David Gehrig
David is Acorn's Secretary and a training coordinator for the GRIDS Center, a project of the National Science Foundation Middleware Initiative. He has been at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications since 2001, including three years as part of the NEESgrid project applying grid technology to civil engineering research for studying the effects of earthquakes. He has a degree in computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Ryan Kaldari
Ryan is a programmer, web and graphic designer based in Nashville, Tennessee. He studied Computer Science at the University of California at Berkeley and art at Watkins College of Art and Design in Nashville. His skill-set includes HTML, XML, XSL, Javascript, PHP, MySQL, Photoshop, and Illustrator. He has designed and implemented several web-based database programs, including www.schoolvolunteers.org, a site for tracking volunteer work at public schools in Nashville.
Joshua King
Josh has studies both Computer Science and Philosophy. He utilizes his computer skills in a variety of areas related to political and social activism. As a member of the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center, he applies his knowledge of Linux system administration to the task of maintaining the Chambana.net community webhosting service. As a network engineer for the Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network, he uses his skills in web-programming and application development to work on the Alexandria community media-portal project, as well as deploying wireless networking hardware by clambering over roofs like the trained monkey he is. Normally an elusive creature in the wild, if cornered he will talk your ear off about Leibniz, Spinoza, and YouTube videos.
Steven Mansour
A self-proclaimed "creative generalist", Steven is a social researcher, trainer and advisor to medical groups, researchers, non-profits, academia and community groups in Canada, and in developing countries - helping implement fun things like blogging, citizen journalism, and intelligent information architecture in ways that make sense to human beings. He spearheads an international pediatric network to promote sustainable development of Mother-Child health research in developing nations under the aegis of Mcgill University in Montreal. He's had a hand in WiFi deployment and development since the dawn of the industry, and oversees a small but growing grassroot community network in his hometown of Laval. Steven is involved in a number of projects to promote telecom and IT development throughout the Republic of Cuba and is a co-founder of the Canadian Forum for Direct Democracy.
Sascha Meinrath
Sascha Meinrath has been described as a "community Internet pioneer" and an "entrepreneurial visionary" and is a well-known expert on community wireless networks (CWNs) and municipal broadband. Leading news sources, including the Economist, the New York Times, the Nation, and National Public Radio, often cite Sascha's work in covering issues related to CWNs. Sascha is the Research Director for the New America Foundation's Wireless Future Program. Additionally, he coordinates the Open Source Wireless Coalition, a global partnership of open source wireless integrators, researchers, implementors and companies dedicated to the development of open source, interoperable, low-cost wireless technologies. He is a regular contributor to Government Technology's Digital Communities, the online portal and comprehensive information resource for the public sector. Sascha has also worked with Free Press, the the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis (CAIDA), the Acorn Active Media Foundation, the Ethos Group, and the CUWiN Foundation.
Daniel Meredith
Dan is a self-described technologist who utilizes over 7 years of experience to apply technology to address social justice and community needs. Dan is one of the founding board members and Senior Network Engineer of the CUWiN Foundation (Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network), one of the world's leading open-source, ad-hoc mesh network research and development projects. Dan is also a leading tech member of the Chambana.net project, a low-cost web hosting services for non-profit organizations, small businesses, and individuals, both locally and internationally. Along with his professional work as system administrator for OJC Technologies, Dan volunteers as the system administrator for both Radio Free Urbana (WRFU 104.5FM) and the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center.
Jason Pitzl-Waters
Jason Pitzl-Waters is a busy man. From DJing at local clubs, to organizing a community gallery project, to writing for a national pagan magazine, to hosting a local radio show, to his involvement with the U-C IMC and other local groups. He has seen and done almost everything there is to do in the little town he calls home. Jason loves pastels, mauve, and puce. Most people wrongfully feel that Jason like's blacks and dark earthtones -- in fact, he's still in mourning from the passing of the neon fad of the 1980s.
Andrew Reynolds
Andrew is a documentation specialist for the Campus Information Technologies and Educational Services (CITES) department at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. CITES covers every aspect of telecommunications on the University's Campus (e.g., phone, e-mail, backups, system administration, class registration, wireless networking, hardware installation, police and fire department pager networks) and tens-of-thousands of unique users each year utilize Andrew's information and documentation to complete multi-phased technical tasks. Andrew has strong programming skills and was originally hired as a Unix system administrator. Andrew's technical background allows him to cover a wide variety of needs, ranging from infrastructure design and programming to user education and explanation of best practices. Andrew particularly enjoys taking very complex tasks and making them understandable to the novice (non-technical) user.
Tom Wiltzius
Tom has interests in a variety of technical areas, especially in applying technology to address social justice and community needs. He has been active with the Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network, taking on critical network administration tasks. His skill-set includes networking and wireless interfaces, and database and web integration. Tom is the primary programmer on the Books To Prisoners Inventory Tool, a web-based inventory system utilizing PHP and MySQL for tracking books and requisite information for the Books to Prisoners project. Tom has created and maintained numerous multimedia websites the newest being Radio Free Urbana, an Urbana-based independent radio station. Tom has worked on multiple database projects (including the scheduling application that his own school now uses). He is also proficient in HTML and its associated protocols (XML, CSS, JavaScript, etc). These skills as well as a good working knowledge of computer systems make Tom an extraordinary
"jack-of-all-trades."
