Wharton

Raffi Amit is the Robert B. Goergen Professor of Entrepreneurship and a Professor of Management at the Wharton School. Dr. Amit is the Academic Director of the Goergen Entrepreneurial Management Programs which encompasses all of Wharton's entrepreneurial programs.  He has published extensively in leading academic journals and has served on the editorial boards of the major academic journals in management.   He also has extensive industry and consulting experience, including serving as Chairman of Creo Products, helping to form the Korean Global IT Fund, and serving on the board of Alvarion.

Jonathan Aronson

USC

Michael Arrington

TechCrunch

Michael Arrington is the founder of the Crunch Network and editor of TechCrunch, the leading blog covering new Internet products and companies. He also co-founded Edgeio, a online classified listing startup. Previously, he worked as a corporate lawyer at O’Melveny & Myers and Wilson Sonsini, worked in sales and business development at RealNames, co-founded Achex, which was sold to First Data Corp., and was COO at Razorgator.

Network Architect

Richard Bennett is a network architect, standards engineer, and inventor of Internet-oriented local area network protocols. As vice-chair the IEEE 802.3 1BASE5 task group, he devised the first standard for Ethernet over twisted pair wiring. He contributed the MPDU aggregation scheme to the IEEE 802.11n WiFi standard and the Distributed Reservation Protocol to the WiMedia Ultra-Wideband protocol. Mr. Bennett co-founded the Open Token Foundation, and created one of the first political activist blogs. He testified at the FCC's historic field hearing on broadband management at the Harvard Law School in 2008.

Eric Bonabeau

Icosystem

Eric Bonabeau is one of the world's leading experts in complex systems and distributed adaptive problem solving. His book Swarm Intelligence has been a scientific bestseller for eight years and provided the inspiration for another bestseller, Michael Chrichton's Prey. Eric's commercial experience includes years of research and development in US and European telecommunications and software companies. He sits on the advisory board of a number of Fortune 500 corporations. Eric is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the journals Advances in Complex Systems (World Scientific) and ACM Transactions on Adaptive and Autonomous Systems (ACM Press) and serves as a member of the editorial board of several scientific journals.

Kenneth Carter

wik-Consult GmbH

Kenneth Carter is currently Senior Consultant in wik-Consult GmbH’s newly formed NGN and Internet Economics Department. In advising both private- and public-sector clients, his work applies the principles and tools of Management Science to the process of regulation and rulemaking, bringing both strong legal analysis and a quantitative approach. Prior to joining wik, Mr. Carter was Senior Counsel for Business and Economics at the Federal Communications Commission, and the Deputy Director of the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information (CITI) at Columbia University.

Tantek Celik

tantek.com

Tantek Çelik is the co-founder of microformats.org, and the former Chief Technologist of Technorati. Prior to Technorati, he was a veteran representative to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) for Microsoft, where he also helped lead the development of the award-winning Internet Explorer for Macintosh. Tantek lives in San Francisco, and has Bachelor's and Masters degrees in Computer Science from Stanford University, as well as a strong background in human interface and user centered design from his many years at Apple Computer.

Lili Cheng

Microsoft Research

Lili Cheng is the Group Manager of the Social Computing Group in Microsoft Research. She played a major role in the development of the Virtual Worlds Platform, lead the design and development of HutchWorld a shared space for cancer patients and their support network and she was a key member of the team that created Microsoft V-Chat. Before coming to Microsoft, she worked at Apple Computer in the Human Interface research group. Prior to Apple, Lili was at NYU where she designed the user interface for YORB, a program broadcast tri-weekly on Manhattan cable. Lili is also a registered architect and has worked for the architecture firm Skidmore Owings and Merrill designing urban, public spaces in both Tokyo and Los Angeles.

Kerry Chrapliwy

HP

As senior manager of global initiatives for the Personal Systems Group at HP, Kerry Chrapliwy is responsible for developing engaging consumer experiences that transcend borders and channels. Before joining the Personal Systems Group, Kerry was brand strategist for HP Brand & Global Communications, and held positions at McCann-Erickson Worldwide, Gauthier Marketing, and his own interactive design company.

Elizabeth Churchill

Yahoo! Research

Elizabeth Churchill is a research scientist interested in the design and use of technologies that support communication and connection. Her current work covers areas such as mediated collaboration, mobile connectivity, transmedia technologies, digital archive and memory, and the development of emplaced media spaces. She is currently a Principal Research Scientist at Yahoo! Research, working in the area of Media Experience Research. Until September of 2006, she worked at the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), and before that at FX Palo Alto Laboratory (FXPAL), where she was the leader of the Social Computing Research group.

