About Participatory Culture Foundation
What We Do
Democracy and culture can only thrive when people are engaged in creating the world around them; not when they are passive recipients or alienated from the society they live in.
Participatory Culture Foundation (PCF), a 501c3 non-profit organization, is dedicated to supporting a democratic media by creating open and decentralized video tools and services. We work to eliminate gatekeepers and empower communities around the world.
Our software is used by millions of people each month; people often ask why we're setup as a non-profit rather than a for-profit. Quite simply: all of us at PCF are drawn to the organization because of our shared belief in the mission.
Being a non-profit is the only way we can ensure that the mission is built into the structure of the company. So many times we've seen for-profit companies lose their values as financial pressures mount, founders leave, or they get acquired. We want to make sure that can't happen.
Board of Directors
- Dave Glassco, President
- Tiffiniy Cheng, Secretary
- Nicholas Reville, Treasurer
- Joel Cohen
- Cory Doctorow
- Rick Hess
- Leszek Izdebski
- John Lilly
- Stefan Magdlinski
- Holmes Wilson
Major Funders
- Knight Foundation
- Surdna Foundation
- Mozilla Foundation
- Open Society Institute
- Rappaport Family Foundation
- Mellon Foundation
- Opencast
- Mitch Kapor Foundation
- William Penn Foundation
- ...and many individual users
Our Staff
Aleli Alcala
Development Director
Aleli lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She has worked for both for-profit and nonprofit organizations. She graduated from the University of Washington with a BA in Speech Communications. Aleli will be focused on fundraising activities at PCF.
Contact:
Stephen Burrows
Lead Developer, Miro Community
Stephen graduated from Oberlin College with a B.A. in Creative Writing and German Language and Literature, and currently lives in the Seattle area. After hours, he likes to write Django applications and go swing or blues dancing.
Contact:
Tiffiniy Cheng
Co-Founder
Tiffiniy Cheng is from Worcester, MA and has a BS in engineering and urban planning from the Cooper Union. She has worked in non-profit, urban planning, and public policy-oriented organizations.
Contact:
Ben Dean- Kawamura
Software Developer
Ben lives in Rochester, NY.
Contact:
Arthur Debert
Developer
Arthur Debert is a developer based in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Gave up on movie making because the Internet is where people are actually at. He believes in good software, open source and good manners.
Contact: arthur@stimuli.com.br
Janet Dragojevic
Quality Assurance
Janet directs quality and testing for PCF. She lives on an island in the Adriatic.
Contact:
Terri Hanley
Bean Counter
Terri lives in Cenral MA. She has been invovled in finances for 25+ years as an independent contractor before joining PCF. Her inersts include fostering and rehabilitating Mastiffs in need of re-homing and fighting for camera space
Contact:
Dean Jansen
Outreach & Business Development Director
Dean is based in New York. He's focused on growth and sustainability for PCF. His interests include digital culture, 20th century branding, and motorcycles.
Contact:
Steve Losh
Programmer
Steve Losh is a programmer, photographer, dancer, and bassist from Rochester, New York.
Contact: steve@stevelosh.com
Nicholas Reville
Co-Founder, Executive Director
Nicholas Reville is from Worcester, MA and has a B.A. in Public Policy from Brown University. He worked in a variety of political activism positions for several years before co-founding PCF. He is an Ashoka Fellow.
Contact:
Nick Sergeant
Web Developer
Nick lives in Rochester, NY working on the front-end of Universal Subtitles. He has a BS from Le Moyne College in Syracuse.
Contact:
Margarita Shamraeva
Quality Assurance
Margarita lives in beautiful Vancouver, Canada. She performs software testing of PCF products, mostly UniversalSubtitles and MiroCommunity, and always enjoys searching for bugs and verifying that they are properly fixed.
Contact:
Paul Swartz
Software Developer
Paul is from Kensington, MD, but graduated with a B.A. from Hampshire College and now lives in Northampton, MA.
Contact:
Holmes Wilson
Co-Founder
Holmes Wilson is from Worcester, MA. He founded the Worcester Computer Co-op, an organization that uses free software and recycled computers to start computer labs in his city. He has a B.A. in Italian literature and speaks Italian.
Contact:
Craig Zheng
Product Director and UX Design Lead for Universal Subtitles
Craig lives in Jersey City, NJ. He has degrees in history and anthropology, both of which are doing him a whole lot of good as a web developer. When he's not working, he usually working, or practicing martial arts, or deciding to finally learn how to play the guitar that's been sitting in the corner for six years.
Contact: craig.zheng@gmail.com
