Liu Olin – Breaking the Wall of Global Debt @Falling Walls 2011 from Falling Walls on Vimeo.

Career:  Internet Philosopher, Technologist, Co-Author ‘The Cluetrain Manifesto’
Other: He really hates writing or talking about himself (especially in 3rd person!)
Hometown: Born in NYC, lives with his wife and three children in Bosten, USA

Photocredits: Francesco Piasentin

Dr. David Weinberger is a technologist, author, professional speaker and commentator. David’s work focuses on how the Internet is changing human relationships, communication, and society. He is co-author of bestselling “The Cluetrain Manifesto”, author of  ”Small Pieces Loosely Joined - a Unified Theory of the Web”, “Everything is Miscellaneous – the Power of the New Digital Disorder”, and the recently (01/2012) “Too Big to Know: Rethinking Knowledge Now That the Facts Aren’t the Facts, Experts Are Everywhere, and the Smartest Person in the Room Is the Room”

His one-person strategic marketing company, Evident Marketing, helps high-tech companies figure out what their products can be and how they can talk about them.
David was a gag writer for the comic strip “Inside Woody Allen” (1976-1883), holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy and taught in college. He became a marketing consultant and executive at several high-tech companies, and currently serves as a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, where he co-teaches a class on “The Web Difference”.
He had the title Senior Internet Advisor to Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign, and provided technology policy advice to John Edwards’ 2008 presidential campaign. He is on a lot of industry boards and committees, including AIIM`s Emerging Technology Advisory Group, the Seybold Conference Advisory Board, the KMWorld 99 Advisory Board, the Xplor Marketspace Advisory Board and Instinctive Technology’s Advisory Board. He is very active in the politics of trying to keep the internet open and free.
David has written for a wide variety of magazines, including Wired, The New York Times and gives talks around the world.

The Cluetrain Manifesto is a set of 95 theses organized and put forward as a manifesto for all businesses. The ideas put forward within the manifesto aim to examine the impact of the Internet on both markets and organizations. The manifesto suggests that the changes that will be required from organizations as they respond to the new marketplace environment. The Cluetrain Manifesto was written in 1999 by Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls and David Weinberger.  A printed publication was published in 2000.

More:
www.cluetrain.com
www.davidweinberger.com
www.evident.com

David on Twitter
David on Facebook

Blog: www.johotheblog.com

Other articles/links/videos:
library lab: librarylab.law.harvard.edu

“Hab Geduld!” on the Cluetrain-Manifesto (aktuelle Ausgabe brandeins 02/2012)

Video: The Berkman Center David Weinberger on What Information was
Video: Everything is Miscellaneous – Talking to David Weinberger

Career: Founder & President FutureWorks; Author, Digital Analyst and Sociologist
Interests: Photography and Future
Hometown: San Francisco, USA

Brian Solis is globally recognized as one of the most prominent thought leaders and published authors in new media. A digital analyst, sociologist, and futurist, Solis has influenced the effects of emerging media on the convergence of marketing, communications, and publishing. He is principal of FutureWorks, an award-winning New Media and business strategy consultancy in Silicon Valley, and has led interactive and social programs for Fortune 500 companies, notable celebrities, and Web 2.0 startups.
In March 2010 Brians latest book was released: Engage, The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web, with an introduction written by Ashton Kutcher. Brian has also written and published several ebooks on new PR, social media, customer service, personal branding and blogger relations.He is also known for photographing prominent tech figures, Hollywood Celebrities, thought leaders, artists, and events. His work has been featured in BusinessWeek, The New York Times, Wired, The Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, among many other outlets.

More:
www.briansolis.com www.future-works.com
Twitter: @briansolis
Brians Photos on flickr

Other articles/links/videos:
Video: Brian Solis speaking at Thinking Digital Conference 2010 Link: Books by Brian Solis Article: Mashable: Why Brands are becoming Media 12/2010

Career: Advisor to UN Secretary General for Innovative Financing, Chair UNITAID and Millennium Foundation, UN Deputy
Previously French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Health etc. Prior to that Cardiologist and Professor of Public Health
Interests: Global Health, Medicine, Mico-Financing
Hometown: Paris, France

Dr. Philippe Douste-Blazy is one of the world’s foremost experts on innovative financing to reach the Millennium Development Goals. In 2006, he founded the Leading Group on Solidarity Levies to Fund Development at Paris Conference on Innovative Development Financing Mechanisms and was elected President of UNITAID in the same year.
Prior, he held several ministerial positions in France, including Minister of Health (1993-1995), Minister of Culture & Communication (1995-1997), Minister for Solidarity, Health & Family (2004-2005) and Minister of Foreign Affairs (2005-2007). Before embracing policy initiatives, Dr. Douste-Blazy was practicing cardiologist & Professor of Public Health at Toulouse University in France.
On 19th Feb. 2008, he became Special Advisor on Innovative Financing for Development, with the rank of UN Under-Secretary-General by the UN, following his experience as chairman of the International Drug Purchase Facility hosted by the WHO et al.

