Rafat Alvi is the CTO and VP of Engineering at Eduify, a startup that makes Web-based software for students that help them research faster, write better and get help on-demand.

Sandeep Amar operates and manages the matchmaking portal simplymarry.com, a Times Group company in India. Previously, he worked with Citigroup in India as assistant VP of e-business and managed CitiFinancial's portal in India. He also served as assistant VP of marketing at ZEE Telefilms, a broadcasting media company in India and was manager of brand and business for economictimes.com, the Web portal of India's financial daily, The Economic Times.

Sandeep holds an MBA from FMS, Delhi. He is also a black belt in six sigma martial arts. He is co-author of Crack the Cat (Asian Books Private Ltd.), a book on data interpretation for standardized tests.

Jart Armin is a leading activist, analyst, and researcher of organized cyber-crime and cyber-warfare. He is an advocate of Web 2.0 development and Open Systems Internet security, in association with StopBadware. He is a partner of an international group that provides COMINT (real-time community intelligence) and risk analysis to commercial and governmental organizations. As a graduate and post-graduate in engineering systems, social sciences, and education, he regularly presents to academic and Internet security conferences.

Armin is also editor and spokesman for the renowned watch blog on the RBN (Russian Business Network), RBNexploit.com, which was first to report the cyber-attacks on Georgia; and HostExploit.com, which exposes so-called “evil networks” on the Internet – hosts and registrars.

Robert Atkinson is the founder and president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a Washington-based technology policy think tank. He is also author of the State New Economy Index series and the book, The Past and Future of America’s Economy: Long Waves of Innovation that Power Cycles of Growth (Edward Elger, 2005). He has an extensive background in technology policy, has conducted ground-breaking research projects on technology and innovation, is a valued adviser to state and national policy makers, and is a popular speaker on innovation policy nationally and internationally. Before coming to ITIF, Dr. Atkinson was Vice President of the Progressive Policy Institute and Director of PPI’s Technology & New Economy Project. Previously, he served as the first Executive Director of the Rhode Island Economic Policy Council, a public-private partnership including as members the Governor, legislative leaders, and corporate and labor leaders. Prior to that he was Project Director at the former Congressional Office of Technology Assessment. He is a board member or advisory council member of numerous organizations. He has testified before a number of committees in Congress and has appeared in various media outlets including CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, NPR, and NBC Nightly News. He received his PhD in City and Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1989.

Cyan Banister is Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Zivity. Her dream to connect the social web with sexy photos is the kernel that became the business. She brings more than 10 years of management experience to Zivity; from scaling operational infrastructure to building teams and championing company culture. Cyan held a senior management role at IronPort where she supervised throngs of employees and oversaw a slew of departments. Her mission for Zivity is putting models first and creating an environment that nurtures artistic freedom. "Freedom of expression without judgment" is her motto.

Amir Ben-Efraim is the president and CEO of Altor Networks, a company that makes virtual network security software.

In 2001 Lee H. Berke founded LHB, which specializes in developing direct relationships between sports properties and media platforms. LHB’s client roster includes more than 25 teams throughout the NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL, including the San Francisco Giants, Cleveland Cavaliers, Milwaukee Brewers, Pittsburgh Steelers, Dallas Cowboys, Houston Texans, Seattle Seahawks, Los Angeles Angels, Memphis Grizzlies, and New Jersey Devils. Mr. Berke’s background in developing sports media businesses also includes co-authoring the original business plan for the New York Yankees’ YES Network and heading up marketing for Madison Square Garden and MSG Network.

Heavy Reading Senior Analyst Gabriel Brown focuses on wireless technologies and services, including 802.11 wireless LAN, ultrawideband, WiMax, and 3G. He has covered the wireless data industry since 1998, previously as Chief Analyst of the monthly Unstrung Insider, published by Heavy Reading's parent company Light Reading; he was additionally responsible for the overall editorial planning of Light Reading's entire line of Insider research newsletters. Prior to joining Light Reading, Gabriel was the editor of IP Wireline and Wireless Week at London's Euromoney Institutional Investor. He often presents research findings at industry events and is regularly consulted by wireless networking technology leaders.

