Our Team

Directors

NewsTrust.net is managed by:

Fabrice Florin – Executive Director
As NewsTrust.net's executive director and founder, Fabrice manages creative and business development for our social news network. Fabrice has an extensive 25-year track record as a digital media entrepreneur. Some of his notable ventures include: founding leading-edge wireless content providers Handtap and GoComics for mobile phones; launching web entertainment site shockwave.com at Macromedia; pioneering interactive multimedia content at Apple; and creating a new genre of video journalism for ABC and MTV. Check his bio.

David Fox – Technology Director
As technology director at NewsTrust.net, David spearheads engineering and web development on our site. David was employee #2 at LucasArts, where he designed and managed 5 computer games, as well as Mirage, a multi-player, networked location-based entertainment system for theme parks. He was also director of new content for online community provider LiveWorld Productions. David co-founded Marin Computer Center in 1977, the first public-access microcomputer center. Check his bio.

Staff

The NewsTrust.net staff includes:

Kaizar Campwala – Associate Editor
As associate editor for NewsTrust.net, Kaizar coordinates editorial and community activities on our site. Prior to joining NewsTrust, Kaizar was a communications technology consultant to the City of New York. He earned an A.B. in Political Science from Brown University, with a focus on American politics and public access to information.

David Cohn – Contributing Editor
As contributing editor at NewsTrust.net, David spearheads new partnerships and special projects. As a writer, he has written for Wired, Columbia Journalism Review and the New York Times, among other publications. He is an alumni of the multi-media journalism program at Columbia and also works with NewAssignment.Net, a project dedicated to spur innovation in journalism. He is also active in various online communities and social news sites, such as Digg and BrooWaha.

Adam Florin – Web Engineer
As web engineer for NewsTrust.net, Adam is leading user experience design and new web development projects on our site. Prior to joining NewsTrust, Adam was a software engineer at Simple Star and a programmer at Cycling '74. He earned an A.B. in Computer Music and Multimedia from Brown University, with honors.

Subramanya Sastry – Web Engineer
As web engineer for NewsTrust.net, 'Subbu' is developing new web services on our site. Besides his role at NewsTrust.net, Subbu is also lead engineer at NewsRack. He's a graduate of the Computer Sciences Department at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Beth Wellington – Community Developer
As community developer for NewsTrust.net, Beth helps manage our growing community, with a focus on reviewers and hosts. Beth is a professional journalist and author, interested in social justice, civil liberties and government transparency. She has written for The Roanoke Times, New River Voice, Congresspedia, Sourcewatch, and Wikipedia, among other places.

Advisors

Our advisors for NewsTrust.net include:

Wes Boyd – MoveOn.org
Wes is co-founder and president of MoveOn.org, to which he brings his expertise in technical design and consumer marketing. Previously, Wes co-founded Berkeley Systems, where he served as chief executive officer. Prior to his work in consumer software, he served at the University of California as a senior staff programmer on research projects.

Doug Carlston – Public Radio International
Doug is chairman of Public Radio International (PRI), as well as CEO of Tawala Systems. Previously, he founded and served for 18 years as CEO and chairman of Broderbund Software. Doug also serves on the boards of several nonprofit organizations, including the Albanian American Enterprise Fund and the Long Now Foundation.

Bill Densmore – University of Massachussetts-Amherst
Bill heads the Media Giraffe Project at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, which supports innovative uses of media for participatory democracy. Bill has reported for The Boston Globe and trade publications, was an editor at The Associated Press, and a publisher of community weeklies. He founded Clickshare, a user authentication service for content web sites.

Mike Dixon – Google
Mike is the engineering manager for Google News. Prior to joining Google Mike was a co-founder of PlaceWare, the web conferencing and collaboration company that became Microsoft Office Live Meeting.

Terry Gamble – Ayrshire Foundation
Terry is president of the Ayrshire Foundation, a California family foundation that concentrates in opportunities for youth, science education and environmental sustainability. She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Michigan, where she sits on the English advisory board. Terry is also the author of two acclaimed novels, Good Family and The Water Dancers.

