ChoiceStream

He is an expert in the field of choice modeling; his work in this area was cited in the 2000 Nobel Prize in Economics awarded to Dan McFadden. Dr. Ben Akiva received his M.S. and Ph.D. from MIT, and his B.S. from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. His work has focused on transportation systems analysis, intelligent transportation systems, demand modeling, econometrics, and infrastructure management.

David Breashears is a filmmaker, mountaineer and executive leadership coach who has scaled the world’s tallest peak, Mount Everest, numerous times. He is the recipient of four Emmy awards for achievement in cinematography. In 1996 he codirected, photographed, and coproduced the acclaimed IMAX large-format film Everest and contributed still photos from that climb to the bestselling book Everest: Mountain Without Mercy.

Esther Dyson is editor at large at CNET Networks, where she is responsible for its monthly newsletter, Release 1.0, and its PC Forum, the high-tech market’s leading annual executive conference. As editor at large, she also contributes insight and content to CNET Networks’ other properties. She sold her business, EDventure Holdings, to CNET Networks in early 2004. Previously, she had co-owned EDventure and written/edited Release 1.0 since 1983.

At Release 1.0 and in her private investment activities, Dyson focuses on emerging technologies, emerging companies and emerging markets. Among the topics she has covered for Release 1.0 recently are social software and social networks, registries of people and things, the Internet, the transformation of e-mail to “Meta-mail,” identity management, and the use of “consumer” Internet services such as Yahoo! eBay and Google by small businesses.

By 1994, she had already explored the impact of the Net on intellectual property (among other things, why many software products are now turning into online services). In 1997, she wrote a book on the impact of the Net on individuals’ lives, “Release 2.0: A design for living in the digital age.” It includes a number of chapters about today’s hot topics such as security, privacy, anonymity and intellectual property.

Dyson is also an active player in discussions and policy-making concerning the Internet and society. From 1998 to 2000, she was founding chairman of ICANN (the organization responsible for overseeing the Domain Name System). A variety of government officials worldwide turn to her for advice on Internet policy issues.

In addition, she donates time and money as a trustee to emerging organizations (Bridges.org, the National Endowment for Democracy and the Eurasia Foundation). For several years in the ’90s she was chairman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

After graduating from Harvard in economics, Dyson began her serious career in 1974 as a fact-checker for Forbes and quickly rose to reporter. In 1977 she joined New Court Securities as “the research department,” following Federal Express and other start-ups. After a stint at Oppenheimer covering software companies, she moved to Rosen Research and in 1983 bought the company from her employer Ben Rosen, renaming it EDventure Holdings. The daughter of an English physicist and a Swiss mathematician, Dyson started traveling in Eastern Europe in 1989 and eventually helped to fill the small but vital vacuum at the intersection of Eastern Europe, high-tech and venture capital, even as she remains active in the US and Western Europe.

Miles Gilburne is Managing Member, ZG Ventures, a venture capital and investment company. He was a member of the Board of Directors of Time Warner, Inc. from 2001 until May of 2006. He was previously a senior vice president of corporate development for America Online, Inc., and served as a director of AOL from October 1999 to the AOL/Time Warner Merger in January 2001.

Dr. Maes holds a Bachelor’s degree and Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium. Her areas of expertise are Artificial Intelligence, Human Computer Interaction, Computer Supported Collaborative Work, Information Filtering and Electronic Commerce. She also is a consultant in the area of Software Agents for several Fortune 1000 companies. She is the editor of three books and is an editorial board member and reviewer for numerous professional journals and conferences, such as the User Modeling journal, the Personal Technologies journal and the Artificial Life journal. In addition, Dr. Maes has been an active Internet entrepreneur since 1994. She was a founder and board member of Firefly Network, Inc. in Cambridge, Massachusetts - one of the first companies to commercialize personalization and profiling technology. Firefly was acquired by Microsoft in April 1998.

Rose Polidoro is an experienced marketing and promotional professional who currently owns and manages a marketing consulting firm in New York City. Her clients include businesses in cosmetics, technology, publishing and the arts including Avon, Reuters and Sports Illustrated. Rose was formerly executive vice president of promotions for new Line Cinema and worked on the launch of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy and she has also served as vice president of promotion and publicity for Radio City Music Hall.

Until early 2006, Geoff Ralston was Chief Product Officer at leading portal Yahoo! Prior to that role, Ralston headed up a number of product groups within Yahoo! including Communications and Community and Network Services. As CPO, Geoff Ralston led Yahoo’s product vision, including the management of the development process, integration, and roadmap for all Yahoo! products and services including User Experience & Design, My Yahoo!, Online Communities, and Yahoo!’s Communications services.

David is an advisor and investor at Khosla Ventures focusing on startups in emerging Internet or communications sectors, such as Good Technology, Opsware, SmartPay, and Spot Runner. Prior to this, David was the senior vice president of marketing for Tellme, the leading provider of voice application networks uniting the Internet, telephony and voice recognition. He was responsible for product management, corporate strategy and communications at the company. Before joining Tellme, David was vice president and general manager of AOL’s industry-defining community, communications and instant messaging products, used by more than 50 million people.

David started working in the telecommunications industry at McCaw Cellular Communications, now AT&T Wireless. He later joined Morgan Stanley as an investment banker in the telecommunications practice, and subsequently held various executive positions at Netscape Communications. David graduated from Harvard University with highest honors in organizational behavior and economics.

Dr. Zeckhauser pursues a mix of conceptual and applied research. His ongoing policy investigations explore ways to foster informed and appropriate choices by individuals and government agencies. Dr. Zeckhauser’s current major research addresses the performance of institutions confronted with inadequate commitment capabilities, incomplete information flow, and human participants who fail to behave in accordance with models of rationality (for example, by engaging in herd behavior). He has also collaborated on fundamental research in collaborative filtering technologies.