David Buckholtz is Vice President of Enterprise Technology and Quality at Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE). Reporting to the CIO, he is responsible for technology strategy, methods, and shared platforms in support of improving systems capability and leverage across the studio. He also manages IT governance, global sourcing, service management, integration, platform engineering, organizational development, quality assurance, and production acceptance teams, as well as strategic planning and cooperation with sister and parent Sony organizations. Before joining SPE, Mr. Buckholtz spent five years at the General Electric Company (GE). His roles at GE included chief architect for consulting services at GE Information Services, technology lead for several GE corporate digitization initiatives, and lead for various strategic customer initiatives. He is a Six Sigma Blackbelt.

Adam founded Model Metrics in an effort to accelerate the adoption of Cloud Computing within enterprise organizations, with the goal of bringing these companies all the value of the technology, from rapid implementation to ease of use, enhanced analytics, and tremendous ROI.

Aneesh Chopra is the first federal Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the United States. As CTO, he serves as a policy advisor to President Obama and is responsible for promoting technological innovation to help the country meet its goals with regard to job creation, national security, and healthcare. Prior to his appointment to the Obama administration, which was confirmed by the Senate in August 2009, Chopra served as Virginia’s fourth Secretary of Technology. Before he worked in government, he was the managing director for the Advisory Board Company, a healthcare think tank for hospitals and healthcare systems.

Scott Clavenna, Co-Founder, President, and CEO of Greentech Media, has been leading high-tech market research firms for over 15 years. In his capacity as a trusted analyst and consultant, Scott has helped dozens of companies enter and succeed in complex and intensely competitive markets worldwide. He also has authored more than 30 reports that helped define important emerging market segments in optical and broadband communications. Prior to founding Greentech Media, Scott was chief analyst at Heavy Reading, the market research arm of Light Reading, the dominant online media company in the telecommunications market. Before creating Heavy Reading, Scott founded PointEast Research, providing strategic consulting and market intelligence to a broad mix of startups, venture capitalists, and major suppliers in the communications/IT industry, and worked as director of research for Light Reading. In 1997, Scott co-founded Pioneer Consulting, which quickly grew into the leading market research firm covering the optical and broadband communications industry.

Phillippe Courtot is chairman and CEO of security software provider Qualys.

Kevin Cramer has been the Copy Chief of the Light Reading network of Websites since its foundation in 2000. Not a former Navy Seal, previous editorial stints include Women’s Wear Daily and Data Communications magazine. He won a highly coveted CMP Editorial Excellence award in 2006 for his hand in the creation of Larry, the Light Reading Attack Monkey. He lives in New York City with his angry cat and his bitter, bitter memories.

Bob Evans, TechWeb's Senior Vice-President and Content Director, is responsible for content strategy across TechWeb's online, live event, and print brands. In this role, he oversees not only all content operations but also Audience Development and Software Development. Bob was editor-in-chief of InformationWeek during its years of massive growth and has also been Editorial Director for InformationWeek and Techweb. He's an adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University and speaks at many business and technology events.

Nicole Ferraro is the Site Editor and a member of the IQ Crew here at Internet Evolution. As Site Editor/Queen of the Universe, Nicole uses her limitless powers to exercise sarcastic wit through the editor's blog, where one can read about the trials and tribulations of exisiting in an era defined by a dot 0 suffix. When not floating around on "The Internet" she spends her time writing, reading, playing piano, brushing her teeth, and contemplating her unsettling life-long obsession with the Mary Tyler Moore show. She received her M.A. and B.A. from Fordham University in the Bronx.

Contact Nicole at: ferraro@internetevolution.com

Graham has been researching telecommunications for more than 20 years, formerly as a journalist and latterly as an analyst and consultant. He joined Heavy Reading in September 2004 following a ten-year tenure at the Yankee Group. As Chief Analyst, Graham has been responsible for a wide range of research, focusing primarily on next-generation broadband services and IMS. He has also hosted numerous Webinars and Live events for Light Reading and is a regular speaker at other major industry events. As a journalist, Graham was Editor in Chief of the award-winning industry paper Communications Week International and has edited several other leading trade publications.

