Oversharing is over. Now we're told opening up online is the most valuable currency there is. What's the real value in relating the most painful, awkward, potentially humiliating parts of our lives on the internet? Is there a line anymore between authentic self-expression and savvy marketing? If The New Transparency is really what we're being sold, how transparent are we ready to be?
Cindy Gallop's background is brandbuilding, marketing and advertising - she started up the US office of ad agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty in New York in 1998 and in 2003 was named Advertising Woman of the Year. She is the founder and CEO of www.IfWeRanTheWorld.com, a web meets world platform designed to turn good intentions into action one microaction at a time, which launched in beta with a demo at TED 2010, and of www.makelovenotporn.com, launched at TED 2009. She acts as board advisor to a number of tech startups and consults, describing her consultancy approach as 'I like to blow shit up. I am the Michael Bay of business.
Melissa Gira Grant is the co-founder of Glass Houses, a media label, based in New York and on the Internet. She's the co-editor of Coming & Crying, a collection of true stories about sex. Melissa has been living and working on the Internet since 1999, first as a pseudonymous webcam girl, and now as a writer, publisher, artist, and activist. She's written about sex and the Internet for Valleywag, $pread, Slate, and The Frisky, as well as Gawker, Jezebel, BlackBook, Alternet, and the San Francisco Bay Guardian.
