Expert Commentators: Citizen Media - A Global Innovation Competition

Meet our Expert Commentators who are doing great work in the sector and sharing their insights, expertise and feedback with competition entrants.
 

Kara Andrade - Ashoka Fellow
 

Kara Andrade is an Ashoka fellow working in Central America. Previously she was funded by the U.S. State Department to implement a mobile-based citizen journalism website called HablaGuate. She was the community organizer for Spot.Us, an open source project that focuses on community-funded reporting. She graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a Master’s in Journalism and has ten years of experience in nonprofit development, public health and community organizing. She has worked as a multimedia producer and photojournalist for Agence France-Presse, France 24, the Associated Press, the San Jose Mercury News, Contra Costa Times and the Oakland Tribune.
 

Juliana Rotich - Co-Founder and Executive Director, Ushahidi
 

Juliana Rotich is Co-Founder and Executive Director of Ushahidi Inc, a non-profit tech company, born in Africa, which specializes in developing free and open source software for information collection, interactive mapping and data curation. Ushahidi builds tools for democratizing information, increasing transparency and lowering the barriers for individuals to share their stories. Through Crowdmap.com, Swiftly.org and accompanying mobile applications, Ushahidi is expanding its global footprint and making crowdsourcing tools available and useful.

Juliana has worked in the telecommunications and data warehousing industry for over ten years. She is originally from Kenya, with a Computer Science degree from the University of Missouri, Kansas City. She is a Technologist, African Futurist and TED Senior Fellow. She co-founded Mobisoko, a mobile marketplace for language and location relevant apps in Africa. She speaks at international conferences about technology, innovation, mobile technology, open source, and Africa. Past conferences she has spoken at include Lift, DEMO, TTI Vanguard, TransMediale, WSIS, DLD Women, Guardian Activate World Economic Forum -Davos, and ARS Electronica. She believes in the transformational power of technology to address social problems in the world, particularly in Africa. She was named one of the Top 100 women by the Guardian newspaper and top 2 women in Technology 2011, and Social Entrepreneur of the year 2011 by The World Economic Forum.
 


Anoush Rima Tatevossian - Strategic Communications Officer, UN Global Pulse
 

Anoush Rima Tatevossian is the Strategic Communications Officer for UN Global Pulse, an innovation initiative in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General at the United Nations. Previously, she was Director of Projects and Partnerships for MobileActive.org - the leading global network and clearinghouse on the use of mobile technology for social impact.

She is particularly interested in how new media and ICTs can provide a platform for communities to participate in global civil society and dialogue, and is pleased to serve as Co-Chair on the New Media Roundtable for the 2010 U.S. Summit on Citizen Diplomacy. Anoush Rima holds a B.A. from the College of William & Mary, and is a graduate of the USC Master of Public Diplomacy program. She was the first Editor-in-Chief of Public Diplomacy Magazine, launched in 2009.
 

Katherine Maher - Consultant in Technology for International Development, World Bank
 

Katherine Maher is a consultant in technology for international development and democratization. She is currently working with the World Bank on ICT for accountability and governance. Her work focuses on the role of mobile phones and other technologies in facilitating civil society and institutional reform, particularly in the Middle East and Africa. She has worked with digital activists and leaders in the events in Tunisia and Egypt, as well as reformists in other Middle Eastern countries, and was recently recognized by Foreign Policy magazine as a noted curator and analyst of breaking news in Egypt.

Prior to joining the World Bank, Katherine was at the National Democratic Institute, where she oversaw a variety of projects related to human rights and democracy, including programs on Internet Freedom in repressive regimes around the world. Before NDI, Katherine was with UNICEF Innovation, where she managed projects using mobile phones for health service delivery and digital security risks in the developing world.

 


Adam Baker - Founder, Blottr.com
 

Adam is a technology entrepreneur based in London, UK. Adam started his career straight out of school and did not attend higher education or university. Later in life, at the age of 28, Adam completed an MA in Digital Media from the London Metropolitan University. At 23, Adam was the UK's youngest publisher, responsible for a large media division for United Business Media before venturing out on his own and starting his first company.

Adam has founded 3 internet companies, including his current business, Blottr.com. His previous companies are product comparison site NewNew.co.uk and the UEP group, a niche vertical search company.

