Dave Karpf is an Assistant Professor of Political Communication at Rutgers University, and also a Visiting Fellow at the Yale Information Society Project. He is the author of several articles on the political netroots, including "Macaca Moments Reconsidered," "Online Political Mobilization from the Advocacy Group's Perspective," and "Understanding Blogspace." His book,"Unexpected Transformations: The Internet's Effect on American Political Associations," will be published in 2012. His work can be found at blogosphereauthorityindex.com and davidkarpf.com. He blogs at shoutingloudly.com.

Dave is also a longtime environmental leader, having served as National Director of the Sierra Student Coalition in 1999-2000 and as a member of the Sierra Club Board of Directors from 2004 through 2010.

Matthew Kerbel is professor of political science at Villanova University. Over the past two decades he has written extensively about the relationship between television and politics, a subject that first caught his interest when he worked as a television newswriter for public broadcasting. His books on the subject include Remote and Controlled: Media Politics in a Cynical Age and If It Bleeds, It Leads: An Anatomy of Television News, which explores the impacts of television on the political process. In Netroots, his seventh book, Kerbel considers the possibility that Internet politics will rekindle the relationship between politicians and ordinary people that was largely lost in the television age.

racy Van Slyke has dedicated her career as a journalist, communications professional and media producer to building a strong independent media infrastructure. As the Director of The Media Consortium, she works to organize innovative projects that will change the terms of the American political and cultural debate as well as help progressive media evolve for a 21st century media environment. She is also co-author of the book, Beyond the Echo Chamber: Reshaping Politics Through Networked Progressive Media (February, 2010 The New Press). In June 2010, she was named one of the "40 under 40" progressive leaders by the New Leaders Council and in March, Van Slyke was named by the Women’s Media Center as one of the 30 “Women Making History.” Van Slyke is currently on the board of both Women, Action and the Media – a group that connects and supports media makers, activists, academics and funders working to advance women’s media participation, ownership and representation and National People’s Action–a network of grassroots, community organizations dedicated to creating a society in which racial and economic justice are realized. Van Slyke is the former publisher of In These Times magazine, a national, award-winning monthly magazine of progressive news, analysis and cultural reporting.