Kelly Garrett – Ohio State University
Kelly is professor at Ohio State University's School of Communication. As a researcher, he studies how people use new information technologies to engage with controversial politics. His recent work examines how people’s political opinions shape their exposure to online news. He has co-authored numerous research papers about online news and political communication, such as of Balance or Bias and It's all news to me, a study on NewsTrust's review methodology.

Dan Gillmor – Arizona State University
Dan is the director of the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship at Arizona State University. He also heads the Center for Citizen Media, where he works on various new projects to encourage and enable more citizen-based journalism. Dan is a fellow at the Berkman Center at Harvard, and has taught at the University of California's School of Journalism at Berkeley. He is the author of We the Media, a book that is widely credited as the first comprehensive look at how the collision of technology and journalism is transforming the media landscape.

Tish Grier – The Constant Observer
Tish is a professional blogger, and has worked as an editor and/or social media manager at Corante, NewAssignment.net, and We Media. She is also a regular contributor to Poynter Online E-Media Tid-Bits column and has contributed to both Online Journalism Review and Huffington Post. Tish is advising us on growing our community, and worked as community developer for NewsTrust.net in 2008.

Jim Kennedy – Associated Press
Jim is vice president and director of strategic planning at The Associated Press, where he focuses on the organization’s transition to digital content distribution and consumption. Previously at AP, Jim was business news editor and later the founding director of the company’s multimedia operations. In additiion to AP, Jim has been executive director of product planning at the Wall Street Journal and an editor at The Tampa (Fla.) Tribune. He is a graduate of Amherst College.

John McManus – Grade The News
John is the project director of Grade the News, a project of the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at San Jose State University, also affiliated with the Graduate Program in Journalism at Stanford University. A former newspaper reporter and journalism professor, he has written extensively about communication, particularly about how markets shape news. His book, Market-Driven Journalism: Let the Citizen Beware?, won the Society of Professional Journalists' Research Prize in 1994. He earned his Ph.D. at Stanford in 1988.

Evelyn Messinger – Citizens Channel
Evelyn is president of the non-profit Citizens Channel, series producer of Link TV's Global Pulse, and co-founder of Internews Network. She has worked in Eastern Europe, Russia and the Middle East for the Soros Foundation; as a television producer for PBS and CBS News; and as a program developer and producer for the BBC, French television and others.

Bill Mitchell – Poynter Institute
Bill is director of publishing and editor of Poynter Online. Before joining The Poynter Institute in 1999, he worked as editor of Universal New Media and director of electronic publishing at the San Jose Mercury News. Previously a reporter, editor, Washington Correspondent, and European Correspondent for the Detroit Free Press & Knight Ridder, and a bureau chief for TIME. Bill was a Pulitzer juror in 2002 and 2003.

Betsy Morgan – The Huffington Post
Betsy is CEO of The Huffington Post, a fast-growing online news and opinion site that combines breaking news, commentary, and user-generated content with over 1500 contributors from the worlds of politics, entertainment, and media. Prior to joining HuffPost, Betsy was general manager of CBSNews.com, the network's 24-hour news service, and was a senior vice president at CBS News, where she was in charge of business development, digital media and new television ventures. She has also worked for News Corporation's American Sky Broadcasting and in investment banking. Betsy is a graduate of Colby College and the Harvard Business School.

Andrew Nachison – iFocos / WeMedia
Andrew is co-founder and CEO of iFOCOS, a media think tank and futures lab that's home of the annual We Media conference and We Media Community. He's also a partner in The 726 Group, a media consulting firm. Andrew has reported and edited for The Associated Press, as well as written for The New York Times, Infoworld, Audubon and other magazines.

