Laren Poole, a filmmaker who co-founded Invisible Children, talks about the groundbreaking human rights organization, which is trying to free children forced into armed conflict. [Read more…] about The story behind Invisible Children
interviews


Cali Lewis on what makes a successful podcast
Cali Lewis (real name Luria Petrucci), the Web show pioneer who is the host and co-producer of GeekBrief.TV, gives a 10-minute interview about her highly successful video podcast (that’s Internet TV to all you laypeople). She talks about the show’s genesis, what podcasting has to offer, how to generate audience participation, her use of Twitter (today she has about 50,000 followers), and her advice to those just starting out in podcasting. [Read more…] about Cali Lewis on what makes a successful podcast

NBC News’ Ann Curry on Twitter
Ann Curry, news anchor of NBC’s “Today” show, spoke animatedly at the 140 Character Conference in New York on June 15, 2009, about news as a public service rather than a business and the growing impact of social media services like Twitter.
I caught up with her as she was leaving and did a 3-minute video interview, in which she says, “People want to smarten up — and they want Twitter to smarten up” so that it can play a key role in the news ecosystem. [Read more…] about NBC News’ Ann Curry on Twitter

Ford’s CEO on social media and innovation
At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Jan. 7, 2009, Alan Mulally, CEO of Ford Motor Company, took out time to sit down with a couple of bloggers for an interview.
Chris Heuer and JD Lasica interviewed Mulally about how Ford is using social media to drive innovation and transformation. [Read more…] about Ford’s CEO on social media and innovation

OhmyNews: ‘Every citizen can be a reporter’
A tour inside the newsroom of the pioneering citizen journalism publication
Following is a Q&A with Jean K. Min, communications director of OhmyNews International, the trail-blazing citizen journalism publication in Seoul, South Korea. The exchange — with questions put to him by myself and Matthew Lee of the Center for Citizen Media — took place in January 2007. [Read more…] about OhmyNews: ‘Every citizen can be a reporter’

The Engadget Interview: Paul Griffin, CEO/founder of Griffin Technology
For this week’s Engadget Interview, veteran journalist J.D. Lasica bumped into Paul Griffin, CEO of Griffin Technology, at the Portable Media Expo and Podcasting Conference in Ontario, Calif., on Friday. The self-effacing Griffin discusses the panoply of products his company puts out for gadget lovers, Apple’s dominance in the portable music market, and what’s ahead for Griffin in the peripherals space.
How long ago did you found your company?
We started 13 years ago.
What products did you start out focusing on?
We started off making video adapters and later on started making serial adapters. We’ve been focused since the early days on making connectivity products, and later on we began making stand-alone products or peripherals that didn’t rely on just a single product but on things like a USB bus. [Read more…] about The Engadget Interview: Paul Griffin, CEO/founder of Griffin Technology

The Engadget Interview: Christian Bubenheim, general manager, Magellan Consumer Products
For this week’s Engadget Interview, veteran journalist J.D. Lasica spoke with Christian Bubenheim, vice president and general manager, Thales’ Magellan Consumer Products Business about portable GPS systems, how you use them in the wild, and how to find your car in Shea Stadium’s parking lot.
Why don’t you give us the nickel tour of Thales and Magellan?
Thales Navigation is the result of four GPS companies that came together over the past few years. The business really comprises three business units: Magellan on the consumer side, which includes outdoor handheld products and vehicle navigation; on the professional side we service survey and GIS or mapping customers, and on the OEM side selling into the automotive industry, avionics, lots of consumer electronics providers, and we do that through lots of different chipsets and black-box products. We have 13 locations around the world, about 650 employees, and we are sold through more than 20,000 retail locations. [Read more…] about The Engadget Interview: Christian Bubenheim, general manager, Magellan Consumer Products

The Engadget Interview: Blake Krikorian, CEO of Sling Media
For this week’s Engadget Interview, veteran journalist J.D. Lasica spoke with Sling Media CEO Blake Krikorian about the rollout of the Slingbox, its disruptive effects on Hollywood business models, the notions of place-shifting and personal broadcasting, and an announcement he’s making right here on Engadget about support for a new operating system.
This week I’ll be combining my questions with a few that our readers have posted on the site.
I saw those, and I was like, “Wow! Pretty impressive.”
Let’s start with the basics. How many employees do you have, where are you located, and when did Sling Media get started?
We have 30 to 40 folks. We’re headquartered in San Mateo in the Bay Area, as well as in Bangalore, India. We merged with DiTango a year ago. [Read more…] about The Engadget Interview: Blake Krikorian, CEO of Sling Media