Authors
Alison Black
Alison is a psychologist who is fascinated by how people use new products and technologies. She has been working in user-centred design for more than 20 years, helping companies see their products and services through the eyes of the people who will use them (it’s not always easy for large companies to get their customers’ perspectives).
Alison’s first mobile phone project was in 1992 (for one of the UK’s first mobile operators, Mercury). Since then she has worked with companies including AT&T, Orange, Nokia, Motorola, Deutsche Telekom and T-Mobile. She says ‘I’m a mobile phone klutz myself, so it’s an ideal area for me to working in - I’m the one who always asks the dumb questions that other people are too embarrassed to ask’
danah boyd
danah boyd is a doctoral candidate in University of California-Berkeley’s School of Information and a fellow at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society. Her ethnographic research centers on how youth engage in networked publics like MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, etc. She is particularly interesting in understanding how the properties of networked technologies affect youth socialization and what this will mean as mobile technologies begin connecting broader peer groups. Her research is funded by the MacArthur Foundation as part of a broader grant on digital youth and informal learning.
Prior to Berkeley, danah received a B.A. in computer science from Brown University and a M.S. in sociable media from MIT Media Lab. She has worked as an ethnographer and social media researcher for various corporations, including Intel, Tribe.net, Google, and Yahoo! She has advised numerous other companies and regularly speaks at industry conferences and events. She also created a large online community for V-Day, a non-profit organization working to end violence against women and girls worldwide.
danah is also an active blogger. Her blog, Apophenia, addresses a wide range of topics related to social media.
Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino
Alexandra is a Canadian industrial and interaction designer working in London. She has been involved in projects for clients such as Nokia, Motorola, Droog design, Thinglink, Jaiku, Blast Radius, fo.am and has been helping run some of the user-lead workshops at Blyk, meeting new users of the service and helping make their opinions shape Blyk’s future.
She’s been blogging on designswarm for a few years and is CEO of a technology and design consultancy based in London and Milan called Tinker.it.
Inma Martinez
With over 10 years experience in new technologies, Inma is described by Fortune and Time as one of Europe’s top talents in Human Factors and Social Engagement through mobile, the web and interactive TV. Her work has laid the foundations of many of today’s successful Web 2.0 businesses by advocating the “humanisation” of technology through services that can be embraced by users as desired brands accessible through multi-media channels. Her utmost desire is to ensure that innovation technologies meet human needs, not just functional, but emotional and sometimes “hard to fulfil” because humans, after all, are non-linear beings, but live through constant transformation and seek to form identity with what surrounds them.
Founder of strategic consultancy Stradbroke Advisors, she works closely with venture capital firms (3i, Index Ventures), government agencies (EU Commission) and international companies (Nokia Corporation, HP, the BBC, DMGT) in the launch of new technologies by creating and implementing their consumer and product strategy across diverse media platforms and fast-paced dynamic environments.
Blyk
Marko Ahtisaari
Marko is responsible for brand and design at Blyk, the pan-European free mobile network for young people funded by advertising. Prior to Blyk Marko was Director of Design Strategy at Nokia, a world leader in mobile communications. At Nokia he held management positions in venturing and corporate strategy, always with a focus on creating new growth through better user experience.
Marko was born in Helsinki, Finland and raised on three continents in Helsinki, Dar es Salaam and New York. He went on to study philosophy, economics and music at Columbia University; New York where he lectured for several years. Marko serves on the board of directors of F-Secure Corporation and Artek oy ab. In the in-between moments Marko composes ambient music and enjoys ice swimming. He blogs at ahtisaari.typepad.com.