Adam founded Blottr.com in August 2010. Blottr is a user generated news service that enables anyone to capture, report, collaborate and discover news as they witness it, on mobile and web. In a relatively short period of time, Blottr has been the catalyst for citizen journalism in the UK, becoming the fastest growing news service in Europe. Adam is aged 37, a competitive mixed martial artist, a causal cook and a hopeless DIY enthusiast.
 

Keith H. Hammonds - Director, Ashoka’s News & Knowledge initiative
 

Keith Hammonds is director of Ashoka’s News & Knowledge initiative, a program funded by the Knight Foundation to identify, seed, and connect emerging media leaders – social entrepreneurs whose innovations promise to better inform and engage change-making citizens around the world.

Hammonds most recently was executive editor at Fast Company magazine, where he helped shape editorial strategy across the magazine—and where he co-founded the Fast Company/Monitor Group Social Capitalist Awards. Over eight years, he wrote many of Fast Company’s defining articles, including: “Why We Hate HR,” “Balance is Bunk,” “Size is not a Strategy,” and “The New Face of Global Competition.”

Hammonds also has been a bureau chief and editor for BusinessWeek in Boston and New York; a writer for The New York Times in London and Johannesburg; a consultant to New Nation in Johannesburg; director of an emergency food distribution program in Namibia; and (currently) coach of the Firebolts, a fearsome girls soccer team. 
 

Hilmi Quraishi - Ashoka Fellow, Co-Founder and Director of Social Initiatives of ZMQ
 

Hilmi Quraishi pioneers in using mobile phones in low resource settings. He specializes in developing system changing solutions for sustainable development through 'Mobile for Development' initiative by connecting the unreached. Having developed many innovative solutions, from life saving cell phone games to m-Health care, support & treatment systems, Hilmi has demonstrated how these solutions can run successfully. Under another initiative 'Mobile for All', he is advocating for Universal Right to connectivity as a 'Right to Life', for delivering lifeline services to all.
 

Zack Brisson - Founder, Reboot 
 

Zack’s work focuses on creating transformative governance solutions in the fields of government and civic media. He specializes in new forms of political engagement and organizational innovation. Prior to founding Reboot, Zack led digital efforts for the Center for American Progress’ Enough Project, the campaign to end human rights abuse in Africa through innovative advocacy and policy solutions. His work led to the passage of landmark bipartisan human rights legislation relating to the trade in conflict minerals. His work on political accountability for public figures earned the public comment of both President Obama and Steve Jobs.

Zack began his career at the National Geographic Society. He launched the Society’s award-winning international retail platform from Barcelona and helped drive its corporate sustainability efforts in consumer products. He also chaired the Society’s innovation think tank, focusing on new media markets, organizational innovation, and expanded audience inclusion. Through this work he led development of National Geographic’s first social media platform, ‘My NatGeo’. Zack’s conference and media appearances have focused on the role of information technology in participatory public policy and democratic transformation. His work has been featured in the New York Times, ABC Nightly News, CNN, The Hill, Roll Call and numerous other outlets.
 

Lindsay Clinton - Researcher and Development Strategist, SustainAbility
 

Lindsay is a researcher and development strategist at SustainAbility, a hybrid think tank/ consultancy with offices in New York, Delhi and London. Her consulting portfolio includes companies within finance, technology, and healthcare sectors across the themes of innovation, access, and new market entry. Lindsay’s research and thought leadership focus on business opportunities in low-income markets, the challenges and opportunities of urbanization, and social innovation. Prior to joining SustainAbility, Lindsay worked at the social investment advisory firm, Intellecap, in Mumbai, India. She managed the company’s research and publications, including the launch and development of the social enterprise magazine Beyond Profit. 

Lindsay has been published in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, GOOD Magazine, and MINT. She is a frequent panelist and moderator at conferences focused on social enterprise, impact investing, and development innovation. Previously, she was the Director of Social Innovation for the Young Leaders Forum at the Indian Merchant Chambers. Lindsay is a graduate of the University of Virginia where she studied English Literature.
 

Jayanthi Daniel - Content and UX Specialist, Africa.com
 

Jayanthi K. Daniel comes to Africa.com from the position of online editor for food publication SAVEUR Magazine. She oversaw a content and design re-launch in 2009, and spearheaded the brand’s first social media strategy which produced a 600 percent increase in Twitter followers in February 2010.

Prior to joining Africa.com, Ms. Daniel was also a content specialist for Churnless, a digital strategy firm consisting of designers, engineers and communications strategists. The firm builds new sites and helps small business sites connect with a broader network of investors and partners, all in the name of doing good work and giving web users good products and helpful service. Her first job out of school was at the now-defunct New York Sun newspaper, where she was the dining and wine editor, as well as an associate sports editor. Ms. Daniel graduated from Columbia University in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in English, and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, earning her M.S. in 2005.

