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Web Lab Staff
Supporters
Volunteers
Web Lab Staff
Marc Weiss
Executive Producer
Marc N. Weiss, Executive Producer, spent a lot of time in old media -- a lot of time -- before new media came along to make life interesting again.
As a kid, he was addicted to TV and he started making experimental films in college. Beginning in 1969 -- and well into the 90's -- Marc was pretty much consumed with the production, distribution, programming and promotion of independent documentaries. He was also a freelance writer, with articles in Rolling Stone, Variety and Mother Jones.
He created P.O.V., the award-winning public TV series, in 1987 and was its executive producer through 1995, when he founded P.O.V. Interactive. From there it was a hop, click and a jump to Web Lab. Marc loves mouseovers.
Barry Joseph
Supervising Producer
Barry Joseph, Supervising Producer, is delighted to have graduated, after 3 years in the business, to a .org.
His previous .com was @radical.media, where he produced and Web-designed sites for Black & Decker, Car & Driver, Premiere Magazine, The Today Show, NBC, MSN, MSNBC, AT&T, Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation, Sotheby's, @radical.media, Movado & Kevin Bacon (a list he once found impressive, but now slightly more than silly compared to his current Web Lab projects).
Barry teaches Web Design to both students and educators in New York City's alternative high schools. He has also been recognized by New York magazine for his courses held at the Chautauqua Institution, Parsons, and the School of Visual Arts. Barry believes Oprah gives good hugs... and he speaks from experience.
Fred Branfman
Editor (Open Letters, Featured Posts)
Fred Branfman, Editor, believes in the need for a democratic alternative to electoral politics after decades of work at the grassroots with the Indochina Resource Center and Campaign for Economic Democracy, working for Governor Jerry Brown and Senator Gary Hart (Colorada, second run for President), and directing Rebuild America.
He quit the latter in 1991 to go on a spiritual search which took him to Jerusalem, India, Hungary, Laos and a variety of meditation halls, reinforcing his conviction that electoral politics is more the problem than the solution.
He strongly believes in the potential of the web to democratize debate through work setting up a local Internet in San Bernardino California, and involvement with HotWired, Salon and P.O.V. His major issue concerns at present are the need to protect future generations and find meaning by engaging rather than denying our own mortality.
Chad Ossman
Project Assistant
Chad Ossman, Project Assistant, is living proof that unpaid internships sometimes do pay off.
Before coming to New York and new media, he earned a Bachelor of Arts in English and discovered the joy and pain of filmmaking at Davidson College in North Carolina. He pursued the film muse all the way to the Columbia University School of the Arts, where he is currently staring down his graduate thesis.
He doesn't have much patience left for monomedia, and turned to the web because it can be multi, or perhaps even something better. He wants to play a part in web projects where your experience actually registers on the site, and both you and the site have changed after you leave.
Suzanne Seggerman
Spiritual Support
Suzanne Seggerman, Web Lab's Project Manager, comes from a background of both interactive media and documentary film.
She is a recent graduate of NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program where she concentrated on community-oriented interactive projects and the design of non-traditional digital games. Her work earned her awards from New Voices New Visions and Communications Arts.
Before graduate school she was the Production Manager for Ken Burns' PBS series "The West" and was also co-producer of "Race For Life" a humanitarian aid and documentary film about environmental health issues in Eastern Europe. She is a nationally ranked Scrabble player and the Queen of Asteroids.
Supporters
GMD Studios
GMD Studios is an Orlando-based new media development company that constantly pushes the envelope of innovation in web design, application development, content publishing, and interactive marketing services. GMD Studios is firmly committed to the Web as an expressive and educational medium with a focus on online communities and the enabling of creative expression.
WebPromote
WebPromote is a leading provider of targeted Internet web site marketing and promotions that furnishes its clients with a wide array of creative customer attainment solutions. Its growing customer base includes a number of prominent companies such as NBC, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Coldwell Banker, Car & Driver Magazine, The Chicago Stock Exchange, American Lung Association, Hammacher Schlemmer, Allstate and Pacific Bell.
Volunteers
J. Geoffrey Badner
Creative Director
A foundation member and former Creative Director of European accounts for AGENCY.COM, Geoff is now Design Director at Roger Black's Interactive Bureau. An artist both online and ITRW (in the real world), he lives in his studio in Brooklyn where he actively paints and annoys his neighbors with his DJing. "I got involved with Reality Check because I got sick of hearing from my corporate clients that my designs weren't 'telecommunication-y enough' or didn't reflect their 'world's most respected service brand'... I just wanted to do something that I was interested in for a change."
