This Thursday at IgniteDC, we have the pleasure of welcoming Jim McBride who will talk about Why Super PACs don't have the power of Super PACKs. If you haven't already gotten tickets, be sure to register before the event.  IgniteDC usually sells out, and walk-ups are not guaranteed a place at the venue.

Jim is a veteran publicist, who has worked on behalf of organizations ranging from International Association of Fire Fighters to OfficeDepot.com to Check Point Software, and a grassroots activist who has been involved in political organizing since the 2004 presidential campaign. In February 2011, he founded Network For Progress as a community-building program to engage people inspired by the "Yes We Can" Movement of 2008 via more social and media-savvy communications and outreach initiatives. He also served on the Media Team of Occupy DC in Fall 2011.

Q: Why did you choose your session topic? 

Because I want to begin a dialogue about how political change really happens so we can invest in what works and what is better for the country. 

Q: Why should attendees be excited to hear this (and why this won’t be a full on pitch for your business)? 

This topic is important for anyone frustrated by politics and looking for hopeful answers to how change truly happens.,

Q: Tell us what you do professionally? 

I have worked in communications and media for 20 years and politics-related work over the last 10 years. 

Q: What's your big project/hope/thought for Spring?

We're developing Network For Progress as a grassroots Super "PACK" that organizes 2012 "Yes YOU Can" movement-building activities in VA/DC/MD & Beyond.

This Thursday at IgniteDC, we have the pleasure of welcoming Nicholas Michael Bashour who will talk about the Power of Human Collaboration (full description here). If you haven't already gotten tickets, be sure to register before the event.  IgniteDC usually sells out, and walk-ups are not guaranteed a place at the venue.

Nicholas Michael Bashour is vice-president of Wikimedia District of Columbia, a non-profit educational organization dedicated to the advancement of general knowledge and the collection, development, and dissemination of educational content under a free license or in the public domain. Nicholas was born in Syria and moved to the United States in 1999. In addition to his work in Wikimedia DC, Outside of Wikimedia DC, Nicholas works as an IRTA Fellow at the National Institutes of Health.

Q: Why did you choose your session topic? 

My five minutes here are just a small but significant part of my effort to promote collaboration as a way of pushing the world forward in a positive direction. While global collaboration has not yet reached its full potential, and there’s definitely room for improvement, we can look at examples of successful efforts as a guide to the potential that a more-collaborative future brings. The Wikimedia movement in particular is a great example of a successful collaborative movement on a global scale. I knew I wanted to share the story of this powerful movement, but I also wanted to share some relevant anecdotes from history because we didn't just recently realize the significance of collaboration out of nowhere. In fact, if we look at any random point in history, we can definitely see examples of successful collaboration.  

Collaboration is where everything is heading, from science, to education, to politics, to international relations and beyond. Groups that try to isolate themselves or view the world as a stage with only two or three actors are really behind the times. I'm fortunate to be a firsthand witness to the power of collaboration because of my involvement with the Wikimedia movement, an inherently collaborative environment that has yielded what William Cronon, president of the American Historical Association, recently called “the largest, most comprehensive, copiously detailed, stunningly useful encyclopedia in all of human history." Wikipedia grew in 10 years from 20,000 articles in 18 languages to more than 20.5 million articles in over 270 languages, and that’s just one powerful example of the power of human collaboration. People really should be excited about the potential that increased global collaboration brings. It's a powerful way to create positive changes that reverberate around the world.

I serve on the board of Wikimedia District of Columbia as vice-president. Wikimedia DC is the regional chapter of the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, the organization behind the top-10 global Website Wikipedia. Our vision is work collaboratively to empower individuals across the world through free access to global knowledge. I'm also a research fellow at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Right now, I'm working with some of the most passionate and dedicated people I know to bring the international conference Wikimania 2012 to Washington DC in July. Our vision at Wikimedia DC is a global vision, and we need global participation in order for it to be realized. We are bringing people here from every continent (except, maybe, Antarctica, but you can forgive us for that) to the tune of 1000+ global attendees, and we're excited have the State Department as a partner on this great event. After having been in cities like Frankfurt, Germany; Alexandria, Egypt; Taipei, Taiwan; Gdańsk, Poland; and Haifa, Israel, we're definitely excited to bring this international conference here to DC.

 Alison Elissa Horner is a life coach who specializes in helping entry level adults figure out what they're doing with their lives. She can build a taller block tower than you. And if not, she has friends in low places who are more than willing to knock your tower down when you aren't looking.  Register today if you haven't already, IgniteDC usually sells out.

I thought it would be relevant to most of the IgniteDC attendees.

I have a boatload of practical knowledge about little kids, a perspective (as a college educated nanny) that I doubt many people have heard before, and a sense of humor about the subject, because at the end of the day I've always been able to go home to my own bed and sleep through the night without interruption.

I help entry level adults figure out what the hell they're doing with their lives.

Check out this baby mop!

Q: Why did you choose your session topic?

 For as long as I could remember, I’ve always been fascinated with birth order and how people are affected by it. I’m a middle child so being misunderstood is just a way of life for me.  Having done an Ignite presentation, I saw this as a fun opportunity to mock my middle child status and demonstrate how it helped me become the person I am today.

Q: Why should attendees be excited to hear this (and why this won’t be a full on pitch for your business)?

 Besides the family pictures and stories, it’s time middle kids get some attention for a change.

Q: Tell us what you do professionally?

My official title is Senior Legislative and Federal Affairs Officer with the American Psychological Association. Basically, I’m a lobbyist who advocates on mental health issues as they relate to the disability and racial ethnic minority communities. 

Q: What's your big project/hope/thought for Spring?

My honest answer: to find love.

Lisa Schaefer is one of our speakers for IgniteDC 9 on March 22.  Her topic is "Save the Public Libraries,"  Dr. Schaefer is the organizer of the Future of Books discussion series and the writer-producer of Budget Justified, a 50-episode web series/movie and book about a woman engineer (full bio here).   Register today if you haven't already, IgniteDC usually sells out.

I run the Future of Books meetup to discuss how technology affects the way we experience books and socialize through learning. I also write books about women in technology.

You may have noticed. I've been blogging less on my personal blog, actually much less. Instead, I've focused on delivering one quality post on a social media related topic a week, and leaving the rest behind.