Our Organization
The Participatory Culture Foundation, a Massachusetts based 501(c)(3) non-profit, makes bottom-up economies and cultures possible by ensuring that our political, social and cultural systems are open and democratic everywhere. We work to eliminate gatekeepers and empower communities around the world.
People often ask why we're setup as a non-profit rather than a for-profit. Quite simply: all of us at PCF are drawn to the project because of the mission. Being a non-profit is the only way we can ensure that the mission is built into the structure of the company. So many times we've seen for-profit companies lose their values as financial pressures mount, founders leave, or they get acquired. We want to make sure that can't happen.
About Miro
We see an opportunity to build a new, open mass medium of online television. We're developing the Miro internet TV platform so that watching internet video shows will be as easy as watching TV and broadcasting a shows will be open to everyone. Unlike traditional TV, everyone will have a voice.
Board of Directors
Tiffiniy Cheng
Tiffiniy is a co-Founder of PCF.
Joel Cohen
Joel is a television producer, director, and editor, best known for producing The 90's, a critically acclaimed reality magazine series on PBS.
Cory Doctorow
Cory writes for BoingBoing.net,and is a science fiction writer, professor, and has worked for the Electronic Frontier Foundation for many years.
Dave Glassco, Secretary
Dave is a geek, musician, and father living in Austin, Texas.
Rick Hess, President
Rick Hess is a San Francisco-based high technology executive, advisor, and political activist. A former Oracle/PeopleSoft/Arbor/Hyperion VP and CEO of Ellianz, Rick is in awe of the next generation of techies who really want to help improve the human condition using technology.
Leszek Izdebski
[biography forthcoming]
John Lilly
John is the Chief Executive Officer at Mozilla Corporation, creators of the Firefox web browser.
Stefan Magdalinski
Stefan Magdalinski has been an online civic activist for over 10 years. Previous projects he founded include FaxYourMP.com, UpMyStreet.com, and TheyWorkForYou.com. He is currently the CTO for MOO.com.
Nicholas Reville, Treasurer
Nicholas is a co-founder of PCF and is the Executive Director.
Holmes Wilson
Holmes is a co-Founder of PCF. He has led several successful online advocacy projects and is also on the board of the Participatory Politics Foundation.
Major Funders
Rappaport Family Foundation
Mitch Kapor Foundation
Surdna Foundation
Mozilla Foundation
Knight Foundation
Opencast
Open Society Institute
William Penn Foundation
...and many individual users
Staff
Nicholas Reville
Co-Founder, Executive Director
Nicholas Reville is from Worcester, MA and has a B.A. in Public Policy from Brown University. He worked in a variety of political activism positions for several years before co-founding PCF.
Contact: nicholas[at]pculture.org
Dean Jansen
Outreach Director
Dean is based in New York. He co-organized the inaugural Open Video Conference. More recently, he's been kick-starting & collaborating on PCF's Universal Subtitles project.
Contact: dean[at]pculture.org
Janet Dragojevic
Quality Assurance
Janet directs quality and testing for PCF. She lives on an island in the Adriatic.
Contact: jed[at]pculture.org
Holmes Wilson
Co-Founder
Holmes Wilson is from Worcester, MA. He founded the Worcester Computer Co-op, an organization that uses free software and recycled computers to start computer labs in his city. He has a B.A. in Italian literature and speaks Italian.
Contact: holmes[at]pculture.org
Tiffiniy Cheng
Co-Founder
Tiffiniy Cheng is from Worcester, MA and has a BS in engineering and urban planning from the Cooper Union. She has worked in non-profit, urban planning, and public policy-oriented organizations.
Contact: tiffiniy[at]pculture.org
Ben Dean- Kawamura
Software Developer
Ben lives in Rochester, NY.
Contact: ben[at]pculture.org
Luc Heinrich
Software Developer
Luc Heinrich, a Miro programmer, lives in Paris with his wife and two tadpoles (kids).
Contact: luc[at]pculture.org
Paul Swartz
Software Developer
Paul is from Kensington, MD, but graduated with a B.A. from Hampshire College and now lives in Northampton, MA.
Contact: pswartz[at]pculture.org
Will Guaraldi Kahn-Greene
Software Developer
Will lives in Somerville, MA, has a Masters in CS from NEU, writes children's books, hacks on PyBlosxom, programs, and has always thought that computers are both pretty neat and pretty annoying.
Contact: will.guaraldi[at]pculture.org
Morgan Knutson
Designer
Morgan grew up in Los Angeles, CA, and curently resides in Ventura. He paints a fine coat of badass onto everything PCF does, from Miro's UI to the multitude of websites. He also helps carry the flag of government transparency at PPF's OpenCongress.org
Contact: morgan[at]pculture.org
Matt Kivela
System Administrator
Matt lives in Brooklyn, CT. A History major in college, he now pulls of feats of baling twine and bubble gum engineering that would make Montgomery Scott and Galen Tyrol proud.
Contact: mkivela[at]pculture.org
Anne Jonas
Community Outreach Coordinator
Anne is originally from Chicago, IL and has a BA in English Lit from Brown University. She worked at several nonprofits before joining PCF through Americorps. She currently lives in Brooklyn, NY, and works on Miro Community and other capacity-building projects.
Contact: anne[at]pculture.org