UNITAID’s mission is to contribute to scaling up access to treatment for HIV/ AIDS, malaria & tuberculosis, primarily for people in low-income countries, by leveraging price reductions for quality diagnostics & medicines, and accelerating the pace at which these are made available.
Since UNITAID’s overall objective is to serve the needs of the poorest countries & most vulnerable populations, it dedicates at least 85% of its funds to providing health commodities to low-income countries. UNITAID uses less than 10% of its funds to purchase products for lower middle-income countries & less than 5% for upper middle-income countries. These criteria are a key consideration in the decision to fund partner projects.

The Millennium Foundation for Innovative Finance for Health was established in Nov. 2008 as an independent non-profit Swiss foundation, located in Geneva. Their mission is aligned with helping achieve the three health-related Millennium Development Goals agreed to by the UN by implementing new innovative financing mechanisms to expand sources of funding available to help eradicate life-threatening contagious diseases, including HIV/AIDS, malaria & tuberculosis among the world´s most vulnerable populations. These mechanisms have the form of projects, such as “MassiveGood” which was launched in March 2010 and aims at giving travelers the possibility to add a $2, £2 or €2 micro-contribution to the purchase of a travel reservation, with all proceeds going to fight against diseases as mentioned above.

More:
www.pdousteblazy.com
Blog: Philippe Dousty-Blazy

Philippe Douste-Blazy on LinkedIN
Philippe Douste-Blazy on Facebook
Philippe Douse-Blazy on Twitter

www.unitaid.eu
UNITAID on Facebook

www.millennium-foundation.org
www.massivegood.org

Other articles/links/videos:
Video: Philippe Douste-Blazy  -  Advocate for the Millennium Development Goals

Career: Artist, Writer, Photographer, Book & Exhibition “DIGNITY” for Amnesty International’s 50th anniversary
Interests: Indigenous People, Tribes, Human Rights
Hometown: Los Angeles (CA), USA

Dana Gluckstein is a celebrated, award-winning photographer whose work has appeared in countless campaigns, newspapers & magazines. Gluckstein graduated from Stanford University, where she studied psychology, painting & photography.In her 30-year career, she has captured cultural luminaries from Nelson Mandela, Mikhail Gorbachev to Muhammad Ali, but perhaps her most important work has been her personal mission, photographing indigenous communities around the globe- a work collected in the book, Dignity: In Honor of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Her portraits are held in the permanent collections of the Los Angeles Countys Museum of Art and Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

Dignity: In Honour of The Rights of Indigenous People honors Indigenous Peoples worldwide and celebrates the 50th Anniversary of Amnesty International, the Nobel Prize-winning human rights organization. Gluckstein, whether photographing a Haitian healer or a San Bushman elder, succeeds in distilling the universality of experience that links us all without diminishing the dignity of the individual. Dignity includes more than 90 of Gluckstein´s  black-and-white duotone portraits, made over three decades. The photographs express the theme of tribes in transition by capturing the fleeting period of world history where traditional and contemporary cultures collide.

Amnesty International is a global movement of more than 3 million supporters, members and activists in more than 150 countries and territories who campaign to end grave abuses of human rights. Amnesty started campaigning in 1961, and has worked around the globe to stop the abuse of human rights. Currently, they have more than 2.2 million members, supporters and subscribers in over 150 countries and territories, in every region of the world. Their vision is for every person to enjoy all the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards. They  are independent of any government, political ideology, economic interest or religion and are funded mainly by our membership and public donations. In the context that U.S. government along with Canada (only two countries in U.N.) have not accepted the Declaration, there is a petition through Amnesty International for the adoption of the declaration.

The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted by the General Assembly in September 2007. The Declaration is the most comprehensive statement of the rights of indigenous peoples ever developed, giving prominence to collective rights to a degree unprecedented in international human rights law. It is a culmination of over twenty years of work, that began in earnest at the Working Group which began the drafting of the declaration in 1985. The first draft was completed in 1993, and in 1995, the Commission on Human Rights set up its own working group to review the draft adopted by the human rights experts of the Working Group and the Sub-Commission. More than 100 indigenous organizations participated in the Working Group of the Commission annually.

More:
www.danagluckstein.com
www.amnesty.org
www.un.org

Dignity on
Facebook: http://en-gb.facebook.com/dignitybook
Twitter: @DIGNITYbook

Other articles/links/videos:
Culture/Movies-TV-Music-Books/True-Grace" target="_blank">Elle: True Grace (2010/11)
Planet-mag: dignity-dana-gluckstein (2010/10)
Huffington Post: International Day of  Indigenous Peoples: Are We Listening To Their Wisdom? (2010/08)
The Daily Beast: Portraits From the Corner of the Earth.