Rob Baker
Web Researcher
Rob Baker is a product manager at XWare, Inc., an Internet development company that specializes in the entertainment industry. Rob has ten years experience in the software industry. He graduated with a B.A. in philosophy from the University of Wisconsin in 1983 and received an MPS from NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program in 1988.
Alexandra Buczek
Web Researcher
Alex a Technology Editor for Saunders College Publishing in Philadelphia, her background involves practicing the arts of physics, scientific communications and visual arts. Her present life revolves around trying to combine these with her love of New Media and all that implies. Alex is taking part in Reality Check to be part of something which allows individual voices to be heard above the media's voice.
Laura DeGrace
HTML / Design Team
Laura is currently a web designer for the Payment Technology Group at the IBM TJ Watson Research Center. She has been working in the internet and new media fields for six years, with a focus on providing education over the internet. She is a volunteer and supporter of Reality Check because her interests in education and social issues lead her to seek out vehicles which provide a means for people to expand their mindsets, communicate, and hopefully arrive at a higher level of understanding about the world and its inhabitants. www.degrace.com
Angela Fung
Design Consultant
Angela Fung is the Creative Director at @radical.media's New Media Group and an educator at Parsons School of Design. She has interests ranging from interdisciplinary art|technology, animation, cooking with garlic, to playing more racquetball. Angela is involved in this project because she has a hard time saying no to Barry Joseph and she seems to believe she doesn't have enough to do.
David Heller
Conceptual Consultant
David Heller is currently a freelance Internet production consultant. David has been in the Internet field as a production expert for close to 5 years. He is currently trying to find avenues to bring his expertise to progressive not-for-profits. His interests include writing, Babylon 5, frisbee in Central Park, traveling, online communities, and playing guitar (especially Indigo Girls' songs).
Michael Krumper
Dialogue Monitor
"I am a psychotherapist on the Southern Oregon coast. I spend my free time playing tennis, washing my new Saturn, and reading science and philosophy. I got involved with Reality Check because it seems like fun to monitor rather than to merely participate."
Pamela Parker
Copy-Writer
Pamela Parker acts as Associate Editor of @NY, writes and edits at GORP--Great Outdoor Recreation Pages, and does a monthly column for RiotGrrl. She recently got her masters degree at The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Prior to attending Columbia, she reported at KTRH Radio in Houston and was Radio Station Manager at Houston's Taping for the Blind, Inc. She has long been intrigued by the new communication opportunities that the web offers us as a society, and she sees this project as a way to help explore the medium's potential.
Cynthia Penchina
Design Team
Cynthia Penchina, a retired educator, is the owner of Penchina Web Design and Vice Chairman of The Westchester Alliance for Telecommunication and Public Access, an organization dedicated to providing a forum for discussion and to promoting educational access. This project seemed to mesh nicely with other non-profit work that I'm involved in.
Aaron Rosenberg
Lead Copy-Writer, Editor
Aaron Rosenberg has both an academic background (two degrees in English, and three years teaching) and creative skills (short story publications, writing and design for several game-publishing companies), with the common link being communication and education through entertainment. He has recently moved to New York to be more active in New Media, where he does freelance writing, editing, and graphics. Aaron got involved in Reality Check because he was excited about the new ways New Media could bring people together, and facilitate communications.
Carolyn P. Speranza
Bug Tester
Carolyn P. Speranza is a Research Fellow at the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University. Speranza is committed to the realization of community vision through public discourse, collaboration and inventive use of contemporary technology. Her indepth approach community-based projects creates complex systems where diverse groups work together. "End of the Line," her most recent artistic collaboration, is a series of bus billboards crossing boundaries between neighborhoods in their unifying themes and display on city buses and the world wide web. For "End of the Line," Speranza partnered with artist Lisa Link and Pittsburgh public libraries to examine issues in city neighborhoods.
"Reality Check" feeds Speranza's voracious appetite for building systems and infrastructure which support public dialogue as well as a good argument. For more info, see www.speranza.net.
Alicia Vance
Design Team
Alicia Vance is a freelance web site Producer / Designer and most recently oversaw the production and development of a project for iVillage. The site is an online store that caters to the needs of expecting and new parents. When launched it will be located at www.ibaby.com. She also grows stuff in her backyard laboratory, documents the presents she receives from her cats (www.minimalist.com/avance) and looks at houses on the web. She became involved in this project because her social conscience was begging for attention.
Ann Wagoner
Editor
Ann Wagoner has consulted for various websites since 1995. She started and developed re-focus (http://www.re-focus.com), a place to compare views on different political topics. She graduated from New York University with a master's degree in Liberal Studies/Comparative Literature in 1995. She was an editor at The Guardian, an independent newsweekly, until 1992. She is dedicated to websites such as Reality Check that will provide news, opinions, writings and connections not available from the mainstream media.
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