of course independent television. By partnering Link TV with PEG channels, Catherine feels she is working in a capacity that embodies the principles of "think globally, act locally." She got a degree in Media Arts from Emerson College and has worked in many areas of media and entertainment. Previously Catherine worked for Partizan, Miramax, Sony, NOVA, Discovery Channel, BBC, and Current TV. She feels lucky to be alive during this digital revolution and enjoys being a part of what she considers to be a renaissance of independent and community oriented media. For more information, visit http://www.linktv.org.

JAY DEDMAN

For the past ten years, Jay Dedman has continued to find new ways to help independent media creators connect into larger, collaborative groups. He began as a writer and producer of local news in Cincinnati and Atlanta. After working at CNN International, he became discouraged with the coverage and worked as a freelance journalist in the Democratic Republic of Congo where he first tried to use the internet to publish video showing how people live in a country at war. Returning to New York, he taught at Manhattan Neighborhood Network. He continued his experiments with publishing video on the web until he found that blogging was the perfect distribution method. In 2004, he cofounded the Yahoo Videoblogging Group and has since collaborated in various online video projects and co-authored the book, Videoblogging. For more info, see www.jaydedman.com

RICHARD DESIMONE

Richard Desimone is station manager of Metuchen’s television facility (METV) in New Jersey. METV is one of the founding members of the Jersey Access Group (JAG), a statewide consortium of PEG facilities. Mr. Desimone has made numerous presentations about JAG and the status of PEG stations throughout the state of New Jersey. Recently he has met with state and federal legislators as part of JAG’s initiatives to successfully insure that the 187 PEG facilities throughout New Jersey are preserved and supported.
Mr. Desimone serves as the Mid-Atlantic Representative to the national board of the Alliance for Community Media and is currently serving as Chair of Chairs. He is also chair of the ACM Server Standards Work Group which has developed standards for video file sharing. Currently he is focused on developing an international community media distribution network that will provide all PEG facilities and the organizations that represent them with the ability to share video content.

PHIL FERRANTE-ROSEBERRY

Phil Ferrante-Roseberry is Executive Vice President of TechSoup Global (Formerly CompuMentor.) TechSoup Global is a recognized leader in bringing technological empowerment and philanthropy to social benefit organizations across the world. Its flagship website, TechSoup.org, serves over 400,000 nonprofit users monthly. TechSoup distributed over $300M worth of technology product donations in 14 countries last year, partnering with many of the world's leading technology corporations.

With extensive experience in the areas of social enterprise and nonprofit/corporate collaborations, Phil strives to develop programs which fit an organization's culture, stay true to its mission, and provide much needed sources of unrestricted capital. A news-junkie and strong advocate of the Commons, Phil is excited to speak with and learn from the PEG world. He lives in Boulder with his wife and two children.

BRIAN HIATT

Brian is the Director of technology at CivicPixel, the web development branch of Denver Open Media. Ever since his first computer and subsequent discovery of several local Bulletin Board Systems (BBS), Brian has been passionate about the evolution of communication. His varied background reflects an ongoing effort to situate himself at the intersection of technology, mass media and localized community development. During college he spent significant time studying computer science, graphic design and foreign languages. In 2005 he graduated summa cum laude in international affairs from CU Boulder. Since his arrival at Deproduction in 2004, Brian has taken on numerous contract & volunteer jobs, including leading the organization through incorporation and application for 501(c)(3) tax exemption, working as grants writer and development director, managing the transition of the organization’s accounting system to Quickbooks, and supporting the organization’s IT needs. In the past year Brian has developed a strong interest in social software and is currently focused on integrating open-source technology and its principles into the operations of Deproduction & Denver Open Media. Brian also runs Civic Pixel, a web development firm that works with small profits and small businesses dedicated to positive change.

JEFFERY HIROTA

Jeffrey Hirota joined The Denver Foundation in 2003, where he now serves as Vice President of Programs. Previously, he was Director of Brand Development at KMGH, the ABC affiliate television station in the Denver market. Mr. Hirota was an independent documentary producer and, immediately before joining KMGH, was Executive Director of the Five Points Media Center - a community media center serving women, people of color, and the economically disadvantaged. He has also worked in television and feature film production in Nashville, Boston and Los Angeles. Mr. Hirota has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in film production from New York University and a Master of Divinity degree from the School of Theology at Claremont. He lives in Denver with his wife and daughters.