Video: Desmond Tutu and Hugh Maskela unite for Dignity
Video: Dana Gluckstein Interview Part 1

Career: Executive Director Ushahidi, TED Senior Fellow, Blogger
Interests: Photography, Architecture, Mobile Sensors, African Futurism
Hometown: Eldoret, Kenya

Juliana Rotich is Co-Founder and Executive Director of Ushahidi, the crowdsourcing platform that leverages mobile phones and the internet to change the way information flows. Ushahidi is a web based reporting system that utilizes crowdsourced data to formulate visual map information of a crisis on a real-time basis. In the Kenyan scenario it was used to map out incidents of violence. Ushahidi then grew to be an open source platform that has been used in various situations such as the Haiti and Chile earthquakes, the Palestine conflict crisis, Japan’s Earthquake and the Lybian conflict.
Prior to Ushahidi Juliana has worked in the telecommunications industry for over ten years.  She is originally from Kenya, with a Computer Science degree from the University of Missouri, Kansas City. She is a technology, budding African Futurist and TED Senior Fellow. She co- founded Mobisoko, a mobile marketplace for language and location relevant apps in Africa. She also writes the well-respected ‘Afromusing’ blog, typically with a focus on African tech and renewable energy. She often speaks at international conferences about technology, innovation, media, open source, crisis mapping and Africa; Past conferences she has spoken at include Lift, DEMO, TTI Vanguard, TransMediale, WSIS, DLD Women, Guardian Activate World Economic Forum -Davos, and ARS Electronica. She was named one of the Top 100 women by the Guardian newspaper and top 2 women in Technology 2011.

Ushahidi is a non-profit tech company that specializes in developing free & open source software for information collection, visualization &  interactive mapping to  democratizing information, increasing transparency & lowering the barriers for individuals to share their stories (Crowdmap, SwiftRiver). “Ushahidi” means “testimony” in Swahili, and was a website initially developed to map reports of violence in Kenya after the post-election fallout in 2008.  Since then Ushaidi has grown to a focused organization and now consists of a strong team of volunteer developers primarily in Africa, but also Europe, South America and the U.S. It is a disruptive organization that is willing to take risks in the pursuit of changing the traditional way that information flows.

Crowdmap is designed and built by the people behind Ushahidi. As the Ushahidi platform has evolved, so have its uses. Crowdmap allows you to set up your own deployment of Ushahidi without having to install it on your own web server. It is the fastest, simplest installation of the Ushahidi platform. Within minutes you’ll be up and running with your own installation, mapping reports events and visualizing information.

SwiftRiver is a free open source platform that helps people make sense of information in a short amount of time. The platform was born out of the need to understand and act upon a wave of massive amounts of crisis data that tends to overwhelm in the first 24 hours of a disaster.  In practice, SwiftRiver enables the filtering and verification of real-time data from channels such as Twitter, SMS, Email and RSS feeds. This free tool is especially useful for organizations that need to sort their data by authority and accuracy, as opposed to popularity. These organizations include media, emergency response groups, election monitors and more. This might include journalists and other media institutions, emergency response groups, election monitors and more.

Juliana´s TED Story: “I met two of the three co-founders of Ushahidi at TEDGlobal 2007, a conference that was a seminal moment for Africa, and for me. TED not only brought together online friends and kindred spirits, thereby seeding what later became Ushahidi, but it also changed my whole perspective about Africa, and the world. Since 2007, my life has taken an arc that I could not be happier about. I hosted the second annual TEDxNairobi, where the ideas worth spreading that TED lit in the TED Fellow’s minds, get passed on to others in the Kenyan community. As a TED Senior Fellow, I have had the incredible opportunity to make friends from around the world, and within the TED community, friendships that I treasure as we continue this journey of sharing knowledge and living our lives as active change agents in this world.”

More:
LinkedIn: Juliana
http://www.ted.com/fellows/view/id/31 (2011/03/16)

www.ushahidi.com
Twitter:@ushahidi
vimeo: Ushahidi
Facebook: Ushahidi
Crunchbase: Ushahidi
Wikipedia: Ushahidi

www.crowdmap.com
Twitter:@crowdmap
Facebook: Crowdmap

Swiftriver
Twitter:@swiftriver
Facebook: Swiftriver

www.afromusing.com
Twitter:@afromusing

Other articles/links/videos:

Japan:

Die Zeit: Ushahidi: Wissen, was wo in Japan passiert (2011/03/16)
GOOD: Earthquake in Japan: Help Google and Ushahidi Rescue Trapped Citizens and Reunite Families (2011/03/11)
Scienceray: Google and Ushahidi Serving Japan (2011/03/16)
Jonathan Stray: UN asks Ushahidi to produce Crisis Map of Lybia (2011/03/08)
Global Pulse: Crisismappers Extend UN Capacity in Lybia (2011/03/04)
Guardian.co.uk: Top 100 women: Technology – Juliana Rotich (2011/03/08)
Video: Interview Juliana Rotich on DLD (2011)
Global Voices: Japan: Earthquake Crisis Mapping on Ushahidi (2011/03/15)
Ushahidi: Crisis Mapping Japan´s Earthquake and How You Can Help (2011/03)
Geocommons: Japan Radiation Report Data Stream from Ushahidi (2011/03)
Davos: Ushahidi Grows Its Global Crowd-sourcing Platform, Slams Twitter Censorship (TCTV) (01/12)