Raimund Genes is the Chief Technical Officer for Trend Micro, a security software company focused on anti-virus and content protection for the enterprise.

See: http://www.lightreading.com/profile.asp?piddl_userid=175

Marianne James is CIO of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. She has honed her understanding of the business through her 22 years at CCHMC, in roles ranging from finance to research to IT. She’s part of the senior management team that meets weekly with the CEO.

Paul Kocher is president and chief scientist of Cryptography Research.

Paul Korzeniowski is a freelance writer who has been dissecting technology and business issues for two decades. He served on the staffs of ComputerWorld, NetworkWorld, and Internet Week before branching out on his own. Since then, his work has appeared in numerous business and technology publications, including Business 2.0, Entrepreneur, Investors Business Daily, Newsweek, and InformationWeek. One day, when he had too much time on his hands, he determined that he has had more than 1 million words published in his career. Yet for some reason, he still feels compelled to write more. He is based in Sudbury, Mass., and can be reached at paulkorzen@aol.com.

Gideon J. Lenkey, CISSP, has consulted on information security matters since 1989. He specializes in assessments and tests of enterprise IT security and also enjoys tracking malicious hackers, corporate insiders, and extortionists. In 1994, he co-founded Ra Security Systems, a network security monitoring and consultancy in Milford, NJ. He has provided advanced training to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and has won numerous recognitions from the agency for his curricula. In addition to consulting for both foreign and domestic government agencies, Lenkey's also the sitting president of the FBI's InfraGard chapter in New Jersey. He is a member of the Computer Security Institute.

Bill Loumpouridis serves as President and CEO for EDL Consulting, a leading eCommerce and Systems Integration firm serving a rich client base that includes manufacturing, media, and high tech clients.

Marissa leads Google's product management efforts on search products – Web search, images, news, books, products, maps, Google Earth, Google Toolbar, Google Desktop, Google Health, Google Labs, and more. She joined Google in 1999 as Google's first female engineer and led the user interface and Web server teams at that time. Her efforts have included designing and developing Google's search interface; internationalizing the site to more than 100 languages; defining Google News, Gmail, and Orkut; and launching more than 100 features and products on Google.com. Several patents have been filed on her work in artificial intelligence and interface design.

Wayne Mekjian is Head of Information Services, Wells Fargo, responsible for guiding the effective use of information technology and managing IT resources to deliver technology solutions across the enterprise. His primary responsibilities include application development, data strategy and management, and enterprise support. Support services aligned to his organization include Project Delivery Services, Efficiency Management, and Risk & Compliance. Wayne has 39 years of experience in banking, leading large-scale and complex technology and operations initiatives. Prior to his current position, he served as Chief Information Officer for Wells Fargo’s Home and Consumer Finance Group and served in several executive capacities at Norwest. Prior to joining Norwest, he held several senior-level positions with First Interstate Bank in bank operations management, systems development, project management, and data processing.

Jim Morris is president and CEO of security software maker GlobalScape.

Tom Nolle is the founder and president of CIMI Corp. He started his career as a software engineer, evolving to the role of project director and software architect. During this period, he was in charge of the team that built a major financial network and one of the software architects of a packet switch used throughout the world. He also designed and developed retail, distributed computing networks and multi-computer, network-distributed information publishing systems.

In 1979, Tom became an independent consultant, working first with equipment vendors to develop new and efficient devices for financial networks, and then with major financial institutions in deploying advanced network technology. CIMI was incorporated in 1982 as a continuation of this activity, and through the 1980s he led the firm in developing effective new strategies for market forecasting and surveying, as well as innovative techniques in distributed transaction processing, multi-processor protocol handling, and information storage and retrieval. CIMI, during this period, functioned as a network and systems integrator, software publisher, and strategic consultancy.