LISA HORNER

Lisa is currently the Training Director for Access Tucson. She is also a member of the Western States Alliance for Community Media regional board. She has worked extensively with youth in many programs including projects in Ecuador and Brazil as well as on-going youth projects at Access Tucson. She has worked on several media literacy projects through Access Tucson and in partnership with the University of Arizona and Arizona State University and helped conduct media training for teachers throughout the state. Her passion is to help individuals tell their own stories in their own words.

JAMES HORWOOD

James Horwood is a partner in the Washington, D.C law firm of Spiegel & McDiarmid. Jim has represented clients on a wide range of energy, communications, and postal rate matters for over 40 years. He represents municipal and cooperative electric distribution systems, associations of such systems, municipal joint action agencies, and generation and transmission cooperatives in energy matters, as well as advising cities and non-profit organizations on communications issues.

With respect to communications issues, Jim advises local governments on all aspects of communications law. These include work for cities considering municipal ownership and operation of communications systems, construction and ownership of infrastructure, including fiber optic systems, and issues that arise under video franchising, including those in connection with renewal, transfer, enforcement and rate regulation. This work often concerns questions involving interpretation and application of federal communications law, the U.S. Constitution (particularly the First Amendment), federal and state antitrust laws, and utility regulatory laws.

In addition to representation of cities, Jim has served on the Board of Directors of the Alliance for Community Media as Special Appointee, Legal Affairs since 1990, and provides advice to organizations that manage access and community media centers and to others interested in promoting the use of public, educational and governmental access. He has represented such organizations before the U.S. Congress and state legislatures considering legislation dealing with video franchising issues and before the Federal Communications Commission and in court proceedings.

STEVE ISRAELSKY

Steve Israelsky is the Vice President of Broadcast Sales at Tightrope Media Systems. Prior to Tightrope, he was the VP of Sales at Princeton Server Group. He has also consulted for a number of broadcast and communications technology companies including Vela Research, Cauldron Solutions, AdExact, Navic Networks and the Broadway Television Network. A great deal of Mr. Israelsky's career has been spent in the cable television industry where he helped launch the International Channel Networks, The Sci-Fi Channel, and was also director of national accounts for USA Networks and a regional vice president at Fox Family Channel. And yes, he has a background in PEG, having been the first executive director of Arlington Community Television in VA, and the first public access coordinator in Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley and Westminster, CA.

CHAD A. JOHNSTON

Mr. Johnston is an Antioch College graduate in Communications and Theater with a focus on social change. He has worked in various media reform movements and activities ranging from PEG Access, free/pirate and LPFM radio, Indymedia, and community television. He has served as Executive Director for TPC for the last four and a half years. He has also served as a Board Member for the Alliance for Community Media for the past three years and is currently the South East Regional Representative. During his time at The Peoples Channel, he has grown the organization nearly four times its original size, moved the organization towards new media trends, and has played a key role in advocating for electronic green spaces at the local, state and federal level. He is a staple lecturer for the communications and journalism schools of UNC Chapel Hill and was the recipient of the Independent Weekly’s Citizen of the Year award in 2006 for his work with the state legislature regarding PEG Access and state franchising.

MINJEONG KIM

Minjeong Kim is an assistant professor of Journalism and Technical Communication at Colorado State University. She specializes in media law, copyright law, and First Amendment issues in cyberspace. Her dissertation, completed in 2005 at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was the first scholarly work that explored the uses and users of Creative Commons licenses. She is very much interested in the issues of digital commons and recently served on the Academic Programme Committee of iSummit 2008, the interdisciplinary research workshop on Free Culture.

GREG KNADDISON

Greg Knaddison (greggles) is a dedicated Drupalisto. Shortly after finding Drupal he immediately jumped in with both feet starting a new business, founding and organizing the Drupal Denver/Boulder User Group, joining various drupal.org site teams including the Security Team, and providing patches to Drupal core and contributed modules. More recently he contributed and maintains many important modules, mentored for the Google Summer of Code, edits the development news site DrupalDigest.com, and is a Community Ambassador with the non-profit Drupal Association. Greg is involved with Drupal in almost every way he can be. And he has ajob working with Drupal sites all day. After spreading Drupal love by presenting at 3 Drupalcons, giving demos to countless user group meetups, teaching classes in Drupal, and screencasting the Drupal 6 release videos viewed hundreds of thousands of times, Greg is excited to be an author with 2 Drupal books due in early 2009. http://growingventuresolutions.com

DANIELL KRAWCZYK

Daniell Krawczyk is the National Training Director for TelVue Corporation. He worked for 5 years at Community Media Centers in Grand Rapids, Michigan and Lowell, Massachusetts and was the founder of the first content distribution network for PEG operators, the now-defunct
Digital Bicycle. He serves on the editorial board of the Community Media Review and has spoken on PEG and digital distribution at Harvard Law, regional NATOA conferences, and at pre-YouTube VideoBlogging conferences.