Davos: Ushahidi Grows Its Global Crowd-sourcing Platform, Slams Twitter Censorship [TCTV]

Egypt:

Ushahidi: Crowdmapping Egypt (2011/01/25)
Diary of a Crisis Mapper: Ushahidi Egypt: When Open Data is Not so Open, or When People Just Don´t Get it (2010/11/20)

Ushahidi´s Juliana Rotich introduces Crisis Mapping in short:

Career: Theoretical Physicist. Professor at Yale, Harvard, Case Western Reserve and Arizona State University. Bestseller author e.g. “The Physics of Star Trek”.
Interests: Mountain Bike, Fly Fish, Scuba Dive
Hometown: Phoenix (AZ), USA

“I became a scientist in part because I read books by other scientists, such as Albert Einstein, George Gamow, Sir James Jeans, etc, when I was a child, and my popular writing returns the favor. One of my greatest joys is when a young person comes up to me and tells me that one of my books motivated them to become a scientist.

I believe science is not only a vital part of our culture, but is fun, and I try and convey that in my books and lectures. I am honored that Scientific American referred to me as a rare scientific public intellectual, and that all three major US Physics Societies: the American Physical Society, the American Association of Physics Teachers, and the American Institute of Physics, have seen fit to honor me with their highest awards for research and writing.

My research focuses on the beginning and end of the Universe. Among my contributions to the field of cosmology, I helped lead the search for dark matter, and first proposed the existence of dark energy in 1995.”

(LMK, Amazon Biography)

Lawrence Maxwell Krauss is an American Theoretical Physicist. In 1982, he received undergraduate degrees in mathematics and physics from Carleton University and his Ph.D. from the MIT. In 1985, he became assistant professor at Yale University and Associate Professor (1988). From 1993 to 2005, he was professor of astronomy and Chairman of Physics Department at Case Western Reserve University.
In August 2008, he joined the faculty at Arizona State University as Foundation Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration, and the Department of Physics in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, and Director of University’s Origins Initiative. In 2009, he helped inaugurate this initiative with the Origins Symposium in which 80 of the world’s leading scientists participated, and 3000 people attended. He currently serves on advisory board of Scientists and Engineers for America (SEA) and was elected to the Board of Directors of the Federation of American Scientists (FAS).
He regularly appears in national media for public outreach in science and has written many editorials, e.g. New York Times.

More:
Facebook Fanpage
Lawrence M. Krauss Faculty Website

Wikipedia: Lawrence M. Krauss
Media Bio of Lawrence Krauss

Lawrence’s books on Amazon
Lawrences books, publications, lectures an other media and public appearances

Other articles/links/videos:
Video: “A Universe From Nothing” by Lawrence Krauss, AAI 2009

Career: Founder BraveNewTalent
Chair Take Heart India, Young Global Leader WEF
Interests: Social Recruiting & Networks, New Media, Social Media,
Entrepreneurship, Generation Y, India, Youth, Leadership, Innovation
Hometown: London, UK

Lucian Tarnowski has been honoured as Europe’s youngest Young Global Leader (YGL) by World Economic Forum (WEF). He is winner of Global Enterprising Young Brit (2009) and was named as one of Britain’s rising business stars by The Spectator Business. He is on UKTI’s Global Entrepreneur Program with BraveNewTalent being described by UK Government as a “Technology Company of Exceptional Potential”. He plays an active role in UK tech start-up scene and speaks regularly around the world on the way social recruiting is changing the global talent market. In his spare time he runs the no overhead education charity Take Heart India.

Brave New Talent is a game changing Social Recruiting platform with traction, blue chip clients and heading for Global scale. Jobseekers use the site to create a professional profile and follow their target employers thereby allowing the employer to develop a professional talent community. The service is free to access for talent and generates revenue from employers using Talent Words™ to drive targeted people into their communities. The platform brings together all social media content the employer has – jobs, tweets, blogs, news, pictures, videos and more. BraveNewTalent is developing a new model of online education based on employers distributing training and skills to their talent communities in advance of the job. Clients include blue chip brands such as IBM, L’Oreal, Tesco and McAfee.

Take Heart India is a youth run charity focused on practical education projects in India. They are relatively unique in the charity sector for two reasons: They do not employ a single person, which means that 100% of proceeds are directed out to the education projects in India. 2. They run with the leitmotiv ‘Work builds, charity destroys’. Rather than giving money the aim is to empower people through practical education. Since 2004 Take Heart has built an IT school that has provided real job opportunities to thousands of students. The school specialises in training blind students IT skills and has been recognized as one of India’s top 3 IT training facilities for blind students.