 

Beatriz Solís Leree

 

Beatriz Solís Leree is Professor in the career of Social Communication at the Universidad Autónoma de México (Autonomous University of Mexico UNAM). Between 2001 and 2006 she was an adviser to the Communications and Transportation Commissions of the Republic of Mexico Senate. From 1998 to 2001 she was Advisor to the Commission on Radio, Television and Cinematography of the House of Representatives. From 1993 to 1995 she was the Research Director of the Mexican Radio Institute (IMER), Member of Channel 22 Planning Council (1990 to 1999). She has taught courses on Curriculum Design and Evaluation, Radio and TV, Communication Law and Public Policy at various universities in Mexico and Latin America.

These are some of her publications: Right to Information. UAM 1984), Television in Latin America, Institute National del' Audiovisuel (Paris, 1993). Latin American Television Series. Mexico. Media Communications Branch. (Washington, March, 1990.). Parliamentary Encyclopedia of Mexico. Series I Volume I Volume IV. CA Chapter The legal framework of social communication policies. Porrua. (Mexico 1997). Una Historia que si suena. 25 años de la radio metropolitana (A history with a Sound: 25 years of metropolitan radio), Commemorative book of the Association of Broadcasters of the Valley of Mexico (Mexico 1998). Coauthor of No más medios a medias (No more halfway media) Ebert Sox Foundation. AMARC / AMEDI. 2001) and Con permiso (With a permit) Community radio in Mexico Frierich Ed Ebert Foundation / AMARC / AMEDI. 2005.

Also Beatriz is a member of several editorial boards, honorary member of the Mexican Association of Researchers (AMIC), a founding member of the National Council for Education and Science Research Communication. CONEICC member of the Advisory Board of the American Association of Communication Researchers. ALAIC., Founder of the Mexican Association of Right to Information (Chair 2000/2007) and currently coordinator of international affairs.
 

Martin Rubino
 

Martin Rubino is Google’s marketing manager for large advertisers and agencies in Argentina. He joined Google three years ago, spending his first two years in the company analysing market and consumer trends to help Google’s largest clients in Argentina to succeed online. Prior to Google, Martin worked as a management consultant at Bain & Company in Sao Paulo, participating in several projects covering different industries in Argentina, Brazil and the United States.

Martin graduated with honors from Universidad de Buenos Aires (Argentina) with a bachelor’s degree in Business; he also earned a master’s degree in Marketing and Communications from Universidad de San Andres.
 

José Cáceres Monié
 

José Cáceres Monié holds a degree in business administration from Universidad Torcuato Di Tella (UTDT). He also participated in an exchange program at École des Hautes Études Commerciales (HEC Paris).

He is working at Google as an Advertising Operations Associate. This basically involves working with long tail advertisers and helping them to get the most out of their spending in AdWords. Moreover, he is actively involved in charity activities organized by Google, such as Google Serve.

Before joining Google, José was part of a team which represented Argentina in the contest L´oréal Brandstorm, which involved creating, developing and communicating a new line of products for the company. The team´s project was recognized with the second prize worldwide.
 

Oscar Espiritusanto. Journalist & Professor. PeriodismoCiudadano.com, Founder
 

Oscar Espiritusanto has been teaching at various master courses, in different universities and corporate training organisations in Spain and Latam, e.g. Unidad Editorial Conferencias y Formación, in Madrid, and Universidad Mayor, in Chile.

Oscar is the founder and head of PeriodismoCiudadano.com (that literally stands for ‘Citizen Journalism’ in Spanish) is an observatory focused on citizen journalism and all its social and technological elements, i.e. mobile journalism, readers’ participation, cyberactivism, etc. The goal of the project is to disseminate and promote this phenomenon in the Spanish-speaking world; hence members of our team are training citizen journalists, and implementing new initiatives, as well as the are actively collaborating in (master) courses, workshops, conferences etc.

He is also the President of the Asociación Comunicación Ciudadana (Citizenship Communication Association), whose broad goal is the promotion, and development of all kind of initiatives contributing to the development of citizen media, and especially their best social and individual usages. Oscar has been an agent of Technological Innovation for Madrid Regional Government; he was an advisor and consultant at CDT Internet.net (Media Center for Technology); and he has worked as head of marketing and communication for different Internet startups. He is currently CEO for Khaos Punto, a company devoted to Social Media and ‘Communication 2.0’ delivering advisory and consulting services.
 