DEB LASTOWKA

Born and raised in the magical town of Springfield, Pennsylvania, Deb moved to Denver in the fall of 2005 and graduated from the University of Denver with a Master's degree in International and Intercultural Communication in the summer of 2007. Deb started working/volunteering with Deproduction/Denver Open Media during the summer of 2006, and currently coordinates both outreach and educational efforts. She also co-produces the Colorado State House Representative meetings each weekday morning, when the House is in session.  Deb also recently coordinated Denver Open Media's first all-girls media and technology camp, entitled GLAM Camp: Girls Learning About Multimedia.  This camp was documented closely in the hopes that other public access stations and community media centers would want to replicate it at their sites, giving more young women the opportunity to learn valuable production skills and what is possible for them in the realm of creative technoloigies.  Deb enjoys film, traveling, watching videos, finding new websites, discovering new vegetarian delights and co-producing her own public access TV show, The Key of D, which can be viewed on channel 56 every Tuesday night around 9:30ish.

JESSE LERMAN

Currently, Jesse is the Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, at TelVue. Jesse co-founded Princeton Server Group (PSG) in 2003 as President & Chief Executive Officer with the vision of lowering the cost and simplifying digital video appliances and systems by leveraging the rapid advances in the PC industry. After Princeton Server Group was acquired by TelVue Corporation in 2007, Jesse assumed the responsibilities of Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for the combined companies.

Prior to PSG, Lerman was Director of Software at VoD pioneer, DIVA Systems Corporation, where he led the commercial release of three generations of high-performance, low latency media server software products and large-scale Video-On-Demand (VOD) systems for the cable market. Video servers developed by Lerman's team served over two million subscribers of AT&T (now Comcast), Charter, and Insight's cable television systems, making DIVA the VOD market leader.

Lerman's professional engineering career began at Sarnoff Real Time Corporation. He was one of the original members of Sarnoff Real-time’s development team that commercialized the Princeton Engine technology for VoD and deployed the first VoD system in a Motorola head-end. Lerman holds seven U.S. patents in Video-on-Demand and video servers.

Jesse graduated with honors from Princeton University, where he received his degree in Electrical Engineering.

SARA MASON

Sara Mason is a Key Accounts Executive for LEIGHTRONIX, INC. Over the past five years, Sara has been a vital member of the LEIGHTRONIX sales team, working directly with customers, consultants, and product resellers to provide local cable television operators with affordable digital television solutions. Sara has also provided invaluable service in her role as a training specialist, helping customers streamline and upgrade their system operations with LEIGHTRONIX video server and television automation products as well as Web and dynamic content-based services. Along with the Alliance for Community Media, Sara has shared her expertise with many television broadcast organizations, addressing and presenting emerging trends and technologies in the video industry.

DONALD POLLOCK

Don is a professor of Communications at the University of La Verne in southern California. He also serves as Station Manager for LVTV-3, La Verne Community Television. Don is an active video producer with over 200 credits as writer/ producer/director to his name. Don's work has won awards from the Alliance for Community Media, the Broadcast Education Association, the American Film Institute, the Telly, Pegasus and others. Don has been involved in community media since 1990.

JESSEMYN REID

Jessemyn is currently Digital Media Manager for Access Humboldt in Eureka California, an independent video producer and documentarian. As a founding board member turned employee at Access Humboldt he is proud to help lead the way to build Access Humboldt as a leader for community access and education in the areas of technology, media use, and creation.

KEVIN REYNEN

He is the Senor Developer at CivicPixel, the web-development branch of Denver Open Media. Kevin is new to Denver Open Media and Public Access, but not to web development. Kevin has been using technology to solve problem for more than 10 years, bouncing between start-ups and academic environments. His recent web work at the Reynolds School of Journalism was recognized with an Honorable Mention from the Knight-Batten Awards for Innovative Journalism and an Online Journalism Award from the Online News Association.