More:
www.luciantarnowski.com
Lucian on LinkedIn
Twitter: @LucianT

www.bravenewtalent.com
BraveNewTalent on Facebook
Twitter: @BraveNewTalent

www.takeheartindia.org
Take Heart India on Facebook
Twitter: @TakeHeartIndia

www.oneyoungworld.wayn.com
One Young World on Facebook
Twitter: @OneYoungWorld

Other articles/links/videos:
The Telegraph: Recruitment revolution: A “Facebook for corporates” (11/03)
The Telegraph: Europe is just one player in a global ´digital enlightenment´. (11/01)
Microsoft Europe: Digital Natives – The new way to engage Gen Y. (10/01)

Video: BraveNewTalent quick view
Video: Lucian Tarnowski – Founder & CEO, BraveNewTalent
Video: Lucian Tarnowski, BraveNewTalent (TCTV)

http://blog.bravenewtalent.com/2011/01/reflections-on-the-decade/
http://blog.bravenewtalent.com/2010/10/recruiting-youth/
http://blog.bravenewtalent.com/2010/10/social-learning-and-the-big-society/

Short intro to BraveNewTalent:

Career: Founder & President University of the People (UoPeople)
Chairman of Cramster, Kidum Group and Laureate KIT eLearning
Interests: Running, Working, World Affairs & News
Hometown: Pasadena (CA), USA

Shai Reshef is an educational entrepreneur and has twenty years of experience in the international education market. From 1989-2005, he served as Chairman of the Kidum Group, a for-profit educational services company, sold to Kaplan, Inc. in 2005. While chairman of Kidum, Reshef lived in the Netherlands (2001-2004) where he chaired KIT eLearning, the eLearning partner of the University of Liverpool and the first online university outside the US. In 2009 he founded University of the People (UoPeople).

More:
www.uopeople.org
Twitter: @UoPeople
Facebook: www.facebook.com/UoPeople

Shai Reshef on
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shai_Reshef
LinkedIN: http://www.linkedin.com/in/shaireshef
Facebook: facebook.com/shai.reshef

Other articles/links/videos:
The New York Times: Israeli Entrepreneur Plans a Free Global University That WIll Be Online Only (2009/01)
Video: DLD Conference 2009

Career: Curator & Host INK Conference (formerly TED India), Founder & CEO Ixoraa Media, Founder Digital Equalizer Program, Partner at Global Catalyst Partners
Interests: Collecting People, Human Spirit, Matching Indo and U.S Business
Hometown: Milpitas (CA), USA; New Delhi, India

Lakshmi Pratury is Founder and CEO of Ixoraa Media whose mission is to strengthen ties between the US and India through corporate, cultural, and media events. As a social entrepreneur, Lakshmi was a leading force at the American India Foundation (AIF), that raised over $30M in five years to channel towards development activities in India. She also started ‘Schools Online India’ (later ‘Digital Equalizer’) where she brought internet access to underprivileged children. Earlier, she was partner at Global Catalyst Partners (GCP) and was the first to turn the VC firm’s attention onto India. Lakshmi was co-host of the first ever TED conference in Asia – the TEDIndia. She continues sharing untold stories with the annual INK Conference, in association with TED.

The Ink Conference is an annual conference that aims to fuel innovation and foster knowledge by bringing together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers from a range of disciplines such as art, architecture, dance, design, music, science, social entrepreneurship, sports and technology. The first INK was in December 2010 in Delhi and will be featured annually.

Ixoraa Media is dedicated to bringing together extraordinary talent across generations and disciplines to focus on shaping the thinking, policy, and progress in the Indo–U.S. corridor. Ixoraa Media bandwidth ranges from technology projects with the private office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to music concerts. Ixora Media was host of TEDIndia, which attracted a global audience and featured thought leaders from India. Currently it is hosting The INK Conference in association with TED.

More:
www.theinkconference.com
www.ted.com
www.ixoraamedia.com

The INK Conference on Facebook
TED on Facebook
Twitter: @TEDTalks

Lakshmi on LinkedIn
Twitter: @LakshmiPratury
Lakshmi on Facebook

Other articles/links/videos:
Videos talks from INK Conference – The INKTalks: www.inktalks.com
Your Story: Lakshmi Pratury on INK conference: “We want to showcase innovation of thought” (10/2010)
Blogadda: Interview with Lakshmi Pratury (2010)

Short intro to The Ink Conference:

Career: Head of Marketing, The Global Fund
Interests: Travel, Social Change, Cross Country Skiing Marathon
Hometown: Mexican living in Geneva, Switzerland

Claudia Gonzalez is Head of Marketing of The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, where she manages the Born HIV Free campaign that aims to eliminate the transmission of HIV from mother to children by 2015.
One of the world’s most acknowledge non-profit marketers having had top position in United Nations Refugee Agency and the World Economic Forum, she is a strategist with 15 year experience in integrated communications specialized in social media, celebrities and branding.
Claudia was previously a Diplomat for her home country Mexico and was a press correspondent for a number of years in different countries. Her academic background includes a Masters from LSE on Media and Communications. She speaks 6 languages, has two kids, enjoys sports, travel and social change.

The Global Fund was established in January 2002 to dramatically increase global financing for interventions against  AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. It is the largest international funder of programs to combat malaria and tuberculosis, providing two-thirds of all financing, and provides 20% of all international funding to combat HIV/AIDS. The Fund asserts that as of June 2007, 1.9 million lives have been saved thanks to efforts in 136 countries supported by the Global Fund.