Shiv Bhaskar Dravid
 

Shiv Bhaskar Dravid, 25, is the founder and creator of The Viewspaper - Citizen Journalism based Youth Media Company. Shiv was inspired to take action when he realized that his own daily experiences were quite different from the observations and discussions amongst media elites. Today The Viewspaper runs a number of papers including www.theviewspaper.net, www.theviewspaper.co.uk , www.youthonads.com, www.youthonhealth.com, www.youthoncareers.com, www.youthonpets.com, www.youthongadgets.com, www.shrirammag.com and www.soilmag.com. It is read by more than 150,000 young people a month and engages close to 6,000 young writers and 149,000 Facebook fans in sharing their views and opinions and has emerged as India’s largest youth paper.

Shiv was one of the 8 winners of the Staples Ashoka Youth Social Entrepreneur Competition in November 2010. He was recently made an IMF fellow and represented the Indian youth perspective at the IMF World Bank Spring meetings in Washington DC in April 2011. He will be representing the Indian youth again at the IMF World Bank Annual Meetings to be held in September 2011. He was also invited by the US department of state and UNESCO to share the youth perspective at the World Press Freedom Day 2011 at Washington DC. He is a part of the speakers club of the National Entrepreneur Network (NEN) and launched the entrepreneurship cell of IMT Ghaziabad. He regularly speaks at various marketing and corporate events.
 

Anshul Tewari
 

Anshul Tewari is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of YouthKiAwaaz.com (YKA), which is an online platform for young people to express themselves on issues of importance. His work experience cuts across new media and online journalism. He is a writer, speaker, journalist and a first generation entrepreneur. Anshul has successfully made YouthKiAwaaz.com India’s number 1 youth portal with around 1.2 million readers every month, and over 600 volunteer journalists from around the world.

He has extensive experience in youth journalism, new media and how to mobilize and engage young people in participatory and collaborative journalism to have a larger impact on a mass audience. Along with his Editorial Board, he also conceptualized and launched the YKA Online Journalism internship program, which is arguably India’s most popular and sought after work-from-home internship program, as it offers young people a path to be a part of the change while engaging in journalism and new media, from anywhere around the world. Previously, Anshul has worked with few of the best Indian and international news media organizations, namely, The Indian Express, The Financial Express and The Wall Street Journal. He has also been a part of various social enterprises such as The Global March Against Child Labour and AIESEC.

He is currently working on his next start-up, Youth Research India, which will be India’s first youth research platform.
 

Naveen Naqvi
 

Naveen Naqvi is Co-Founder and Executive Director of Gawaahi ('witnessing' in Urdu), a Pakistan-based non-government organisation that produces digital stories of abuse, survival and resistance for awareness and advocacy campaigns. Previously, she was Senior Anchor and morning news presenter at DawnNews, Pakistan's first English language channel. Before that she was Producer Pakistan for NBC News and online contributor for MSNBC.com.

As Editor-in-Chief of Gawaahi.com, Naveen has been tackling controversial women's human rights issues such as pregnancy-related disabilities caused by inadequate medical care, rape and domestic violence. Partly crowd-sourced, the site has hosted personal accounts of child sexual abuse survival, unjust labour practices and persecution on the basis of religion. With an aim to encourage political engagement in young Pakistanis, she has created videos that offer technical, editorial and ethical guidance to aspiring citizen journalists.
 

Ethan Zuckerman
 

Ethan Zuckerman is the newly-appointed Director of MIT Center for Civic Media, and co-founder of Global Voices. Since 2003, Ethan has worked with the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, on projects focused on civic media, freedom of speech online and understanding media ecosystems. Prior his time at Berkman, he founded Geekcorp a non-profit technology volunteer corps that has done work in over a dozen countries, and helped found Tripod, an early participatory media company.

- Ethan observes an increase in supply of information even as the demand for it remains low. Among other things, he raises the challenge of supporting a media that is capable of listening to people's voices.
 

Gabriel Francis
 

Gabriel Francis is a Sales Engineer at Google, specializing in Website Analytics. Since joining Google in 2006 he has devoted much of his free time to help organizations like the United Nations Peacekeeping, Grameen America, and Kiva improve their websites to achieve maximum reach and impact of their messages.