Craig Newmark – Craigslist
Craig is founder and customer service rep for craigslist, the popular Web community bulletin board. A leader in online community, Craig strives to make the 'net more personal and authentic, while advocating social responsibility through the promotion of small, non-profit organizations. He has extensive experience as a senior Web-oriented engineer, and has worked at IBM, Bank of America and Charles Schwab. Craig is on the advisory boards for Climate Theatre, Haight-Ashbury Food Program and other local community projects.

Howard Rheingold – Smart Mobs
Howard is the author of Smart Mobs, a widely acclaimed book and companion blog, which offer a prescient forecast of the always-on era. Howard is visiting professor at Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley, where he teaches digital journalism and participatory media. He was founding Exec. Editor of HotWired and authored or edited many best-selling books, including Virtual Reality, The Virtual Community and The Millennium Whole Earth Catalog. He's a participant-observer in the design of new technologies, a pioneer, critic and forecaster of technology's impacts.

Kim Spencer – Link TV
Kim is president and co-founder of Link TV, a 24-hour non-commercial, viewer-supported television channel that connects Americans with the world. Through documentaries, international news, world music and programs like MOSAIC, the unique nightly news report showing excerpts from 15 national broadcasters in the Middle East, Link TV shows a world without borders.

Fred Turner – Stanford University
Fred is a professor of communication at Stanford, where he studies media, technology and cultural change. He has also taught at Harvard and MIT. Fred worked as a journalist for a variety of outlets, including the Pacific News Service, the Boston Phoenix and the Boston Sunday Globe Magazine. He is the author of Echoes of Combat: The Vietnam War in American Memory and is working on a forthcoming book on cyberculture.

Past Contributors

Past advisors and contributors to NewsTrust.net (2005-2008) include:

Rory O'Connor – GlobalVision – NewsTrust Editorial Director (2005-2008)
As NewsTrust.net's first editorial director, Rory spearheaded editorial and community initiatives from April 2005 to April 2008. A documentary filmmaker and journalist, Rory is also president of Globalvision and The Global Center, an affiliated non-profit educational foundation that co-publishes the web site Media Channel. His broadcast and film work has been honored with a George Polk Award, a Writer’s Guild Award, two Emmys, an Iris, a Cine Gold Eagle. A graduate of Boston College, O'Connor has taught and lectured at a number of universities, including Harvard, MIT, and Columbia. Check his blog.

Krista Bradford – The Good Search
Krista heads The Good Search, which provides competitive intelligence about technology and human capital to leading corporations. A three-time Emmy Award-winner, Krista worked as television journalist and investigative reporter for over two decades, with positions at WNBC and WWOR TV, as well as TV stations in Boston, Denver, Los Angeles and St. Louis.

Robert Cox – Media Bloggers Association
Robert is the president of the Media Bloggers Association, whose mission is to "promote, protect, and educate" bloggers and other citizen journalists. Robert is an experienced Internet marketing entrepreneur who advises corporate clients on the use of blogs as marketing platforms for media properties - books, TV, radio and film.

John Hamer – Washington News Council
John is executive director of the Washington News Council. He was on The Seattle Times’ editorial board and previously at Congressional Quarterly. He was a senior fellow at Discovery Institute, vice president of the Washington Policy Center, and co-authored the “Watchdogs” media column in Seattle Weekly. He is a graduate of Dartmouth with a master’s degree from Stanford.

Rebecca MacKinnon – Harvard Berkman Center
Rebecca is a research fellow at Harvard Law School's Berkman Center, where she founded Global Voices, a global citizens blogging community. Rebecca has an extensive background as a professional journalist, including bureau chief and correspondent for CNN in China and Japan.

Mark Tapscott – Washington Examiner
Mark is editorial page editor at The Washington Examiner. Previously, he was director of the Heritage Foundation's Center for Media and Public Policy, where he taught Computer-Assisted Research and Reporting (CARR) to journalists, as a means of empowering greater independence in the media. Mark is a seasoned newspaper journalist who has testified before Congress and written extensively in favor of FOIA reforms and is a member of the Media Bloggers Association board of directors.

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