Bio

John has always loved a good story and was a performer early in life doing mostly theater. He went on to become president of the Thespian Society in High School where he auditioned and received a full ride scholarship to a theater arts conservatory. Never one to take the easy way out he left behind his full ride and went on to study education and media. He is currently an Adjunct Professor at Portland State University teaching Social Media Marketing.

His career and life have been a mix of the technical and the creative. Inspired by Howard Rheingold and Jaron Lanier he had a stint as a Virtual Reality consultant in the early 90’s that gave him an insight into the evolution of our interface with technology. Seeing these virtual spaces as an amazing canvas to tell stories he quickly realized that the world was not ready for VR. His experience in this space did however make him begin to look at new ways a story might play out and exposed him to 3D modeling and construction.

Having been online using bulletin board systems he was keenly aware of the emergence of the Internet. Deeply interested in how this medium might be used to create “new media” John began experimenting at first with static images and then with video on the web. He was also fortunate to work with Intel beta testing some of the first web servers as Hollywood Video’s first Webmaster. John then went on to run his own company creating animation, web sites and video (including some of the first streamed video for the web) for a wide range of clients.

He moved on to work for the Digital Universe (“The Digital Universe aims to be the definitive repository of human knowledge online.”), eventually becoming the Technology Evangelist for the Digital Universe Foundation. He worked with NASA, Environmental Literacy Council, Earth 911, Cosmos Studios, The Jane Goodall Institute, Lawrence Lessig, Dr. Robert W. Corell, Larry Sanger(co-founder Wikipedia), the afore mentioned Howard Rheingold as well as many other organizations and universities.

In 2006 he formed Feedia a transmedia production company where he helped companies to take advantage of market opportunities arising from the evolution of media through an understanding of convergence culture. While running Feedia John’s clients have included Intel, Toyota, HP, Subway, LaCie, MMI and many others. In 2009 Evergreen Branded Media was formed to evolve Transmedia strategies and integrate branded entertainment into stories and across platforms.

He has served on a number of boards in the past and is currently on the board of the Portland Creative Conference, Social Media Club and an Advisor to the SoMe(Social Media) Awards. He is married with a five year old and enjoys spending as much time as he can in the sand or snow.