Gabe was born in sunny California but inherited his southern charm from a childhood spent in rural Kentucky. In college at the University of California Irvine, Gabe juggled Economics and Computer Science coursework while competing in varsity Rowing, serving as UC Senate student representative, and studying abroad in Barcelona, Spain. After graduation Gabe worked for a small tech start-up before taking time off to circumnavigate the globe. It was on that trip, while teaching English at a Thai schoolhouse on the border of Myanmar, that he became inspired to improve education opportunities for impoverished communities. Recently Gabe took a sabbatical from Google to work as a Kiva Fellow in southern Costa Rica, where he witnessed first hand the impact of micro-finance loans on impoverished agricultural entrepreneurs. He is currently based between New York and Buenos Aires, Argentina where he is helping Google scale their Latin America operations.
 

Adam Waltuch
 

Adam Waltuch holds a Business Management degree from Universidad de San Andres and works as an Advertising Operations Associate at Google Argentina. He serves long tail customers across Latin America, helping them develop their business with online advertising tools. He focuses on building campaigns that can build awareness among their customers and help them grow. He works with customers from many different industries.

Prior to joining Google, Adam worked as a consultant in a consulting company with offices in Buenos Aires, New York and London. Together with a team of other professionals, he helped some of the most important companies in the world to develop their business strategies.
 

Ambika Aggarwal
 

Ambika Aggarwal is an Account Manager at Google’s healthcare sales division. She helps pharmaceutical manufacturers understand key industry trends, and how advertising on Google can help them reach patients and physicians at the right time.

She is particularly interested in examining the integration of Personal Health Records with Electronic Medical Records. Although portals like Google Health have come and go, she believes the trend towards this unified system is certainly going to be an upcoming focus given the surge in Healthcare costs and the need for increased transparency. Ambika holds a B.A in Economics from Northwestern University.
 

Shital Chheda
 

Shital Chheda is a Senior Account Executive for Google’s Midwest Travel team based in Chicago. He manages Google’s relationship with many of the top travel firms, and his main role is to help these companies develop and strengthen their overall online presence and to use Google tools and platforms effectively to help achieve their marketing goals. Prior to Google, Shital held many roles within Texas Instruments’ semiconductor sales organization. Most recently, he was a Global Sales Account Manager, where he managed a global sales team and the company’s overall business with Motorola Solutions.

Shital has an MBA degree with distinction from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and BS and MS degrees in Computer & Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech.

 

Mike Schwimmer
 

Mike Schwimmer works at Google as a publisher solutions consultant helping clients implement Google/Doubleclick publisher products. Mike partners with Google's sales and account management teams to assist large publishers setting their sales strategy and business processes while implementing Doubleclick publisher products. Prior to Google, Mike worked at Yahoo where he worked on the Right Media Ad Exchange as a solutions analyst. Mike was the primary technical contact for Right Media exchange clients which included advertisers, ad networks, ad agencies, publishers and data providers. Mike also worked closely with Yahoo's Legal and Policy teams to continually improve Right Media's demand and supply quality capabilities and provided input to product and engineering teams to plan future releases. Prior to Yahoo, Mike worked as a product manager at UBS focusing on Legal and Compliance IT applications and as a consultant at Accenture in the solutions integration and technology group focused on SAP implementations. Mike is a graduate of George Washington University with a degree in Computer Science and a minor in business. Outside of work Mike loves to travel, ski, play golf and compete in half-marathons and triathlons and will run his first marathon in November at the NYC marathon.
 

Kariyushi Casper
 

Kariyushi Casper currently works as an Affiliate Strategist in Google's pay-for-performance advertising product, Google Affiliate Network. As a member of the Affiliate Operations team, Kariyushi designs custom intelligence reporting for both internal and external clients. She also specializes in process improvement and works with internal teams to standardize, streamline (and often, outsource) administrative and manual processes to increase efficiency. As part of her current role, Kariyushi oversees a team of contractors in Google's Hyderabad, India, office. Kariyushi is working towards an MBA in Managerial and Organizational Behavior at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where she is a mentor in the Chicago Business Fellows Program for new students zero to three years out of undergrad. Kariyushi is a Stanford Certified Project Manager, a professional certificate she earned from the Stanford Center of Professional Development in 2009. She received a B.A. in Government (International Relations) and Romance Languages (French and Spanish) from Bowdoin College in 2007.
 