UNHCR: The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, established 1950, also known as The UN Refugee Agencyis a United Nations agency mandated to protect and support refugees at the request of a government or the UN itself and assists in their voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement to a third country. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland. The UNHCR has won two Nobel Peace Prizes.

More:
www.theglobalfund.org
www.unhcr.org
Twitter: @refugees
www.bornhivfree.org
www.joinred.com

Other articles/links/videos:
Video & Interview: DLD Conference 2010
Article: Press Release about AIDS campaign
Article: Arstechnica – Google Earth takes you inside Refugee-Camps

Short intro to The Global Fund:

Career: Co-Founder and CEO of Foursquare
Interests: Snowboarding, Karaoke, Unemployment
Hometown: from Boston, lives in East Village, NYC, USA

Dennis Crowley is the Co-Founder and CEO of Foursquare, a service that mixes social, locative and gaming elements to encourage people explore the cities. Forusquare had over 4,5 million users worldwide as of 11/2010. Previously, Dennis founded dodgeball.com, one of the first mobile social services in the US, which was acquired by Google in 2005. He has been named “Top 35 Innovators Under 35″ by MIT’s Technology Review magazine (2005) and has won the “Fast Money” bonus round on the TV game show Family Feud (2009). His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Wired, Time Magazine, Newsweek, MTV, Slashdot and NBC. He is currently an Adjunct Professor at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP). The online magazine AskMen.com rated Dennis Crowley No. 19 of the “Top 49 Most Influential Men 2010″.

Foursquare is a location-based social networking website and software for mobile devices. Users check-in at venues using a mobile website, text messaging or a device-specific application. They are then awarded points and sometimes “badges.” The service was created in 2009 by Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai. As of 11/2010, the company reported 4.5 million registered users. The World Economic Forum announced the company as a Technology Pioneer for 2011.

More:
www.denniscrowley.com
Twitter: @dens
www.foursquare.com

Other articles/links/videos:
www.teendrama.com
Article: Forbes Nov 2010: Foursqure´s Dennis Crowley talks Facebook
Article: The Telegraph Jul 2010: Dennis Crowling, the new darling of Silicon Valley
Video: YouTube Dennis Crowley about Foursquare

Short intro to Foursquare:

Career: Managing Director of The Webby Awards and IADAS
Interests: Dance, Food, Travel, Music, Technology, Dogs
Hometowns: Brooklyn, NYC / Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Emily Warren is Managing Director of The Webby Awards, the world’s premiere honor for online excellence, and of IADAS, the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences, the presenting and judging body of the Webbys. She started her career in publishing with Time Warner, and then ran the awards programs at The Art Directors Club in New York. At ADC Emily edited the Art Directors Annual which subsequently was recognized by One Show Design and the American In-House design awards. Since joining The Webby Awards Emily has spearheaded the Webby International Ambassador program and produced conferences and events around the world on their behalf. Emily speaks pretty good Italian, has been dancing since the age of 3, and holds a B.A. in English from Wesleyan University. Emily is a current member of Precision Dance NYC and lives in Brooklyn with her husband and their shelter dog, Cindy.

The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet. Established in 1996 during the Web’s infancy, the Webbys are presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, which includes an Executive 750-member body of leading Web experts, business figures, luminaries, visionaries and creative celebrities, and Associate Members who are former Webby Award Winners and Nominees and other Internet professionals.

IDEAS: The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences was founded in 1998 to help drive the creative, technical, and professional progress of the Internet and evolving forms of interactive media.

More:
www.webbyawards.com
www.iadas.net

Twitter: @thewebbyawards
Facebook: the webbyawards
YouTube: the webby

Emily on
Twitter: @emilyhonora
LinkedIn: Emily Warren
XING: Emily Warren

Short intro to Webby Awards and Internet Week:

More:
www.jolicloud.com
www.facebook.com/jolicloud
www.twitter.com/jolicloud
Jolicloud on Wikipedia

www.netvibes.com

Tariq on Twitter
Blog: http://www.tariqkrim.com
Tariq’s profile on LinkedIn

Other articles/links/videos:
Techcrunch: Jolicoud’s netbook will launch first in the UK (11/2010)
TechCrunch: Hands-On Review Of Jolicloud, The iPhonesque OS For Netbooks (06/2009)
Zmogo: Jolicloud, A Fantastic OS For Your Netbook (06/2009)
TripTech blog: Nevermind Mac and Windows; It’s a Cloud World Now (07/2009)
ZDNet UK: Jolicloud: The future is HTML 5 (08/2010)

Short intro to Jolicloud and Jolibook:

Career: Film Director and Producer (i.e.”Elizabeth”, “Elizabeth: The Golden Age”, “Bandit Queen”) but simply calls himself “Adventurer”
Interests: Water, Nature, Social Business, Humanity, Future of our Planet
Hometown: Mumbai, India; born Lahore, British India (nowadays Pakistan);lived many years in New York City, USA

