in association with
New Media Awards 2006

Judges

Martin Bright

Martin Bright is the New Statesman's Political Editor. Previously Martin was the Home Affairs Editor of the Observer for five years and before that worked as the paper's education editor. He also doubled as chief political correspondent during the 2005 election.

He has broken a number of high-profile stories in recent years, including the story of Katharine Gun, the GCHQ whistleblower, who revealed a US-UK spying operation on the UN just before the outbreak of the Iraq war.

He also broke the news of the A-level grading scandal, which led to the resignation of Estelle Morris and the subsequent reform of the exam system. As a result of a series of stories about the deportation of Zimbabwean asylum seekers the government was forced to suspend removals.

At the New Statesman he has been responsible for a number of stories about high-profile leaks from the Foreign Office revealing secret government discussions on illegal rendition flights, the proscription of extremist groups and plans to open up dialogue with Islamists in the middle east.

He has been described as "sartorially challenged" by the Observer media diary.

Philip Chalmers

Philip Chalmers is business development director at Atos Origin. Philip Chalmers joined Atos Origin in 2001 and is currently responsible for identity management areas of central government including ID cards. Previously, he was director of polling and marketing for the Scottish Labour Party, prior to being appointed as special adviser to Donald Dewar, the First Minister of the Scottish Executive.

Kathryn Corrick

Kathryn Corrick is Online Manager at the New Statesman. Kathryn has overseen the Upstarts Awards since 2004 but has been involved with the scheme since the awards began.

Prior to joining the New Statesman in 2001 Kathryn worked as a freelance web producer and press officer in the voluntary and education sector. At the New Statesman she is responsible for all digital publications and operations.

Kathryn was an associate editor for ak13.com focussing on religious affairs and arts until July 2005. She is also a trustee of the International Youth Trust, a small student exchange programme, and until recently was on the management committee for the Winant Clayton Volunteers Association.

Paul Evans

Paul Evans is one of the co-founders of Poptel Technology Ltd, a co-operative web development agency that specialises in highly accessible and usable websites. Many of their projects are designed to motivate sections of society that currently don't use the internet.

Local councillors are one such group, and Poptel Technology's Councillor.info project is working with twenty local authorities on a project to encourage councillors to become active managers of personal websites.

Paul has also specialised in promoting web technologies to the Labour movement. He has worked on website projects for almost all of the major Unions and many of the smaller ones.

Previously, Paul worked as an assistant to an MEP, specialising in the regulation of Digital TV. In his spare time, he helped the New Statesman to establish the first New Statesman New Media Awards in 1998.

Ross Ferguson

Ross Ferguson is Director of the Hansard Society's e-Democracy Programme, and is responsible for overseeing the Society’s work to encourage greater participation in the democratic process through new technologies. Alongside research and development activity, Ross has written and presented extensively on political engagement, citizenship and the proliferation of digital technology in parliamentary democracies. Ross has a background in advertising and digital media agencies, and recieved a BA Honours degree in History and Politics from the University of Strathclyde.

Dave Green

Dave Green is a journalist who has covered technology and the internet for Radio 1, BBC2, Radio 5 Live and (currently) BBC 6Music, specialising in user-generated content and interface usability. He's written for The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, Wired magazine and Amiga Power, and co-edits Need To Know, the UK's longest-running irreverent new media newsletter. He co-organised the grassroots technology conference Open Tech 2005, and runs Snackspot.org.uk, an "experimental collaborative food industry monitoring community".

William Higham

William is the founder of Next Big Thing, which predicts consumer change and locates new consumer markets. It runs a popular trend news website and publishes a bi-monthly bulletin. Clients include BBC, BSkyB, SAB Miller, Virgin Radio, Universal Music and media agencies Mindshare, Y&R and BBH.

Higham began his career in the entertainment industry. At Epic he worked as press liaison for artists such as Michael Jackson and Alice Cooper. As Marketing Manager for Virgin and then Polydor, he co-ordinated advertising and communications campaigns for global artists like The Rolling Stones and Meat Loaf and helped launch the careers of Verve and David Gray.

He left the industry in 2001 to pursue a career in marketing research, working with entertainment and media clients and consulting on global research project Breaking Trends. He set up Next Big Thing in 2003.

David Seymour

David Seymour was political editor of the Mirror Group until the beginning of this year and also the Daily Mirror's readers' editor. He organised the Mirror's centenary exhibition at the Science Museum and produced the book to mark that anniversary. He organises the annual NUS/Mirror student media awards.




Peter Tatchell

Peter Tatchell is a human rights campaigner, and a member of the queer rights group OutRage! and the left-wing of the Green Party.

Born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1952, he began campaigning for human rights in 1967, aged 15. His first campaign was against the death penalty, followed by campaigns in support of Aboriginal rights and in opposition to the draft and the Australian and US war against the people of Vietnam. In 1969, on realising he was gay, the struggle for queer freedom became an increasing focus of his activism.

In 1987, Tatchell launched the world's first organisation dedicated to defending the human rights of people with HIV, the UK AIDS Vigil Organisation. In 1988, the UKAVO persuaded the World Health Minister's Summit on AIDS to issue a declaration opposing government repression and discrimination against people with HIV.

After playing a prominent role in the London chapter of the AIDS activist group ACT UP, in 1990 he helped found the radical queer rights direct action movement OutRage!.

Dr Jo Twist

Jo Twist joined the ippr as Senior Research Fellow to lead the Digital Society & Media team in December 2005. Prior to this, she spent five years at the BBC. Starting at CBBC Newsround she was involved in shaping the programme’s virtual community and content. For the past two years, Jo was technology reporter for the BBC News website, covering most aspects of citizen/consumer technologies and participatory media. Before joining the BBC, Jo was a cultural geographer at the Centre for Urban Technology (CUT) at the University of Newcastle. There she completed an ESRC/BT Case Award PhD (1997-2000) on virtual communities and the UK Government's vision for an inclusive information age. Jo blogs and podcasts in her spare time, and contributes to BBC TV and radio regularly. She also writes for a monthly a BBC Ariel newspaper column, Cutting Edge.