Jeff Clavier

SofTech VC

Based in Palo Alto (CA), Jean-Francois "Jeff" Clavier is the Founder and Managing Partner of SoftTech VC, a firm doing angel investments and providing consulting services to early stage consumer Internet startups. His current areas of interests include next generation search and discovery, social media and communities, and consumer infrastructure. These are also the primary topics covered in his blogs, Software Only (blog.softtechvc.com in English) and Sans Accent (sansaccent.softtechvc.com in French).

Eric Clemons

Wharton

Jeff Coe

Sevenload

Noshir Contractor

Northwestern University

Noshir Contractor is the Jane S. & William J. White Professor of Behavioral Sciences in the School of Engineering, School of Communication and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, USA. He is the Director of the Science of Networks in Communities (SONIC) Research Group. He is investigating factors that lead to the formation, maintenance, and dissolution of dynamically linked social and knowledge networks in communities. He is the co-author with Peter Monge of the award winning book, Theories of Communication Networks (Oxford University Press).

Susan Crawford

University of Michigan

Susan Crawford is currently a Visiting Professor of Law at Yale Law School, teaching internet law and communications law. Last term (fall 2007), she was a visiting professor at the University of Michigan Law School, and starting on July 1, 2008 she will join the faculty at Michigan. She is a member of the board of directors of ICANN and is the founder of OneWebDay, a global Earth Day for the internet that takes place each Sept. 22. She served as a clerk for Judge Raymond J. Dearie of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, and was a partner at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering until the end of 2002, when she left that firm to enter the legal academy. Susan, a violist, also lives in New York City.

Leah Culver

Pownce

Leah Culver is a software developer living in San Francisco. She co-founded the social messaging service, in the spring of 2007, and serves as its lead developer. She is a computer science graduate of the University of Minnesota.

Pierre De Vries

Author and Researcher

Pierre de Vries studies decision making and planning in the face of the increasingly complex intangibles that make up our world. De Vries also works on communications policy issues, including spectrum allocation and Internet regulation. He is currently a Research Fellow at the Economic Policy Research Center at the University of Washington in Seattle. He is a former Chief of Incubation and Senior Director of Advanced Technology and Policy at Microsoft Corporation.

Ozzie Diaz

HP

Raissa D'Souza

UC Davis

Raissa D'Souza is an Associate Professor in the Center for Computational Science and Engineering, and the Mechanical Engineering Department at UC Davis, as well as an external professor at the Santa Fe Institute. She received a PhD in statistical physics from MIT in 1999, then was a postdoctoral researcher at Bell Laboratories and at Microsoft Research. She has been a visiting scientist at Caltech, MSRI, IPAM, The Santa Fe Institute and ENS in Lyon France. Raissa's research focuses on self-organization and growth in both natural and engineered systems and her current work and publications span the fields of physics, computer science and applied math.

Esther Dyson

EDventure

Esther Dyson has long been one of the most influential thinkers and participants in the computing and Internet worlds. Her primary activity is investing in start-ups and guiding many of them as a board member. She is also active in the commercial space/airline start-up world. For more than 20 years Dyson wrote the newsletter Release 1.0 and ran PC Forum, the IT market’s leading executive conference. She sold them to CNET Networks in 2004, and left CNET at the end of 2006. Dyson was the founding chairman of ICANN, and was also chairman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation in the 90s. In 1997, she wrote her (so far) only book, “Release 2.0: A design for living in the digital age.”

Dave Elfving

Apple

After graduating from the University of Iowa, Dave spent 5 years working as a web designer in both the public and private sectors. He began at a boutique design firm (which, like so many others, no longer exists) and went on to develop web sites and online applications for the Chicago Public Schools and The University of Chicago. He briefly left the working world to research web-based, collaborative technologies within the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He moved to San Francisco in 2007 and currently works as an Information Architect at Apple.

Ian Ferrell

Microsoft

BJ Fogg

Stanford

BJ Fogg is a researcher, teacher, and innovator. His training is in experimental psychology, especially the psychology of using computers. Since 1993 he has been at Stanford University, investigating how computers can be designed to change attitudes and behaviors. He is the author of Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do.

