John Buckman (creative commons, magnatune, bookmooch) - USA
John Buckman is founder and CEO of Magnatune.com, an online record label that strives to be fair to both recording artists and customers alike, and which was recently named as one of the "Top 20 Music Download Sites" by Time Magazine. Considered a solid example of a Creative Commons-backed business model, Magnatune provides international web-based distribution to hundreds of recording artists and features an innovative on-demand licensing tool for commercial music licensing. In 2006, John founded Bookmooch.com, an online community for exchanging used books. His past accomplishments as a programmer and entrepreneur include having founded email software company Lyris in 1994 which was sold to JL Halsey in 2005. He also created Tile.net, an early web site directory that was sold to Internet.com in 2001. Buckman was born in London, raised in Paris, France until the age of 10, and currently divides his time between London and Berkeley, California.

Bob Young (Lulu.com) - USA
Bob Young is the founder and CEO of Lulu.com, the premier international marketplace for new digital content on the Internet, with more than 100,000 recently published titles and more than 2500 new titles added each week, created by people in 80 different countries.
Lulu.com, founded in 2002, is Young’s most recent endeavour. The success of this company has earned Young notable recognition; he was named one of the “Top 50 Agenda-Setters in the Technology Industry in 2006” and was ranked as the fourth “Top Entrepreneur for 2006,” both by Silicon.com.
In 1993 Young co-founded Red Hat, the open source software company that gives hardware and software vendors a standard platform on which to certify their technology. Red Hat has evolved into a Fortune 500 company and chief rival to Microsoft and Sun. His success at Red Hat won him industry accolades, including nomination as one of Business Week Magazine’s "Top Entrepreneurs” in 1999.
Before founding Red Hat, Young spent 20 years at the helm of two computer-leasing companies that he founded. His experiences as a high tech entrepreneur combined with his innate marketing savvy led to Red Hat’s success. His book, Under the Radar, chronicles how Red Hat’s open source strategy successfully won wide industry acceptance in a market previously dominated by proprietary binary-only systems.
Young graduated from the University of Toronto in 1976 prior to beginning his career in the computer finance arena.
Young also owns of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League and currently serves as the league’s vice chairman.

Loïc Le Meur (http://loiclemeur.com/) - FRANCE
Loïc is a well-known French entrepreneur, now fulltime blogger and vlogger. Loic's blog is #1 in France. Working on his next venture, Loïc is also honorary Chairman at Six Apart, the leading weblog software company and investor and advisor in tens of startups such as LinkedIn or Technorati. He also organizes every year one of Europe's largest web event, LeWeb3, that gathered 1300 participants from 37 Countries in 2006.
Loïc served as Executive VP of Six Apart EMEA from 2003 to 2007 and founded and served as CEO for several companies in France, including U-blog, a european blog service in 2003; RapidSite France, the first shared Web hosting company launched in 1997. Rapid Site France was sold to France Telecom and B2L, one of the first Web agencies launched in France in 1996, with clients including Chanel, 20th Century Fox, and Mars, which was sold to BBDO, a leading advertising group. Loïc is also a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum. He launched the WEF blog in 2004 and has been advising and blogging for the Forum since then.

Ana Pejcinova (writer, open source expert) - MACEDONIA
Ana Pejcinova graduated at the Department of General & Comparative Literature 1997 (St. Cyril & Methodius Univ., the Blaze Koneski Philological Faculty), and continued at the correspondent Department at a Ph.D level at the Philosophical Faculty, Charles IV University of Prague. I completed my studies in 2002 with an interdisciplinary dissertation subject (see The Crystals Of The Unconscious). Parallel to it, I followed training courses in Prague and Warsaw in Systemic Changework, obtained the degree of Advanced Coach, and held a private practice in systemic coaching in Prague 2000-02, with Relationship Constellations groupwork for public. She returned to Macedonia in 2002. After a series of short-term employments in literature and project management, in 2004, she worked for the UNDP/UNVolunteers in Skopje, then served in the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) as a Provincial Civic Education Officer June-December 2004, when she was recruited to IOM Iraqi Out-of-Country Voting Program as a Chief of Voter Education in the Country Office in Copenhagen. Next, in 2005, UNOPS recruited me for the Afghan Parliamentary Elections as a Regional Public Outreach Officer in the Southeast Region-Gardez. Then, she decided to study again; this time at a different faculty; she completed my MA in Political Science in 2006, at the Central European Univerity of Budapest. Her thesis was, naturally, Afghanistan: Creation of a Warlord Democracy.