Steven Peterson is a web developer by day and an independent iPhone developer by night. His public transit predictions application, Routesy, helps thousands of Bay Area residents with their commute on a daily basis. Prior to building Routesy, Steven helped build Yahoo!'s open source YUI User Interface Library and developed web applications for companies like Tommy Hilfiger and MetLife.

Alan Reiter has been analyzing wireless communications for 29 years. For 11 years he has been President of Wireless Internet & Mobile Computing, a consulting firm that helps wireless data businesses in the United States and abroad. The company examines wireless data products and services and creates marketing documents, white papers, and corporate Weblogs. Alan is especially interested in wireless multimedia, such as camera phones and mobile TV, wireless social networking, and the global implications of the more than one billion people who are able to wirelessly document in text, photos, and videos virtually everything that occurs around them.

Alan created the world's first wireless data newsletter, wireless data conference, and cellular conference. He was instrumental in helping to develop and write for the first cellular magazine. Alan was part of the five-person team that managed the first association in the U.S. for the independent providers of paging and mobile telephone services. He writes several Weblogs, and his first wireless data Weblog was named by Forbes as one of the top five technology blogs – a pronouncement with which he strongly disagreed but was nonetheless glad to promote as true.

Rob Salkowitz is a writer and consultant focusing on the social implications of new technology. He is the author of Generation Blend: Managing Across the Technology Age Gap (Wiley, 2008) and co-author, with Daniel Rasmus, of Listening to the Future: Why It's Everybody's Business (Wiley, 2009). He is currently working on a new book on youth and ICT-based entrepreneurship in emerging economies, titled Young World Rising, due out from Wiley in June, 2010. Rob lives and works in Seattle, WA.

Stephen Saunders is an independent consultant (or "Insultant"), helping B2B publishers build and develop successful online businesses.

Stephen was the Co-Founder, President, and CEO of Light Reading (www.lightreading.com), an online startup, which was sold to CMP Technology in 2005.

Founded in 2000, Light Reading rapidly became the largest and most influential source of news and analysis of the telecommunications industry – attracting a huge and influential readership of telecom professionals and investors around the globe.

Under Stephen's guidance, Light Reading monetized its vast audience by developing a unique, content-driven, integrated media publishing model – a model now being deployed by several other new online businesses, including Internet Evolution (www.internetevolution.com), Contentinople (www.contentinople.com), and Greentech Media (www.greentechmedia.com).

Prior to Light Reading, Stephen was an executive editor at Data Communications, where he directed that magazine's editorial content.

Stephen has been recognized with many awards for his work, including six Jesse H. Neal Editorial Achievement Awards from The American Business Press, and three awards from the Computer Press Association. He also is the author of two books, The Data Communications Gigabit Ethernet Handbook (McGraw-Hill, 1998) and The McGraw-Hill High-Speed LANs Handbook (McGraw-Hill, 1995). Stephen lives in New York.

Michael Singer is the Executive Clan Editor at Internet Evolution. As an editor, writer, and Web personality, Michael is looking for ThinkerNet contributors to pontificate about executive issues... What's top of mind for CEOs, CIOs, and CTOs?

Prior to joining Internet Evolution, Michael worked as News Editor for InformationWeek, as well as for ABC-7 News, KTVU-FOX 2, and CNET News.com covering PCs, handhelds, gadgets.

In his spare time, Michael thinks a lot about String Theory, six-string guitars, and string cheese.

John Soat is a freelance journalist who specializes in business, technology, and security. He writes frequently for InformationWeek and InfoSecurity Professional magazines. Before becoming a freelancer, he was executive editor of InformationWeek. He is an experienced online multimedia journalist, having spent almost two years as executive producer of The News Show, a daily online video program for the business-technology industry. He lives in Cleveland (don’t ask) and has an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University.

Kim Solez, M.D. is one of the world's foremost kidney pathologists and medical Internet leaders. He has been at the University of Alberta since 1987, and is currently Professor and Director of Experimental Pathology as well as Director of NKF cyberNephrology, a joint venture of the National Kidney Foundation (U.S.) and the University of Alberta.