MARKUS SANDY

I'm a software developer, videoblogger and teacher. I work primarily with Drupal and WordPress on sites like Ourmedia.org, HaveMoneyWillVlog.com and ShowInABox.tv. I helped organize the first Los Angeles DrupalCamp. My wife Alicia and I are fortunate to live and work at the magical Ojai Digital Dojo, where we create community websites and teach workshops on open media, podcasting and community building. I also work with Outhink Media on their SpinXpress, peer-to-peer, collaboration tool that helps teams of video producers find and publish Creative Commons licensed media on the Internet Archive, Flickr and other sites. Occasionally, I get to teach videoblogging for Santa Barbara public access channels 17 & 21. I'm also an advisor to the DigitalOcean project at UC Santa Barbara.

TONY SHAWCROSS

Tony Shawcross is the founder and executive director of Deproduction. After working briefly in marketing and advertising for the IT industry before leaving to focus entirely on community media, technology and participatory production work with Little Voice Productions, the Colorado State House of Representatives, the Pan African Arts Society and Free Speech TV. Shawcross has led more than 100 media education courses with Indymedia, Denver Open Media, and presented at various conferences, schools and universities. He has produced hundreds of films and videos for local and national television, film festivals and community screenings.

CYNTHIA THOMET

Cynthia Thomet is the communications director at Akaku: Maui Community Television, whose primary role is to ensure that all internal and external communications advance the organization's core mission. In a county that boasts the lowest voter turnout in the United States and also strong grassroots activism for social and environmental justice issues, coming up with effective public awareness-raising initiatives is what Cynthia finds most exciting and challenging about her work. Prior to Akaku, Cynthia lived in Washington D.C. where she developed and implemented communications strategies for nonprofits. From legislators and lobbyists, to lawyers and death row inmates, Cynthia cut her teeth working elbow to elbow with a variety of people on behalf of numerous causes. She is honored to have worked with some of the country's most talented and creative individuals, including a Nobel laureate and a founder of E! Entertainment Television. Cynthia holds a Master's in Public Relations from Boston University College of Communication and a Bachelor's in French Language and Literature.

CLAUDE TURCOTTE

Claude Turcotte, president and CEO of MaestroVision, will give us its point of view on the subject. Mr Turcotte studied electric engineering and as an MBA degree from Concordia University in Montreal Canada. He has more 30 years experience in the Broadcast industry and Access Stations industry. He recently made a survey in the access station market in the USAs in order to understand their problems and find a real solution.

RUTH WILLIAMS

Ruth Williams is a Community Investment Officer at ZeroDivide. Ms. Williams is responsible for a portfolio of media-related social justice grants and the Hip hop Initiative that strengthens families and empowers young people through the use of information and communications technologies. A Bay Area resident since 1997, she has nonprofit, business and government experience including Deputy Director of Young Community Developers in San Francisco, a variety of San Francisco City and County positions, including Director of Operations for the Mayor's office and Senior Project Manager at the Department of Elections.

DEBORAH VINSEL

Deborah Vinsel has been a member of the Alliance for Community Media for 25 years. She has served on the boards of the Central States, Western Region, and Northwest Region as well as two terms on the Alliance National Board. In 1999, Deborah received the Buske Leadership Award in recognition of her commitment to the organization. She has been the Hometown Video Awards coordinator since 2003 and recently completed her work as the Interim Executive Director for the Alliance. Deborah has worked in community media since 1983. She is the Executive Director at Thurston Community Television in Olympia, WA, a position she has held since 1990.

Daniel Weinshenker is the Director of Denver Office for the Center for Digital Storytelling and has been telling stories and teaching others to tell stories for more than ten years professionally. He taught creative writing for three years while working on his MA at CU Boulder and then spent the next few years in marketing and advertising, helping companies deliver their messages. Though he's not a therapist, his mother is. Doesn't that count for something?

Daniel has been working with the Center for Digital Storytelling for the past five years teaching workshops around the world and opened up the Denver office to focus on work based in Colorado. Through this center he's focused his work on marginalized youth and health-related applications of digital storytelling, and in conjunction with the University of Colorado, developed the first accredited certificate course in digital storytelling.