Tosca Santoso
 

Tosca Santoso founded Indonesia’s first independent radio news agency in 1999. He started with a team of seven, who produced 15 minutes of news for seven radio stations each day. KBR68H is now Indonesia’s largest radio network, with daily transmission of eight hours of news over 720 radio stations to 22 million listeners. Santoso is producing and disseminating information on “sensitive” topics such as good governance and human rights. To engage the public in the discussed topic, he offers toll-free phone lines and text messaging.

Santoso and KBR68H radio news agency was awarded The 2008-2009 King Baudouin International Development Prize and 2010 Knight International Journalism Award for strengthening democracy, tolerance and citizen participation as well as promoting good media ethics.
 

Tomás Insua
 

Tomás Insua works at Google with Latinamerican customers in the long tail. He is Co-founder and Director of YoQuieroSaber.org, an online platform where presidential candidates in Argentina upload contents to be known by the citizens, and is a Coordinator and Board Member at the nonprofit Potencialidades, a nonprofit attending 800 children and youth in Buenos Aires´ slums.

Previously, he worked in Deloitte and in a research project about "Social Enterprise Hybrids" together with Ashoka and ENI-DiTella. He also was General Coordinator of Acción Social DiTELLA, a student-run social project, and he gladly failed launching two social enterprises that could not take off: I2S -Instituto de Impactometría Social-, a student organization to quantify the impact of nonprofits; and DaUnaMano.org, a project with Idealist.org to promote volunteering. Tomás holds a B.A. in Business Economics, and is a M.A. Candidate in Public Policy, earning both degrees at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella (Argentina). He is a Fulbright scholar.
 

Dr. Yanuar Nugroho - Research Fellow, Manchester Institute of Innovation Research
 

Dr. Yanuar Nugroho is a senior researcher working on innovations and social change, sustainability, civil society and third sector, and knowledge dynamics. Dr. Nugroho is a Research Fellow at the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research (MIoIR/PREST), and he works at the Centre for Development Informatics (CDI). Dr. Nugroho was awarded Outstanding Academic of the Year 2009 by Manchester Business School.
 

Magdalena Zettl - Online Media Consultant, Google
 

Magdalena is working as an Online Media Consultant in Google. She works especially with small & medium seized enterprises and helps them improve their online marketing performance. Magdalena is also involved in developing and giving sales & product trainings within Google. Besides her core job, she supports the Google Grants team, an in-kind donation programme for NGOs.

Previous to her job in Google, Magdalena worked in the European Centre for Economic Research (ZEW) and as a German cultural representative in Walt Disney World, Orlando. She also worked for the German Indonesian Chamber of Commerce in Jakarta as a short-term assignment where she helped German companies to establish their business in Indonesia and was involved in the chamber's application for the EU Switch Asia Program. Magdalena holds a degree in cultural studies & business administration from the University of Mannheim, Germany.
 

Carolyn Wendell - Consumer Experience Specialist, Google
 

Carolyn Wendell is a Consumer Experience Specialist at Google for Google.Org products and programs. The three Google.Org projects she works most heavily on are Google for Nonprofits, Crisis Response, and Flu Vaccine Finder. Carolyn focuses on representing the users of these products to the product teams internally, building a user community around these products, and developing user education strategies. From 2009-2010 Carolyn worked as the Consumer Experience Specialist for Google Earth where she designed a community website for teachers who use Google Earth and Maps and launched a help application that resolved a top user issue for Earth users. Before Google, Carolyn lived in Cape Town South Africa where she worked for a nonprofit called Grassroot Soccer - a sport for development organization which focuses on HIV / AIDS prevention. While in South Africa, Carolyn set up a data management system for the organization using Google Docs and co-led Grassroot Soccer's World AIDS Day Event in Kimberley, South Africa in 2009.

 

Dr. Tomoko Kanayama - Komazawa University
 

A professor of Global Media Studies at Komazawa University in Tokyo, Tomoko Kanayama specializes in the study of media utilization to empower the nonprofit organization and local community. She has served on the Advisory Committee for Multimedia Broadcasting for Mobile Device and the Research Group for Future Radio and Media for Local Information at the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Communications. She is also a contributor to the university's Institute for the Mass Communication Research and GMS Laboratory. At the same time she has been closely involved in future planning for community-building and ICT utilization by local government in Japan. She is an author of four books, including Media Strategy for Nonprofit Organization (2005), Community Media (2007) and Social Capital and Civic Society (2007) and number of scholarly articles. She holds Ph.D. and M.A. from Ohio University and M.S. from Syracuse University.