Dick Rijken (freelance expert consultant, reader on information technology and society) - THE NETHERLANDS
Dick Rijken has a great deal of experience in running and advising on new media projects in the cultural sector. Some of his projects include setting up VPRO's 3voor12 lokaal, and more recently the ‘Wonderkamers’ in the Gemeente Museum in The Hague. Dick teaches at the Haagse Hogeschool, where he set up a course for students who come up with new media projects for cultural and social NGOs. The key issue in this course is to coach a process in which an idea becomes a concept, and finally a good project proposal that can raise funds.

Jan Bierhoff (director of The European Centre for Digital Communication (EC/DC) and the project Fleed) - THE NETHERLANDS
Before joining EC/DC and the International Institute of Infonomics, Jan Bierhoff served as director and director of research at the European Journalism Centre. In an earlier stage of his career he directed the international activities of the Dutch School of Journalism.At this institute, he also lectured in media and communication theory. After graduation in Mass Communication at Nijmegen University, Bierhoff started his professional career as a journalist. For many years he was a reporter and editor of a variety of radio programmes, wrote for newspapers and magazines and worked as a media consultant. Publications from his hand include articles about media innovation trends and several textbooks on media structures and strategies. Jan Bierhoff is founding member and former president of the European Journalism Training Association, and participates in various advisory boards of European media organisations.

Paul Gerhardt (Project Director, BBC Creative Archive) - UNITED KINGDOM
Paul is leading the Creative Archive project for the BBC, and co-ordinates the UK’s Creative Archive Licence Group. He was educated at the universities of Hull and Oxford and has a doctorate in international relations. He began his career in adult teaching, as a tutor/organiser for the Workers' Educational Association. In 1982 he helped found the International Broadcasting Trust, and worked on Battle for the Planet for Channel 4. In 1987 he moved to Thames Television as a producer and Network Education Officer. His career at the BBC began in 1991 with the development of night time broadcasting, and in 1995 he launched the BBC Learning Zone on BBC Two. In 1997 he became Head of Commissioning at the BBC/Open University and re-negotiated this leading educational partnership, bringing OU programmes such as Rough Science into the BBC’s peaktime schedule. From 2001 to 2004 he was Controller, Learning, and responsible for the BBC's adult education strategy and for national campaigns such as The Big Read.

Clo Willaerts (Marketing & Communication manager Skynet, Blogger) - BELGIUM
Online media specialist with experience with radio, tv, printed media and of course, online. Specialties: streaming media, viral marketing, online communities, new media, mobile technologies, youth marketing, social software, blogging, podcasts,...

Nico Verplancke (program manager New Media & E-Government at the IBBT - the Interdisciplinary institute for Broad Band Technology) - BELGIUM
Nico Verplancke studied Applied Economics at the University of Louvain and obtained his Master's Degree in 1997. He resolutely opted for a career in IT. He obtained his first working experience at Guidance Benelux. After a short period at Sydney Tristar, Nico participated in laying the basis for the Java Competence Centre of Real Software in the year 2000. As a manager, he participated in the responsibility for the development of the team, which expanded into a department of 50 employees within a few years. Nico's most important tasks were project follow-up, technology and pre-sales. Nico joined IBBT as a program manager at the end of October 2004. In this function, he works closely together with a variety of research groups and industrial partners. Nico's focus is on projects in e-media and e-government, including support and follow-up.

Bettina Geysen (Director Marketdevelopment and New Media at VRT – Flemish Broadcast Company) - BELGIUM
Bettina Geysen spent her youth in the media-world. Only 14, she already made articles for the youth-magazine “Imago” at VRT-Radio 1. She studied “Toegepaste Communicatie” and spent some years at the agency Censydiam. In 1988 she got a contract at Radio Vlaanderen Internationaal which she changed for Radio 2 – Antwerp two years later.
From 1997 until 1998 she worked for the Strategic Department at VRT-Television. She learned how to analyse and evaluate different television shows and program concepts. She got some practice as a presenter and interviewer in the show “Familiezaken”.
In June 2000, Bettina Geysen became program advisor at Canvas/Ketnet and already in August 2000 she became vice-netmanager. Two years later she became netmanager for both Canvas and Ketnet.
In February 2003, after a request from the VRT-management, she became manager from één, where she realised the change from TV1 to één.
In July 2005, Bettina Geysen became netmanager for Ketnet as well.As from 1st    february 2006, Bettina Geysen is General Manager Nieuwe Media and until March 2006, she combined this with the realisation of the innovation of Ketnet.
In february 2007, with the new organisation structures, Bettina Geysen became Manager Marktontwikkeling (Nieuwe Media + develop businessmodels + manage websites)

