Joe Lambert
Co-Director, Center for Digital Storytelling
Digital Storytelling Bootcamp instructor/Festival Presenter/Curator

Joe Lambert is Co-Director of the Center for Digital Storytelling in Berkeley, California. Founded in 1994, the center's mission is to assist people in using digital media to tell meaningful stories from their lives. Joe has helped thousands of individuals complete their stories. Joe will be one of the instructors of the Festival Digital Storytelling Bootcamp workshop, as well as curating a Festival panel presentation about the uses of Digital Storytelling in education environments.

Harry Marks
Festival Presenter - Technology Curator

A veteran of ABC, CBS and NBC, Harry Marks has earned nearly every award in broadcast design and promotion, including an Emmy and the first Lifetime achievement Award from the Broadcast Design Association. He is a frequent lecturer and presenter at design and computer conferences around the world.

Leslie Flanders
Festival Presenter

Leslie Alles Flanders, Director of Technology, Scott County Schools, Georgetown, Kentucky is always cooking up something new to excite kids and adults about technology. She has become a great advocate for digital storytelling in her schools, around Kentucky and even around the country. As she shares what students in Georgetown Kentucky's Scott County Schools are doing, people realize the power that stories by kids can have on them and others. In Scott County, students take personal narratives required by the state for students' writing portfolios and they turn them into digital stories by adding their voice and their photos, illustrations, and music.

When Leslie met Dana Atchley in 1998 at Camp Apple in California, a lightbulb went on when she saw The Redheads and other stories that Dana shared. In 1999 Joe and Nina Lambert were at Camp Apple and they led Leslie and others through the digital storytelling process. Back in Kentucky teachers and students alike were beginning to moan whenever someone mentioned that it was "time to write", Leslie saw digital storytelling as the great motivator. Finally in 2001 CDS brought their workshop to 10 of Leslie's teachers. The following summer Scott County trained 12 more teachers so that today more than 500 students have been exposed to the process in grades 3-12. And, today there are seniors working with teachers to create their own stories. See student and teacher samples.

Linda Hicks
Festival Presenter

I grew up listening to my horse training father tell stories around the campfire in Washington state and have been telling my own stories ever since.

I've taught speech communication classes at Scottsdale Community College since 1984. I took a year's sabbatical in 2000-2001 to experientially explore the power of storytelling in the teaching and learning process and have re-focused my teaching as a direct result of this experience. Rachel Woodburn (on the left) and I (on the right) have been collaboratively teaching our digital storytelling class at SCC since the spring of 2002 and are continuing to broaden our connections between cultures through digital story.

Mark Klett
Festival Presenter

Mark Klett teaches photography at Arizona State University where he is Regents Professor of Art. His work of over 25 years has focused on the relationship of time, land, and culture. The work often begins with or refers to historical images, and is often done in collaboration with other artists and writers. Recent works range from images combined in poetic narratives to electronic interactive pieces that explore the relationship of land, home, and iconography.

Mark Klett was co-founder of the Rephotographic Survey Project and more recently the Third View project. He has published nine books including Revealing Territory, and One City/Two Visions, and was the subject of the recent book View Finder: Mark Klett, Photography, and the Reinvention of Landscape. His awards include three NEA Fellowships, the Buhl Foundation Award, the Japan/US Artist Exchange Fellowship, and Photographer of the Year from the Friends of Photography.

Brenda Laurel
Festival Presenter

Brenda Laurel is a designer, writer, researcher, and performer. She chairs the graduate Media Design Program at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA. and lead instructor for the Super Studio course. She is also active as a consultant in interaction design and research. Since 1976, her work has focused on experience design, interactive story, and the intersection of culture and technology. She holds an M.F.A. and Ph.D. in theatre from Ohio State University.

After a four-year stint studying gender and technology at Interval Research, Brenda co-founded Purple Moon to create interactive media for girls in 1996 (acquired by Mattel in 1999). In 1990 she co-founded Telepresence Research, developing technology and applications for virtual reality and remote presence. Other employers include Atari, Activision, and Apple. She edited THE ART OF HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERFACE DESIGN (1990) and authored COMPUTERS AS THEATRE (1991, second ed. 1993), and UTOPIAN ENTREPRENEUR (M.I.T. Press, 2001). She is also editor of the upcoming anthology, DESIGN RESEARCH: APPLIED EXPLORATION OF PEOPLE, CULTURE, CONTEXT, AND FORM. In addition to public speaking and consulting,

Brenda is a member of the Boards of Advisors of several companies and organizations, including Cheskin, the Communication Research Institute of Australia, the Comparative Media Studies program at M.I.T., and the Berkeley Institute of Design.

