founder

David Galiel [Executive Director]

David Galiel founded the nonprofit Public Interest Entertainment Corporation ("PIECORP") to apply his theory of social architecture to create online collaborative creativity tools and fun virtual worlds that promote civic participation, non-violent conflict resolution, and critical thinking. A veteran online community and game designer, trends analyst and entrepreneur, Galiel now devotes his life to public service.

He currently provides consulting services to federal, state and local government agencies, nonprofit advocacy groups and service organizations, progressive political campaigns and the occasional virtuous, socially-responsible forprofit.

Galiel also regularly gives talks and conducts workshops that help nonprofit service organizations leverage Web 2.0 collaborative and social media technologies for internal and external communications and community-building, from wikis and blogs to networks and newsfeeds.

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board of directors, key advisors

Brenda Laurel [Chairperson, Senior Research Advisor]

Distinguished Engineer and Senior Director, Sun Microsystems Labs
Chair, Media Design Program, Art Center College of Design

Author, game designer, sociologist, and virtual reality pioneer, Dr. Laurel’s career in human-computer interaction spans over twenty years. A founding research staff member at Interval Research Corporation, she founded “games for girls” company Purple Moon, and has worked as software designer, producer, and researcher for Atari, Activision, and Apple. Dr. Laurel’s consulting clients have ranged from LucasArts Entertainment and Sony Pictures to Oregon Public Broadcasting and Children’s Television Workshop. She has published extensively on interactive fiction, computer games, virtual reality, and political and artistic issues in interactive media.

Ziad Hamzeh [Director, Theater & Story Advisor]

Founder and President, Hamzeh Mystique Films

Stage and film director and producer, acting coach and master teacher Ziad Hamzeh was the founding Artistic Director of the Open Fist Theater and the Egyptian Arena in Los Angeles. He directed and produced over sixty major award winning stage productions, and has received more than thirty critical awards for directing and producing films. His award-winning feature film, “Shadow Glories,” was the biggest independent theatrical release by an independent production company in New England history. Ziad’s critically acclaimed documentary, "The Letter," about recently inflamed tensions in Littleton, Maine, between white residents and Somali refugees, has received numerous major national and international awards and was chosen by the American Film Institute for showcasing at their annual festival. Ziad has mentored and empowered numerous artists, and continues to inspire and challenge directing, acting and film students at The Maine International Film and Television Workshops.

Andrew Updegrove [Director, Legal Advisor and Technical IP Specialist]

Co-Founder, Gesmer Updegrove, LLP
Founder and Editor, Consortium Standards Bulletin and Consortiuminfo.org

Recognized internationally as an expert on the topics of standard setting, intellectual property policies and consortia, Andrew has represented and helped structure more than 70 worldwide standard setting, promotional and advocacy consortia, including some of the largest standard setting organizations in the world. He has provided testimony to the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission on these topics. Andrew has also written and filed pro bono “friend of the court” briefs in major standards-related litigation before the Federal Circuit Court, the Supreme Court, and the Federal Trade Commission. In 2004, Andy was the sole representative of the consortium community to be appointed as a member of the United States National Standards Strategy Committee. Most recently, he received the 2005 President’s Award for Journalism from the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) for his work at ConsortiumInfo.org and the Consortium Standards Journal, which he created in 2002. The greatest part of his time over more than 25 years in practice has been spent counseling emerging high technology and other fast growth clients.

project advisors

Mars First!/Mars Founders/MiniMars Project

Guillermo Trotti [Technical and Design Advisor]

Space Architect & Designer

“Gui” Trotti is a pioneering architect who was among the first to work with the space program to design living and working environments for space, Moon, and Mars. His designs now orbit Earth onboard the International Space Station. Mr. Trotti is also an experienced theme-park-designer, film and television set designer and space industries entrepreneur.

Dava Newman [Science Advisor]

World Expert, Aerospace Bioengineering
MIT Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Engineering Systems
Director, MIT Technology and Policy Program

Dr. Newman is one of the world’s foremost experts on sustained human presence in zero-gravity and low-gravity environments, consulting for both NASA and the Russian Space Agency. NASA has funded several of her projects, including the current MICR0-G space flight experiment onboard the International Space Station, and her NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC)-funded futuristic “second-skin” BioSuit for Mars exploration. An award-winning teacher, active in programs to bring young women into engineering and space science, she is a strong advocate for the peaceful cooperative exploration of space.

Doing History Project

Michael Sellers [Game Design and Development Advisor]

Founder and CEO, Online Alchemy

“Chief Alchemist” of Online Alchemy, Mike has been designing and
developing multiplayer games since 1994. A co-founder of Archetype
Interactive (later acquired by 3DO), Mike was Lead Designer on Meridian 59,
the first 3D massively multiplayer online game.  In 1997 he co-founded The
Big Network (later acquired by eUniverse) and led the design for online
family-oriented social networking software (MyPlace).  He has since led
designs on SimCity Online, The Sims 2, and Ultima Online Trilogy. Mike has
spoken at many industry conferences and written extensively on MMOG design
and production.  In 2002 he founded Online Alchemy in Austin, Texas, and is
currently working on a next-generation MMOG based on proprietary advanced
artificial intelligence software (under contract with DARPA).

Thom Gillespie [Game Design & Research Advisor]

Director, Masters in Immersive Mediated Environments (MIME) at Indiana University

Thom is a globally-recognized expert on interactive storytelling and computer game design. He created the MIME program at the Department of Telecommunications at Indiana University in Bloomington, and interdisciplinary program that combines Fine Arts, Telecommunications, Computer Science, Music, Business School, Theater, Journalism, and Instructional Design. He has led workshops on these topics across the US and in many countries. He is a consultant to Brazil’s Museum of the Person project. Thom has worked in the Inuit village of Kivalina in Alaska for the University of Alaska; as an information scientist for the United Nations in Central Java and consulted with the Ministries of Agriculture in Korea, China, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, India, and Bangladesh on data analysis and Internet connectivity. He writes for Technos magazine and writes the monthly “Computer Media” column for the Library Journal.

We have it in our power to begin the world over again
—Thomas Paine
Public Interest Entertainment Corporation
"The Technology of Human Imagination"