Team
This is the phase 1 group for the Introduction to Cyberpunk Literature course at P2PU. We’re all just about the coolest people we know…
Bekka Kahn: I’m a writer and researcher based in Johannesburg, South Africa, and came to P2PU through my work in the free culture and open content worlds. In the past I have worked for The African Commons Project and iCommons, which is how I got interested in open education in the first place. In my first incarnation I was a literature grad, although my degree was more about Bronte than Bladerunner. I’m also the community manager for P2PU.
James Stephenson: I am 21 year old kid living in the mountains of Shenandoah County, Virginia (which is about an hour and a half away from Washington DC). I’ve been interested in Open Source and Open Content since high school and science fiction for quite a bit longer than that.
Alexa Paultre: I’m 21 years old and live in Wiesbaden in Germany. This town is close to Frankfurt if this info helps;). I’m an intern at a small animation studio which produces short cartoon spots for television advertising. I have to thank my sister who found out about P2PU and introduced me to it. I’m very fond of the idea to approach the cyberpunk genre in a more scholastical way, because I hope to use the knowledge for my future studies at the movie collage.
Laurian Gridinoc: I’m 33 years old male (yeah, Laurian is a boy name in Romania), I live now in Milton Keynes, UK. I’m a medical doctor (but never practiced), I co-founded a century ago a branding, identity and interactive media agency, did a master in natural language processing and landed in the UK at the Knowledge Media Institute (The Open University) doing Semantic Web research; currently I work for their iTunes U and podcasting projects. I believe that cyberpunk pictures our near future as opposed to the classical space-opera-like science fiction.
Nadeem Shabir: I’m 32 years old and live in Birmingham in the UK. I work for a company called Talis, where I’m building cool applications using Semantic Web technologies. I did a degree in Artificial Intelligence because I had always been intrigued by the idea of intelligent machines and the possible impact their existence might have on human beings and our shared humanity. Growing up I was inspired by the works of many writers ranging from Isaac Asimov to Theodore Sturgeon. Along the way I developed a passion for Manga and Anime and was drawn to the visions of the future that are portrayed in movies like Appleseed and series like Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, where technology is ubiquitous, the distinction between man and machine is blurred and the NET is often depicted as both a shared environment and often a shared consciousness. These themes are also prevalent in the core texts of this course. I’m doing this course because I love this subject, and because I can’t do it anywhere else.
George Veletsianos: I’m an academic and researcher based in Manchester, UK. I was born and raised in Cyprus and studied in the United States. I have a phd in learning technologies specializing in the design and evaluation of online learning environments with contemporary technologies. If you want to learn more about my work, you can take a look at my blog. My interest in the course is partly personal and partly professional. On the one hand, my work with artificial intelligence and virtual characters touched upon issues that may come up in the class; on the other, i am increasingly involved with open access education and alternative modes of teaching. I am looking forward to learning with everyone!
Brian Williams: Listening to Murder Ballads by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds as I write … I’m a huge fan of the global open access movement — locally, for me, this begins with the University of California’s eRepository efforts to free scholarship from the exclusively proprietary hands of global vendors like … so-and-so … I’m a research librarian w/law degree etc. … i like crime, studying crime, learning about ourselves thru crime … i am a punk rock fanaticand believe in the power of images and words and music … For examples of open access power sites, check out SSRN.com ( Social Science Research Network ) – a marriage of pre-pub release w/the best legal / crim scholarship. I live in Long Beach CA … Cheers,
brian
Jonathan Pienaar: 47 years old. Johannesburg, South Africa. Television/video editor and writer. I have been reading Science Fiction since 4th grade – my Dad was an SF addict and he used to take out all the Gollancz and “Best of” type series from the library, then I would sneak them away and devour them. He preferred short stories, and I take after him (short attention span). So all these novels are a test for me 
My seminal moment: watching “Silent Running” at the local cineplex. Blown away by those cool space effects… and it just got better after that. I have always preferred the dystopian stories to “space opera” though… A Clockwork Orange, Soylent Green rather than Star Wars. Over 20 years since I was in varsity. Hope the brain is still functional.