Michel Walrave (University of Antwerp, Communication Studies) - BELGIUM

Philippe Meers (University of Antwerp - Communication studies: Research Group Visual Culture) - BELGIUM
Philippe Meers lectures film- en mediatheory at the University of Antwerp - Departement of. Hij is head of research for visual studies. Meers' interests and research is situated on the level where film studies, media studies and international communication meet. He publishes in national and international journals about film culture, popular media cltur, film audiences and film reception. He is chair of the Film Studies section of the European Communication Reseach and Education Association ( ECREA ) and member of the board of Aifoon (www.aifoon.be) and  C.H.I.P.S.

Stuart Nolan (HEX INDUCTION) - UK
He was an expert in interactive TV as long as 6 or 7 years ago, and used to travel all over the world giving presentations about interactive TV. After that he spent two years studying to be a magician so that he could understand the relationship between technology, the physical world and interactions. Now he's looking at play, creativity and technology.

Hans Martens (University of Antwerp - Communication studies: Research Group Visual Culture) (reporter) - BELGIUM
Hans Martens received his master’s degree in Media Studies from the Catholic University of Leuven in 2004. He graduated on a socio-historical master’s thesis on the reaction of Hollywood against the rise of Nazism between 1933 and 1941. In 2005 he successfully participated in the Master Film Studies and Visual Culture at the University of Antwerp, resulting in a Master’s Thesis analysing - in a Cavellian vein - Frank Capra’s Lady for a Day. Intrigued by the social relevance of film and television, he gradually focused his attention on media education. Working for kortfilm.be - an online magazine specialized in short film criticism -, he participated in INgeBEELD. Through this initiative, the Flemish Community attempts to broaden the traditional interpretation of 'literacy' in primary and secondary education. At the moment Hans Martens is an assistant at the Media Studies department in Antwerp. He is a member of the research unit Visual Culture and is preparing a PhD on film culture and audiovisual education.

Sandra Fauconnier (Jan Van Eyck Academy, freelancer) - THE NETHERLANDS
Sandra Fauconnier has (the equivalent of) a BA in architecture at Sint-Lucas (currently WENK, Hogeschool Kunst en Wetenschappen) Ghent and an MA in art history (Kunstwetenschappen) at Ghent University. First, she worked as a researcher, content and interface designer at Ghent University's teacher training department. Since 2000, she is (now part-time) media archivist at V2 - Institute for the Unstable Media in Rotterdam, where she designed a description model for electronic art activities, developed a thesaurus on media art, and worked on various research projects related to (among others) the preservation of electronic art, and alternative copyright models. At this moment, she is also, until end 2007, researcher at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht. When she has some time left, she does some freelance activities (mainly teaching, lectures and consulting).

Gert Nulens (Free University Brussels- Researchgroup:SMIT) - BELGIUM
Gert Nulens is researcher at SMIT for IBBT research projects, and for Steunpunt Re-Creatief Vlaanderen. The projects he is involved in are focussing on eCulture. More particularly he is analysing the ways in which new media can and are used for cultural management (management of collections, of institutions, etc.), for cultural participation (broadening, deepening and diversifying) and for cultural creation (digital born culture versus digitised culture).
Gert Nulens formerly worked as a teaching assistant at the department of Communication Sciences of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. His research projects in the past were concentrated on the information society policy of international organizations in Africa. He has published widely on this topic.

Kristof Michiels (Free University Brussels- Researchgroup:SMIT) - BELGIUM
Kristof Michiels works as a researcher at SMIT. He has studied Art History & Archaeology (1998) at the Free University of Brussels. Before joining the SMIT-team in 2004, he worked in the ICT-industry as consultant (Atos Origin, 1998-2001) and as researcher in the Rubenianum in Antwerp (2002-2004). In general his research interest goes to topics related to ICT and e-culture. He is active in several SMIT and IBBT-projects and specialises in the study of the use and social consequences of online communities and weblogs. Furthermore he is passionated by the possibilities and effects of a more structured and more meaningful web (to both humans and computers).

