The short version is that I’m a writer originally from a small town in northern Appalachia. The longer story is that I earned my master’s from the University of California at Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism in 2000. After graduating, I worked for Wired magazine and Wired.com.
In 2003, I co-authored a book called Dungeons & Dreamers: A story of how computer games created a global culture before accepting a job as the producer and senior editor for MIT’s Technology Review Web operation. I’ve been an advisory board member for South by Southwest Interactive for more than a decade, where I’ve hosted its Accelerator program since 2009.
I’m also an editor and advisory board member for Carnegie Mellon’s ETC Press, as well as an advisory board member for the Carmel Arts Council and the Indiana Writers Center.
These days:
- I run The Geeky Press (a writers collective)
- I’m an assistant professor of journalism at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana
- I’m the director of the university’s Digital Media Minor
In 2013, I raised $11,000 on Kickstarter to write So Far Appalachia, a memoir of my family’s life in Appalachia.
Mostly, though, I love telling stories. I write, I create podcasts, I tinker with video, I work in the weird space between digital, print, and the real world. You can find my professional information at LinkedIn or About.me, and you can find all the places I exist as an author.
On stage as the emcee at the SXSW Accelerator: It’s not as bad as it looks.
Bob Metcalfe and I listening to one of the SXSW Accelerator pitches.