Having held leadership roles in medicine and technology for over 20 years and directed major music and arts events, Dr. Solez is convinced that very useful cross fertilization can come from mixing those disciplines.  In particular, he feels that we can make medicine better, more human, and enjoyable to practice by injecting lessons from the humanities, art, and technology.

His forthcoming book Digitality is expected to hit the shelves in 2011.  Digitality combines humorous autobiographical vignettes with techno-futuristic vision to anticipate what kinds of technology related experiences are yet to come as we and machines co-evolve.

 As we plunge headlong into an increasingly intimate embrace with technology, and "merge" more and more with our electronic devices, understanding the relationship between ourselves and machines becomes more important. Can this ever closer association possibly be a good thing? Digitality represents a worldview in which this coming together of humans and machine will be a fun and surprising experience, replete with meaningful life experiences that we wouldn't have thought possible without technology. Digitality presents a future where technology augments our most human features and reveals surprising things about the human psyche.

Digitality is different from other technology books in that while the subject matter is quite metallic, the medium is very humanistic, as is the overall outlook. Dr. Kim Solez presents a worldview in which the artificial and real are not mutually exclusive, and explains how in some ways technology is actually making us more human. To date, no other popular books take quite as optimistic a position on the matters of human being - technology relations, or in as creative a way. The optimism in part stems from his interaction with his nine female muses, and they in turn contribute to his balanced view of what the future holds.

The Canadian iconic poet/singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen called Kim Solez a "great master of the surreal" juxtaposing things others would never think of juxtaposing.  Dr. Solez hopes that by putting things together in new ways, standing things side by side that the reader never thought of being together, he can stimulate people to think about the future and our increasing association with machines and devices in a new more positive way.

Sebastian Stadil is the founder and CEO at Scalr and the founder of the Silicon Valley Cloud Computing Group

Marc Staimer is widely known as a leading analyst in storage, server, and virtualization markets. His 11-year consulting practice as president and chief dragon slayer (CDS) of Dragon Slayer Consulting in Beaverton, Ore., addresses both the end-user and vendor communities. Much of his practice involves strategic planning, product development, messaging, marketing, and end-user problem solving. Marc’s 28 years of marketing, sales, and business experience, combined with his years of research into the information technology community, give him unique market expertise.

Thomas Steding is the president and CEO of RedCondor, a security software company offering a managed spam filtering service that blocks spam, viruses, spyware, and phishing schemes.

Terry Sweeney is a writer and editor based somewhere in the smog-laden environs of Los Angeles. He has covered technology for more than 20 years, with broad expertise in storage, networking, security, wireless, and celebrity stalking.

From October 2005 to June 2007, he was Editor in Chief of Byte and Switch (www.byteandswitch.com), storage networking's most widely read Website, which, when you think about it, is really not saying much. He was also a Founding Editor of the sinister IT security Website, Dark Reading (www.darkreading.com), as well as Storage Pipeline (absorbed in a nearly bloodless coup by the insatiable Byte and Switch). He did not leave under a cloud.

Sweeney was also News Editor at Internet Week and spent three years in Paris working for Communications Week International. When the Germans occupied the city he fled to Geneva, Switzerland, where he served as Editor in Chief of the print, online, and video content for the ITU's Telecom 99 conference. He later ran guns to freedom fighters in the Belgian Congo. Maybe.

He has contributed to The Washington Post, Crain's New York Business, Red Herring, Blue Herring, Rogue Herring, Information Week, Network World, SearchStorage, and Chicken Fancier, among other business and IT titles. He also designed a prototype flying machine and a fully functional submarine. No. Wait... That was someone else...

Sweeney surely did, however, graduate from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1982 with a Bachelor's degree in Journalism and a minor in Portuguese, for no discernible reason.

Advocate for IT professionals. Practitioner actively using social networks to foster collaboration and a sharing of free advisory knowledge. Former CEO and founder of three startups and former SVP of IDC's largest business.