Shekhar Kapur, born 6 December 1945 in British India (in an area which became part of Pakistan) is a renowned filmmaker from India. His works include Elizabeth (1998), a semi-historical account of the early reign of Queen Elizabeth I; it was nominated for 8 Oscars. In 2000, he was awarded the Padma Shri. Some scenes of the movie Joshilaay (1989) which starred Sunny Deol, Anil Kapoor, Sridevi and Meenakshi Sheshadari were directed by Kapur. He was accused of being Anti-British by British tabloids, by the way he portrayed the British Army and the Empire in the movie The Four Feathers. Kapur also executive produced the Hollywood film The Guru and Bollywood-themed Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Bombay Dreams, which has been running in the West End, London since 2002, and on Broadway in New York City since 2004. Projects include Long Walk to Freedom, Water, The Last Full Measure, and Golden Age, a sequel to Elizabeth.

In June 2005, Kapur and his friend, guru Deepak Chopra launched a discussion blog with a select group of their friends and family. The purpose of the blog is to promote original discussion by voices from South Asia, and especially India. Kapur posts regularly on the blog, often writing short personal poems. Shortly after, Kapur also started his own personal blog on his official website. In January 2006, it was reported that Kapur and Chopra would be collaborating with Richard Branson on a Bangalore-based animated film company.

His most recent projekt is PAANI (which means ‘water’ in Hindu) which aims to ring the alarm bell for the global water crisis. In November 2010, when the above interview was taped, Shekhar Kapur signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Grameen Creative Lab to create an investment fund for water-related social businesses in India. Being passionate about water-related issues he will act as ambassador for the fund. Kapur signed the MOU together with Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of the Grameen Bank Prof. Muhammad Yunus.

More:
www.shekharkapur.com
Shekhar on Facebook

Wikipedia: Movie “Elizabeth”
YouTube: Tailer of “Elizabeth”

Wikipedia: “Elizabeth – The Golden Age”
YouTube: Tailer of “Elizabeth: The Golden Age”

Other articles/links/videos:
YouTube: Business of Cinema: Shekhar Kapur raises alarm bell for water conservation (10/2010)
Global water crisis gets Bollywood Sci-Fi treatment
Realbollywood News Shekhar Kapur rings the alarm bell for water conservation (09/2010)
DNA: The water divide, Shekhar Kapur’s magnificent obsession (05/2010)
Indian Express: Shekhar Kapur’s ‘Paani’ to seek solution for water shortage (05/2010)
YouTube: I’m not a professional filmmaker: Shekhar Kapoor (07/2010)
Vimeo: Paolo Coelho: Social Business – An issue close to society’s heart?

Career: Scientist and Entrepreneur (Technology Pioneer 2010 by WEF), Founder and CEO Aura Biosciences
Interests: Art, Music, Travel, Languages, Photography, Innovation, Giving Back
Hometown: Barcelona, Spain; Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Elisabet de los Pinos is Founder and CEO of Aura Biosciences, a next-generation biotechnology company seeking to greatly improve the efficacy of cancer treatment. Her career spans oncology and translational research in both biotech and large pharmaceutical settings, including Lilly Pharmaceuticals. Elisabet received a magna cum laude doctorate in Molecular Biology at the University of Barcelona. She completed part of her training at Mount Sinai School of Medicine Institute of Molecular Medicine (NY-USA) and at Georgetown School of Medicine (Washington DC). Following that, she worked as a post-doctoral Fellow at the Institute of Cancer Research in London (UK). She has a Master degree in Business Administration from European IE Business School and is a graduate of the Entrepreneurship Development Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Aura Biosciences, is a next-generation biotech company developing the Nanosmart(tm) platform for the delivery of nano-enabled drugs. Nanosmart solves critical issues in drug delivery by encapsulating therapies within protein nanoparticles engineered for precise targeting, immune system evasion, and efficient cellular uptake. Aura is applying Nanosmart to two important areas, the well-studied area of chemotherapeutics and the emerging field of RNAi. With an initial focus on cancer, Aura’s goal is to increase patient survival rates by making chemotherapy better tolerated and more efficacious. The company was recognized in 2009 as a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum and is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

More:
www.aurobiosciences.com

Other articles/links/videos:
Time Magazine: Tech Pioneers Who Will Change Your Life
Bloomberg Businessweek: Aura Biosciences Targets a New Era of Cancer Drugs (2009/12)
YouTube by WEF / Technology Pioneer 2010: Delivering the Next Generation of Nano-embeded Drugs

Short intro to Aura Biosciences:

Career: Orchestra Conductor, Opera Director and Producer
Interests: Literature, Philosophy, Cinema, Sports
Hometown: * South Germany, based in Berlin; temp. Vermont, USA&Ecuador

Opera director Christoph Hagel is known for his modern adaptations of classical operas, his mixing of genres and performances in unusual venues. Former performances include Mozart’s The Magic Flute in an underground station, Cos fan Tutte at a former electrical substation and techno club as well as Flying Bach at the Neue Nationalgalerie.