Liz Gannes

NewTeeVee

Lauren Gelman

Stanford CIS

Howard Greenstein

Harbrooke Group

Jim Greer

Kongregate

Umair Haque

BubbleGeneration

Umair Haque studied neuroscience at McGill, did an MBA and econ/strategy research with Gary Hamel at London Business School in 2003, and began working towards a PhD in strategy and innovation at Oxford in 2004. Umair has spent time working in finance/economics, at a venture-backed startup, and as a strategy consultant. He now heads Bubblegeneration, a strategy lab which helps discover strategic innovation. He studies the economics of the future: the impact new technologies, management innovation, and shifting consumer preferences will have tomorrow on the industries and markets of today.

Eszter Hargittai

Northwestern University

Eszter Hargittai is Assistant Professor of Communication Studies and Sociology, and Faculty Associate of the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University where she heads the Web Use Project. Her research focuses on the social and policy implications of information technologies with a particular interest in how IT may contribute to or alleviate social inequalities. In addition to her academic articles, her work has also been featured on CNNfn, the BBC's Web site and several national dailies.

Brendan Herron

Current Group

Mr. Herron has been with CURRENT, a leading provider of Smart Grid solutions to electric utilities since October 2005. Previously, he focused on private equity investments in telecommunications infrastructure and enterprise software for Hannon Armstrong. Mr. Herron has also served as a VP, Corporate Development & Strategy for Aggregate Industries Plc, (a multinational building materials company) and with Ernst & Young as a strategic consultant. He has completed approximately 30 M&A transactions.

James Hettrick

ISMS

James Hettrick is President of ISMS, a Communications Ecosystem Architectural firm that focuses on communication master planning for municipalities, developers and utility districts. Mr. Hettrick was the architect and driving force behind the internationally acclaimed Loma Linda Connected Community Program in Loma Linda, CA. The Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) in 2006 selected Loma Linda as one of the world’s Smart21 Communities of the Year; Network World recognized Mr. Hettrick’s accomplishments with the 2006 Enterprise All-Star Awardl; and in 2005 James was awarded the 2nd Annual FTTXcellence Award for his contributions in the deployment of an optical access network.

Shawndra Hill

Wharton

Shawndra Hill is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Operations and Information Management at the Wharton School. She researches the value to companies of mining data on how consumers interact with each other –- for example, in word-of-mouth or "buzz" marketing that the companies cannot directly control.

Jordan Hoffner

YouTube

Karthik Hosanagar

Wharton

Kartik Hosanagar is an assistant professor of Information and Operations Management at the Wharton School. Kartik's research delves into Internet media and Internet marketing, studying how information and collaboration technologies influence product and media choices of consumers. He also studies distributed media delivery infrastructure on the Internet including Content Delivery Networks and P2P networks. Kartik is a cofounder of Yodle Inc and serves on the advisory boards of several other startups.

Bernardo Huberman

HP Labs

Bernardo Huberman is a Senior HP Fellow the Director of the Social Computing Lab at Hewlett Packard Laboratories. He is also a Consulting Professor in the Department of Applied Physics at Stanford University. For the past nine years his research has concentrated on the phenomenon of the Web, with an emphasis on the design of novel mechanisms for discovering implicit knowledge and improving the interaction between people and information. He is the author of the book "The Laws of the Web: Patterns in the Ecology of Information", published by MIT Press.

Reed Hundt

McKinsey & Co.

Reed Hundt was chairman of the Federal Communications Commission from 1993 to 1997. Under Hundt, the FCC promoted greater choice for consumers, encouraged technological innovation, and established fair rules of competition. He was the first Chairman to make himself accessible to a wide audience by participating in open, online conversations with the public and was the first FCC Chairman to have a personal computer on his desk and to be connected to an electronic network. Hundt currently serves as a senior advisor on information industries to McKinsey & Company, a worldwide management consulting firm in Washington, D.C.

Joel Hyatt

Current TV

Joel Hyatt, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Current, has guided the network's development since its inception. In May 2007, Hyatt was elected to the board of directors of Hewlett-Packard. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Brookings Institution. Previous to Current, he co-founded and led Hyatt Legal Services, which provided low-cost services to middle and lower-income families. Hyatt also created, founded and built Hyatt Legal Plans into America's largest provider of employer-sponsored group legal plans, before selling the company to MetLife. Hyatt served on the faculty at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, and served as National Finance Chair for the Democratic Party in 2000. Business Week recognized Hyatt as one of the top 50 business leaders in the country.

