The Instructors

Coordinator: Tom Abate

Tom is a staff writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. His blog, MiniMediaGuy, explores the business of new media. Tom has a Masters Degree in journalism from Columbia University. He is the former owner of a typesetting and publishing company, and founded a monthly newsmagazine. He has previously taught feature writing for UC Extension and was a journalism instructor at College of the Redwoods.

Hands-on training: Tim Bishop

Tim is a Berkeley software executive and entrepreneur with 15 years’ experience in startups, turning technologies into products that improve people’s lives. He is also a passionate writer on topics ranging from politics and public health to technology. A blogger since 2001, Tim was the founding editor of the award-winning SARS Watch Org medical blog. He also writes The Berkeley Blog and The Midnight Blog, and is a contributor to Bayosphere, the Beast Blog, and Techdirt.

Advertising: Lisa Stone

Lisa is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and a blogger (Legal Blog Watch, Surfette) whose accomplishments include helping launch the BlogHer conference. She was editor-in-chief for the original Women.com Networks, the award-winning Web portal that became a top 30 Web site with 25 million unique visitors. She has developed Web coverage with Hearst and Rodale magazines, Gallup, Bloomberg, ABC’s Good Morning America, E! Television/Online and HBO’s Sex and the City. Lisa blogged the Democratic National Convention for the Los Angeles Times and regularly contributed to Jay Rosen’s Pressthink blog.

Closing speaker: J.D. Lasica

J.D. is one of the world’s leading authorities on citizens media and the personal media revolution, and a frequent speaker at technology and media conferences. A former editor for the Sacramento Bee, J.D. is the co-founder and executive director of Ourmedia.org, a cutting-edge citizen journalism site. His new book about the personal media revolution, Darknet: Hollywood’s War Against the Digital Generation, has won critical acclaim from online luminaries such as Stanford law professor and Creative Commons founder Lawrence Lessig.