His latest project is the Berlin premiere of Mozarts 1791 opera Titus at the Bode Museum. The tragic triangle of love and death is Hagel’s third opera staging at the Bode Museum. The three main characters are interpreted simultaneously by a singer and an actor respectivley, and spoken theatre scenes are added. Solo dancer Martin Buczko from the Staatsballett Berlin ensemble dances the part of Sesto. The music is provided by the Berlin Symphoniker.

Beside his Berlin events he conducts several south American symphonic orchestras and is engaged in musical education projects in different South American towns. Starting 2010 he is the director of the opera singing program at Middelbury College in Vermont/USA.
In September 2010 Christoph received the ECHO Klassik award in the category “Special Award of the Jury”.

Articles / Links / Videos:

Video: Deutsche Welle: Mozart in unusual settings (Cosi fan Tutte, 11/2009)
Video: Arte (in German): Mozart (Titus, 10/2010)
Video: ITN News: New platform for experimental opera (The Magic Flute, 04/2008)
Video: Deutsche Welle: Mozart in unusual settings (Cosi fan Tutte, 11/2009)
Photos: The Economist / Intelligent Life: “The Magic Flute” (07/2008)
www.tocc-concept.de

Career: Social Media Architect, World Economic Forum
Interests: Food, Travel, Family
Hometown: Lake Geneva, France; Krefeld, Germany

Matthias Lüfkens, Associate Director-Media, World Economic Forum, aspires to inspire. After bringing Davos to the world for five years, he now brings the world to Davos through his innovative use of social media, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, MySpace, Wikipedia, Qik and Livestream included.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) is a non-profit foundation best known for its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, which brings together top business leaders, international political leaders, selected intellectuals and journalists to discuss the most pressing issues facing the world, including health and the environment. The WEF is active on numerous social media platforms to engage the wider public in their activities and to debate the key challenges facing the planet.

Previously a journalist, he was Baltic States correspondent for Agence France Presse, Libération and the Daily Telegraph (1991-96); and later Deputy Editor-in-chief of EuroNews television (1996-2004). Lüfkens is writing a bi monthly column about social media for the Swiss-French magazine Bilan which are also published on his blog: http://lufkens.wordpress.com. In 1991 he founded the In Your Pocket city guide series in Lithuania, now Central Europe’s premier publisher and provider of city information. In his free time, when not slavishly tracking tech trends, Lüfkens films and edits videos for his multiple YouTube channels.

More:

Matthias Lüfkens on
http://twitter.com/luefkens
http://facebook.com/luefkens
http://youtube.com/luefkens
http://linkedin.com/in/luefkens
http://foursquare.com/luefkens
http://lufkens.wordpress.com

Career: CEO and Founding Member of Grameen Creative Lab
Interests: Social Business, Politics, Dance
Hometowns: Frankfurt, Germany

Saskia Bruysten is CEO and Strategic Director of The Grameen Creative Lab GmbH (GCL). She was one of the founding members of the GCL, along with Nobel Peace Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus. Previously she worked at The Boston Consulting Group as a senior consultant (Munich and New York). She completed her Bachelor and MBA at the European Business School (ebs), and went on to graduate with a distinction, MSc in Theory and History of International Relations from the London School of Economics. Saskia comes from a German / Canadian background, and has studied in the USA and Argentina.

The Grameen Creative Lab (GCL) was founded at the end of 2008 by Nobel Peace Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus. Its goal is to fight poverty through the spread of the model of social business. A social business is a non-loss, non-dividend company aimed at achieving a social goal. As such, it exists only for the purpose of solving a social problem, such as hunger, disease, etc. It addresses this issue very much like a conventional business would. However, the social business can make money, but investors don’t take money out of it. Profits get reinvested to further the social goal. The GCL undertakes two main activities; 1. Creating awareness to social business through events; 2. Providing consulting services to companies, entrepreneurs and organizations interested in founding a social business.

The GCL has consulted or is in the process of consulting and partnering with the following companies, universities, governments and organisations: BASF, Otto Group, SAP, adidas Group; EBS University, Kyushu University, McGill University, Istituto Europeo di Design, Finance University of Moscow; Government of Caldas, Colombia, Government of Albania, City of Wiesbaden; World Economic Forum, Clinton Global Initiative, Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs, Sing for Hope, Erste Stiftung. Additionally, the Grameen Creative Lab has initiated the setup of social business funds in Mumbai and Haiti.

More:
www.grameencreativelab.com
GCL Facebook
GCL on Twitter
GCL on Vimeo

Twitter: @saskiabruysten

Wikipedia: Social Business
Wikipedia: Muhammad Yunus
Yunus Center
Grameen Bank

Other articles/links/videos:
TruthDive.com: Mohammad Yunus and Social Business. Poor people are more socially conscious and honest.
Fora.tv: Muhammad Yunus – The Social Business Model
YouTube: Microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus speaks at the University of Virginia
Book by Muhammad Yunus: Building Social Business: The New Kind of Capitalism that Serves Humanity’s Most Pressing Needs
Book by Muhammad Yunus: Creating a world without poverty