Kit Laybourne
Festival Presenter

Executive Producer of digital video based reality shows at Oxygen Media (A cable network for women). Kit directed, "Our Stories" for Oxygen, a series of simply animated narratives based on voice over and still images provided by Oxygen on-line users. Kit is also a Core Faculty member with the MA Media Studies program at the New School University in New York. www.oxygen.com

Lana Leonard
Festival Presenter

Lana Leonard is a storyteller, author, faclitator and
consultant with a style that enlivens people and places. She is cofounder of the private, not-for-profit agency, Teaching Peace and has helped create and develop the Longmont Community Justice Partnership. Her experiential programs are full of lively stories and show participants how to: story the events of their lives, elicit stories and use stories to solve problems, develop character, restore relationships, find healing and enrich the culture of families, businesses and classrooms.

Ms. Leonard is a published writer of numerous professional
articles, curriculum, and programs. She coauthored, with her partner Beverly Title, three books: Victim or Hero? Writing Your Own Life Story, Civility Rules, and Restorative Justice in Action. She was a 1998 winner of Channel 9's "9 Who Care" award for her work with Restorative Justice and Clearview Educational Center.

Daniel Meadows
Festival Presenter

BBC Capture Wales Project - Daniel Meadows (1952–). Photographer and teacher. One of the grouping which included Martin Parr, Peter Fraser and Brian Griffin at Manchester Polytechnic in the early 1970s. Meadows was a prime mover in the new documentary photography movement in Britain. His project "Living Like This:Photographs from the Free Photographic Omnibus" (1973–5) was an important record of British (primarily working class) life.

With Martin Parr he exhibited "Butlins by the Sea" (1972) and the now classic study of "June Street" in Salford. After moving from the north of England in the early 1980s, Meadows became one of the UK's leading photographic educationalists. Now teaching New Media at the Centre for Journalism Studies at Cardiff University, he is currently on a two-year secondment at BBC Wales, developing Digital Storytelling for broadcast televsion both in Wales and England. He has also been a prominent stills photographer in the British Film industry.

As well as "The Bus" (The Harvill Press, 2001) his books include "Living Like This" (Arrow, 1975), "Nattering-in-Paradise" (Simon & Schuster, 1988), "Set Pieces–Being About Film Stills Mostly" (BFI publications, 1993), and "National Portraits" (Viewpoint/Montage, 1997).

Bjarke Myrthu
Festival Presenter

The digital world should be much, much more than factual news and static words. It deserves stories that stir feelings and emotions. This is the mission that drives Bjarkes work. With a combination of video, photo, sound, text and graphics he creates stories that speak to the heart as well as the brain. Among Bjarke's projects is the award-winning The Enemy Within (about Russian soldiers returning from war in Chechnya) and The Invisible Kids (about youth living on the streets).

Bjarke Myrthu was an original founder of NewClearMedia, a company working in digital communications. Currently he is employed as head of communications with Care Denmark. Time allowing, he works as executive producer of Version Myrthu, his own company which creates digital documentaries. Bjarke Myrthu also teaches digital storytelling at The Danish School of Journalism and The Center of Journalism and further education in Denmark. A native of Denmark, Bjarke resides in Copenhagen and is in the process of completing a book on Digital Storytelling.

Kate Peter
Festival Presenter

In addition to being a performing artist in music and theater, Kate
Peters, is co-founder of Narratus, Business Performance Management
Solutions. A former voice educator in Southern California colleges
and universities, she has also led groups such as Women in Business,
NAFE, and the UC Alumni Association through her seminars on Vocal
Image and Power.

In 1996, Kate became involved in the technology world by her
association with Doug Simao. Together, Peters and Simao explored
merging technology and the arts, and developed an approach to
communication that is focused on collecting and sharing narratives to
gain better understanding and drive change. In November of 2000, they
launched the knowledge management company called "Narratus."
Narratus means "to tell as in a story." They have successfully
applied their approach to data warehouse projects, marketing
campaigns, lead generation programs, corporate conferences, web
sites, training CD/ROMS, and in a non-profit organization called Team
Cabaret, a performing arts program that is focused on sharing stories
as a discovery forum for teens.

In addition to live performances, Kate's musical projects have
included an interactive CD, CD/ROM called "Sojourn," one to be
released in the upcoming holiday season called "Narratus, a Holiday
Gathering," and a folk song CD project with composer Edward Barnes
that is also in progress. All involve the use of digital storytelling.

Scott Rosenberg is one of the co-founders of Salon and now serves as its senior vice president of editorial operations and managing editor. He also writes a column of technology commentary and a Weblog.

Before helping found Salon in 1995, Rosenberg was the San Francisco Examiner's movie and theater critic for nearly 10 years. He started covering the culture and technology beat for the newspaper in 1992 and created one of the country's first "Digital Culture" columns there. In 1994 he was one of the editors of the San Francisco Free Press, a short-lived but influential experiment in Web-based news delivery during a San Francisco newspaper strike.