Dirk De Wit (Co-ordinator Digital Platform Flanders) - BELGIUM
From 1989 onwards Dirk De Wit was media-programmer at Kunstencentrum STUKLeuven (Arts Centre) and developed at the arts centre a production unit for audiovisual arts. In 1997 he started Constant vzw, a new organisation for arts and new media in Brussels. He was responsible for all film - , video -, and new media projects within Brussel2000 (Brussels Cultural Capital of Europe) and as a lecturer he is linked with the international post-graduate programme Transmedia of the Sint Lukas Hogeschool in Brussels. At the moment he is in charge of Digitaal Platform launched by the support centres for audiovisual (IAK) and visual arts (IBK). Digitaal Platform documents activities within the field of arts and new media and supports artists and organisations working with new media and technology.

Debbie Esmans ( works at the Ministry of Culture, youth, sports and media of Flanders, with a special interest in E-Culture) - BELGIUM
Debbie Esmans works for the Departement for Culture, Youth, Sports and Media of the Flemish Government. As a policy assistant she has been following the subject of e-culture for a couple of years now and was responsible for the coordination of the policy preparotory work that resulted in October 2006 in the publication 'E-Cultuur. Bouwstenen voor praktijk en beleid'.

Arne Van Peteghem (Director TRIX music centre) - BELGIUM

Evi Werkers (ICRI- Interdisciplinary Centre for Law and ICT) - BELGIUM
Evi Werkers obtained her Law degree at the University of Antwerp in 2004 (cum laude). In 2005 she obtained her degree as Master in cultural management at the University of Antwerp Management School (cum laude).
Evi joined the ICRI team in November 2005. She cooperated in the CIcK project and is currently working on the VACF, ASCIT, E-DAVID and FLEET project. Her area of research is focused on copyright and media law.

Stefan Kolgen (C.H.I.P.S. vzw, K&L | arts access & new media) (moderator) - BELGIUM
Stefan Kolgen is artistic director of C.H.I.P.S. vzw. He studied ‘image/sound’ at RICTS in Brussels. He is active in the field of new media and Internet since 1993. Testing and introducing new technologies and communication tools within the work of cultural institutions is at the forefront of his work, as well as implementing them in projects involving as many people as possible in a creative process: eg. citychromosomes, droom de stad, BoekenCast.be. C.H.I.P.S. vzw supports, develops and promotes initiatives that have new media and participation at the centre. The name refers to ‘a chip’ the central piece in electronics and to communication, community, humanity, interaction, innovation, participation and society.

Ann Laenen (C.H.I.P.S. vzw) (moderator) - BELGIUM
Ann Laenen studied arts and theatre science in Leuven and is currently finishing her PhD research on audience policy within Opera in a European context at the University of Leeds – School of Education. She is a free lance consultant in arts communication/management & audience development projects In the last five years the link between arts marketing and the use of new technologies in the dialogue with an audience have become more central within her work both professional and non-professional, as a member of C.H.I.P.S. vzw, a non-profit organisation with expertise in developing and supporting cultural projects involving a broad audience and new media tools: see for instance the project Citychromosomes.

Dorian Van Der Brempt (Director – deBuren) - BELGIUM
Was the director of boek.be and advisor to the Flemish Ministers of Culture Van Grembergen and Anciaux. He is a lecturer at the Design Academy in Eindhoven and until 1999 was a partner in Enthoven Associates Design Consultants. He is a government-appointed director of the Flemish Literature Fund. He studied Romanic Philology. 1986 saw publication of 'Monologues with Jan Hoet', which he edited with Marc Van Dyck (published by Kritak)

Sander Muilerman (Press & communication - deBuren) - THE NETHERLANDS
Studied Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology in Leiden and Tourism Management in Rotterdam, carried out field studies in Senegal and worked in a development project in Congo-Brazzaville. Before his arrival at deBuren he was working for the Development Cooperation Scientific Advisory Board (RAWOO) in The Hague and for TUI in Mechelen

