2012: Social Media’s New Role in Politics
Social media has earned a prominent seat at the table with the large media companies of the world and has birthed an entirely new way to cover the world of politics. As we approach the electoral year, political chatter will continue to snowball and generate enormous heaps of data. Data can drastically impact how we determine the importance of a given story, the ways that we gauge public opinion and eventually may even revolutionize the way we cast our votes. This panel will discuss the many ways that the web is providing entirely new tools and resources to track and cover the world of politics and discuss the unique perspective social media data paints for the voice of a bolder and broader demographic. This panel will feature experts in political news, new media, data crunching and the real-time web debating the future of political coverage and the impact of new social technologies on political news and research.
Presenters
Ben Parr is a respected technology commentator and journalist, web entrepreneur and aspiring world changer. In a previous life, he was the Editor-at-Large of Mashable, the world’s largest independent digital news website focused on social media and web technology.
Ben is also a startup advisor (NerdsUnite Productions, Tracks.by, Code Academy, Women 2.0 and more) and is currently working on a yet-to-be-announced project. He also recently completed his first sci-fi thriller novel, Desel. His previous experience includes project management for Facebook applications and content management in the web health space.
Ben’s work has been featured in media such as Fortune, Fox News, CNN, Marketwatch, PC Magazine, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, The Telegraph, The Atlantic, Globe and Mail, Wired, Denver Post, BBC, The Wall Street Journal, CNET, Sky News, PC World, Reuters, Washington Post,Toronto Sun, CBS News, Salon, Del Spiegel and The New York Times. He is a graduate of Northwestern University, majoring in Science in Human Culture and Political Science and minoring in Business.
Khris is CEO & Co-Founder of Echo, a real-time web platform that enables publishers to rapidly build and implement real-time applications for social TV, social music, social news, social sports and social commerce. He is also co-author of the Synaptic Web & BackPlane. Prior to founding Echo, Khris founded security software firm, Securix, Inc., and negotiated its exclusive distribution agreement and eventual merger with DynaSoft AB. In his role as Board Member and Vice President for Business Development at DynaSoft, Khris played an instrumental role in the $115m acquisition negotiations with RSA Data Securities.
Khris has a Bachelor of Science degree with a double major in Economics and Finance, and a minor in Computer Science, from Mount Saint Mary's College in Maryland. He lives in the San Francisco bay area with his wife and four children and his playtime includes kiteboarding, snowboarding, and listening to Southeast Asian electronic music.
Vishal Sankhla is the CTO and Co-founder of Viralheat. Viralheat makes social media actionable by providing vital customer insights to brands, agencies and marketers. Vishal holds a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering from University of Southern California.
Tuesday, March 13