Bob Iannucci

Nokia

Joi Ito

Neoteny

Joichi Ito is a co-founder and board member of Digital Garage, and the CEO of Neoteny. He is the CEO of Creative Commons, a member of the board of Technorati, and the Chairman of Six Apart Japan. He is the board of a number of non-profit organizations including The Mozilla Foundation and WITNESS. He has created numerous Internet companies including PSINet Japan, Digital Garage and Infoseek Japan. He has served on numerous committees and boards advising the government on IT, privacy and computer security related issues. He is currently a Doctor of Business Administration candidate at Hitotsubashi University in Japan. He maintains a weblog (http://joi.ito.com/) where he regularly shares his thoughts with the online community. He is the Guild Custodian of the World of Warcraft guild, We Know.

Vipin Jain

Retrevo

Jeremy Keith

Adactio

David Kidder

Clickable

Raph Koster

Metaplace

Raph Koster is the President of Metaplace. A professional game designer and frequent writer on issues of virtual world design, Raph was the lead designer on the seminal online world ULTIMA ONLINE, which first brought online worlds to the mass market. Until March 2006 he was Chief Creative Officer for Sony Online Entertainment, makers of EVERQUEST, where he previously led the design of STAR WARS GALAXIES. His essays and writings on online world design include widely reprinted and influential pieces, and he is the maintainer of the canonical history of virtual worlds at his popular website and blog.

Joe Kraus

Google

Joe is responsible for Google's initiatives around making the web more social, including OpenSocial and Google Friend Connect. OpenSocial is a set of common APIs that make it easier for developers to write social web applications that will run on any site that supports the OpenSocial framework. Google Friend Connect is a service that helps website owners grow traffic by enabling any site to easily provide social features to its visitors. He came to Google through the acquisition of JotSpot, where he was co-founder and CEO, and he was also a founder of Excite.

Loic Le Meur

Seesmic

Loïc is a well-known serial French entrepreneur who created and sold 4 Internet startups, also blogger and vlogger. He also organizes every year one of Europe's largest web event, LeWeb. Loic also joined President Sarkozy campaign team during the 2007 elections, advising on the Internet, gathered a network of 1000 bloggers for him and launched the Second Life Sarkozy Island. Loïc served as Executive VP of Six Apart EMEA from 2003 to 2007 and founded and served as CEO for several companies in France, including U-blog, a european blog service in 2003; RapidSite France, the first shared Web hosting company launched in 1997.

Gerard Lewis

Comcast

Mr. Lewis is currently Vice President, Deputy General Counsel & Chief Privacy Officer for Comcast Cable where he advises company management and the business units on intellectual property, technology, e-commerce, Internet, privacy, and security law matters. Prior to joining Comcast, Mr. Lewis served as Acting General Counsel for Half.com, and General Counsel for Infonautics. Before becoming a lawyer, Mr. Lewis worked in software product development as a senior technical writer and project team leader in Silicon Valley.

Charlene Li

Forrester Research

Charlene Li is one of the leading voices in the area of social computing and Web 2.0 through her research work with the respected technology and market research company Forrester Research. She is one of Forrester Research’s most quoted analysts. Her new book coauthored with Josh Bernoff, Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies (Harvard Business School Press, May 2008), describes how people are using social technologies to get what they need from each other. More information is available at their blog: http://www.forrester.com/groundswell.

Chris Lloyd

Verizon

Greg Luib

FTC

Greg Luib is Assistant Director of the Office of Policy Planning at the Federal Trade Commission, where he develops and implements competition and consumer protection policy. Greg is a member of the Commission’s Internet Access Task Force, having served as a principal drafter of the June 2007 FTC staff report, Broadband Connectivity Competition Policy. Prior to joining the FTC, Greg practiced law in the antitrust group at Jones Day in Washington, D.C. Greg received both his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Virginia.

Jim Lussier

Norwest Venture Partners

Jim focuses on investments in software, services and consumer/internet companies. He is a member of the board of directors of CollabNet, DoubleFusion, G2 Switchworks, M-Factor and StarCite. Prior to joining NVP, Jim was Vice President and General Manager of the direct e-commerce solutions division of Beyond.com Corporation. Prior to Beyond.com Corporation, Jim managed Accenture's (formerly Andersen Consulting) electronics and high technology strategy practice for North America and was a member of the firm's e-commerce core group. Jim has also held executive positions at Booz Allen & Hamilton and Metaphor Computer Systems, which became a subsidiary of IBM.