Patrick Peiffer (Creative Commons Luxemburg; http://www.e-mmune.de/, http://www.ib.hu-berlin.de/~kumlau/handreichungen/h173/) - GERMANY
Patrick Peiffer is IT project manager at Luxembourg's digital library by the Bibliothèque nationale Luxembourg. His non-profit work involves:
The Project Lead for Creative Commons in Luxembourg. v 3.0 launch event is in sept/oct 2007 (exact date tbc) at CRP Tudor, 29, boulevard JFK, Luxembourg-City. Creative Commons Luxembourg is run by the non-profit Luxcommons.lu (blog.luxcommons.lu). Patrick Pieffer is also involved in Sproochenhaus asbl, Wilwerwiltz, Luxembourg www.sproochenhaus.lu, and loosely coupled to:
- Europe's largest CC Music community: Jamendo
- Exchanging books: Bookmooch
- Capturing the social info between books: Librarything

David Osimo (Institute for Prospective Technological Studies; European Commission; http://www.jrc.es/home/pages/about_ipts.htm) - SPAIN
David Osimo joined in 2005 the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies, DG JRC of the European Commission, based in Sevilla, where he is coordinating research activities on e-government. Previously, he worked for 10 years on European research projects on innovation and regional development in Milan (I) Brussels (B) and Bologna (I). His current research interests cover the role of government in the innovation system, the impact of technology on future models of government, and in particular the impact of web 2.0 on public services

Gareth Mitchell (BBC – Digital Planet) (moderator) - UNITED KINGDOM
Joined the Science Communication Group academic staff (Imperial College London) in 1998 part time and became full time in 2002. I lecture in broadcast and written journalism on the Science Communication and Science Media Production MScs. Alongside my lecturing activities here at Imperial, I am an active science journalist, presenting a weekly technology programme on the BBC World Service and reporting regularly for science programmes on BBC Radio 4. I also write each month for BBC Focus magazine as the technology expert on the publication's popular Q&A pages.

Andrew Wilson (Blink! Media) - UNITED KINGDOM
Andrew Wilson is a co-director of Blink, a not-for-profit company exploring the creation and distribution of user generated content through mobile devices. Projects include The Guardian’s SMS poetry competition (2001, 2002); City Poems (2003-2005, commended British Interactive Media Awards 2003), a citywide location based text message biography of Leeds, UK; Postcards from Fenland, a picture message diary project for teenagers (2004-2005); Pocket Shorts, a series of short film commissions for mobile phones (2004-2006) and Bluevend, a Bluetooth vending machine for distributing creative mobile phone content (installed Edinburgh International Film Festival 2005, 2006, Rotterdam International Film Festival 2006, Tate Britain and touring 2006-2007); Genie (Magna Science Adventure Centre 2006) a magic mirror allowing children to set free genies and give them new memories to replace the ones stolen by an evil wizard; RFID Snakes and Ladders (Media Centre Huddersfield 2006) a game to play against other people who live or work in the same building.
In 2004 Andrew was AHRB/Arts Council England Visiting Fellow in the School of Biology, University of Newcastle, investigating portable technology and cooperation. He founded the Short Circuits short film showcase event in 1999, and programmed the short film strand of the Leeds International Film Festival in 2001/2/3. He has commissioned more than 20 short films for Screen Yorkshire’s Low Budget Lottery Awards. Andrew has published two books of poetry and written a feature length drama broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

Seth van Hooland (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Information Science Department) - BELGIUM
Seth van Hooland is a researcher at the Information and Communication Science departement of the Université Libre de Bruxelles. He is currently writing his Phd on the subject of the digitalization of cultural heritage and more precisely on the metadata creation within this context. Innovative technologies and practices offer new ways to tackle the indexing of cultural content, but they also have an indirect impact on the content of the description and thus the access to our heritage. It is specifically this relation between indexing tools and the descriptions they produce that is investigated in his research.

Louis Vuchelen ( Co-ordinator B.O.S.S. – Multimedia Online – SABAM) - BELGIUM
About 20 years ago Louis Vuchelen started his career at SABAM's Media department. SABAM, the Belgian Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers, is the largest private Belgian organization in the cultural sector. As a multidisciplinary collective management society it represents authors who are active in numerous artistic disciplines such as music, literature, visual arts, theatre, audiovisual, ...
 When, during the nineties, SABAM saw a huge increase of the online use of its repertoire, Louis Vuchelen was asked to set up a so-called one-stop-shop for the online licensing of copyrights. Today, B.O.S.S. (Belgian One-Stop-Shop) is a household word in the field of digital copyright clearing.