Rosenberg's theater criticism received the George Jean Nathan Award in 1989. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Wired magazine and many other publications.

Leslie Rule
Festival Presenter
Bootcamp Workshop Instructor

Rarely award-winning (but frequently nominated) media and digital media producer, Leslie Rule's most recent work is a series of Digital Storytelling projects conducted in the Middle East around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A long-time associate with CDS, Leslie also serves as the Technology Director at Live Oak School in San Francisco and is the Northern California Regional Coordinator for the American Film Institutes' Screen Education Program. She lives in San Francisco with her teen-age son, Thom and her dog Bella.

Presentation Title:
Beyond the Green Line: Using Digital Storytelling and Appreciative Inquiry to find Common Ground in the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict

Doug Simao
Festival Presenter

With more than fifteen years of technology industry experience and ten years in executive management, Doug Simao's strong business and communications acumen recently led him to his current position as Chief Marketing Officer of Rapt, a San Francisco based software
company.

Prior to Rapt, Doug served as Chief Marketing Officer at Hyperion Solutions, where he utilized customer stories and digital storytelling to re-position and reshape the company. Doug arrived at Hyperion after it acquired his company Data Into Action, which developed custom-made decision support systems. As founder and president of Data Into Action, Doug delivered consistent revenue, margin and market share growth over multiple years through the execution of a sound, comprehensive business and marketing plan.

Doug holds a bachelor's degree in economics from Chapman University in Orange, California. An active supporter of the national arts and theater community, he is a member of the Business Committee for the Arts, serves as a technology advisor to the National Alliance of Music Theater, and is co-founder and chairman of Team Cabaret, a non-profit performing arts program for teenagers, in Southern California.

Thenmozhi Soundararajan
Festival Presenter, Panel Discussion

Thenmozhi Soundararajan is a filmmaker, singer, and grassroots media activist. As a second generation Tamil Dalit-Untouchable woman, she strives to connect grassroots organizers with media and cultural resources that can widen their base of resistance. In that context she has worked with over 200 community organizations across the country. She was the director and founder of the Center for Digital Storytelling's national community programs in which she developed the framework for community based digital storytelling. Thenmozhi was also recently featured in both Utne Magazine as one of thirty visionaries under thirty and in Source Magazine as one of the top ten political forces in hip hop. Further she is in residence at the MIT Center for Reflective Community Practice writing about her experiences with community based digital storytelling. She is also a 2001-2002 Eureka foundation fellow.

Currently she is a co-founder and executive director of Third World Majority, a young women of color new media organization dedicated to working for global justice.

Eduard Uzumeckis
Festival Presenter

Since 1988 Eduard Uzumeckis has been a tireless advocate for the use of digital tools in photography and photographic education. In 1997 while President of the Photographic Imaging Education Association he encouraged photo educators from across the country to work towards the inclusion of digital media and digital tools in their photography programs.

After receiving his B. A. in Photography from Columbia College in Chicago in 1975 he attended Arizona State University where he received his M.F.A. in 1982. While teaching photography at Mesa Community College in Mesa Arizona he created the Digital Imaging program in 1989. In 1995 Ed started a New Media program at Gilbert High School where he was teaching photography. The New Media program integrated still photography, photojournalism, web design, video, and multimedia.

In 1997 Ed was named an Apple Distinguished Educator for his innovative use of technology in art and education. In 1999 the work of Ed’s students became part of the Smithsonian Museum of American History’s permanent research archive and he received a Smithsonian Laureate’s Medal. Ed is currently the Director Digital Media Arts Program, Yavapai College, Sedona Center for Arts & Technology and can be reached at Ed_Uzumeckis@yc.edu.

Rachel Woodburn
Festival Presenter

I have been telling stories my whole life, whether through
photography, typography, or by the combination of words and images.

I've worked as a designer for nearly twenty years, and as a graphic
arts instructor for ten years. My focus is now in digital
storytelling as a way to help others find their voices, to preserve
memories, and to encourage communities to value their diversity and
unique cultures. (Rachel is pictured in accompaning photo on the left)

Don Wrege
Festival Commentary

Don Wrege once again joins the Festival with live on-line commentary, interviews and chronicles of Festival happenings. Don has 26 years experience of multimedia and interactive production experience and is currently putting those skills to work as Director of Operations at NewGuard, a technology solutions company in Boulder, CO. In the 1980's Don ran his own multimedia design and production shop in Los Angeles with clients like Mattel, Columbia Pictures and ABC Television. Don's delicious wit and insatiable appetite for news and views bring a colorful flavor to the live Festival reports.