The allvoices team

Amra Tareen

Prior to allvoices, Amra was a partner at Sevin Rosen Funds. She was at Sevin Rosen from 2000-2006 to focus on investment opportunities in communications infrastructure and next generation carriers. Prior to joining Sevin Rosen, Amra was a product marketing director at Ascend Communications. She was instrumental in growing the DSL business. She was also responsible for product positioning, competitive analysis and outbound marketing for the remote access business. Earlier she worked as the product manager for Ascend's SS7 gateway.

Before Ascend, Amra worked at Lucent Technologies in sales and business development positions. She was a sales manager responsible for selling Lucent VoIP and data solutions to carrier customers. Amra began her career in Telecom working as an engineer and a C programmer for Telstra Australia. Amra has an MBA from Harvard University and a Bachelors of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from University of New South Wales, Australia.

Amra grew up in Pakistan and Australia and moved to the USA for her MBA. Amra is married and is a mother of two young boys.

Why allvoices? Last year I volunteered with Relief International’s livelihoods team in Mansera, Pakistan to setup micro-credits programs for the most vulnerable women, the widows and orphans of the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan. I was on the ground for a short period of time, in Mansera and Balakot, but it was an experience that inspired me. The women and people “on the ground” were very resilient, they had strong belief that they will be okay regardless of what happens. I wanted to share my experience with the rest of the world to see what was really going on the ground. There was so much to tell, but how could I communicate?. I had pictures of the devastation and destruction, I had stories of heroism, I felt the compassion of people who where good and generous to the core, even though they had nothing. How do I get this message out? Do I send an email to CNN?, Do I write a blog that no will ever find?...This inspired me to start a company that would let people no matter where they were to write about what they knew about an event, upload photos, videos, and write their stories and views and share with the rest of the world.

We quickly realized that in addition to sharing, every voice needs a context, so that other people can understand why a person has a particular point of view. We at allvoices believe that you don’t need to be an avid blogger or be an expert to share your experiences with the rest of the world. All you need to do is share your story and relevant information regarding a particular event or news and let allvoices provide the context for you, a place for participation, contribution and context!

Chris Stone

Chris wants to change the world and make a real difference. Chris is allvoices resident search and video expert. Chris loves startups and has an entrepreneurial spirit and a can-do attitude. Prior to allvoices, Chris was the chief architect at GoFish Corporation. Prior to GoFish, Chris lead teams at Ask Jeeves, Inc. developing conversational engines, wireless access and an ecommerce tie-in using Ask Jeeves core natural language processing technology. Chris has a BA from Indiana University: Scientific Visualization and Modeling.

Erik Sundelof

Erik previously participated as a fellow at the Reuters Digital Vision Program (http://www.rdvp.org) at Stanford University between 2005-2006. His participation in the program resulted in many projects and interesting collaborations, most notably he created the website inthefieldONLINE.net. The fresh perspective of inthefieldONLINE.net was swiftly recognized by major media, leading to media coverage in PBS, CNN and BBC, as well being featured on Discovery International’s Rewind 2006 as one of the 25th highlights of the Year 2006. Erik's academic orientations are rooted in a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering and PhD licentiate in Numerical Analysis. Known as “The Swede”, he makes his best effort to live up to the title with a charming accent, the always so close smile, even when things are crazy busy, and intense and masterfully crafted Swedish meatballs and cinnamon buns.

Erik loves the challenge. Any challenge - pushing physical limits or promoting dialogue between citizens. The challenge of doing some different. Something new. Changing the way we perceive our world. He also believes in never ending optimism. He is usually described as very passionate, dedicated and energetic with a focused drive towards finding solutions. He truly believes the path for the future is to embrace diversity of any kind. Reality is not black or white.

Why allvoices? I am true believer of the raw unedited dialogue between people. The local human perspective is always the most interesting and entertaining aspect any event. It gives a unique feeling of being there, seeing it with your own eyes. It gives the spectator a unique insight into what is happening. This is why I believe allvoices is the right path into the future as the site promotes dialogue and helps build friendships between citizens of this world in the light of current events. It is a unique opportunity. It is the future of media. Not a single, edited, selected view but an engaging mosaic of opinions presented for the user to with all opinions and perspectives of events going on right now in real time. That’s why allvoices, and that’s why I wanted to create a company where people will have a forum to discuss matters that affect them, whether it is politics, business, sports, entertainment or any other topic.

Imran Khan

Imran was born in Mumbai, India and like every other Mumbaite is a die hard cricket fan. He once thought that he had a future in cricket and was not the only one to think so, but his academic accomplishments led him towards an engineering career. He did his BS in Electronics Engineering from Mumbai University and shortly after that moved to USA for his MS in Computer Science from The University of Toledo, Ohio. Imran has worked in three startups so far - Breakthrough Software, iCommerce and Jacent. He loves the startup culture – people interact with each other, are open minded, there’s more opportunity to learn and contribute.

Kris Hammond

Dr. Kristian Hammond is a professor of Computer Science at Northwestern University and an accomplished researcher in the areas of human-machine interaction, context-driven information systems and artificial intelligence.  After completing his Ph.D. in computer science at Yale University in 1986 and crafting the DARPA white paper that helped define and fund the field of Case-Based Reasoning, Kristian Hammond founded The University of Chicago's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Under his direction, the laboratory flourished as a center for innovative artificial intelligence research for more than a decade, funded by NSF, DARPA, ONR, AFOSR, the Whitaker Foundation, Apple Computer, McKinsey and Microsoft Research.

In 1998, Professor Hammond and his students moved to Northwestern University's Computer Science Department to form the Intelligent Information Laboratory (InfoLab). At the InfoLab, his team is creating technology that bridges the gap between people and the information they need. The InfoLab has focused on frictionless information systems that make use of a wide variety of user contexts to support and radically transform user experiences in the areas of information retrieval, media delivery, speech recognition, collaborative environments, news gathering, intelligent browsing and personalized recommendation.

From 2000 to 2001, Dr. Hammond also enjoyed a run as the weekly technology correspondent for WTTW's Chicago Tomorrow.  Dr. Hammond currently directs Northwestern's InfoLab, and serves on Chicago Mayor Richard Daley's Council of Technology Advisors.

Dr. Hammond is driven by the desire to use the power of the network to give voice to those who struggle to be heard. His work with allvoices is a reflection of that desire.

He lives with his wife and two gorgeous boys less than a mile from Wrigley Field and that alone keeps him from leaving Chicago.

Larry Birnbaum

Dr. Larry Birnbaum is a professor of Computer Science at Northwestern University. Larry received his PhD in computer science from Yale University in 1986, and joined the Northwestern faculty in 1989. His research in artificial intelligence and computer science has encompassed natural language processing, case-based reasoning, machine learning, human-computer interaction, educational software, and computer vision. Birnbaum has authored or coauthored more than eighty articles. He was the program co-chair of the 1991 International Machine Learning Workshop and has been a member of the program committee for numerous other conferences and workshops.

Miles Woodroffe

Miles is a seasoned software engineer and manager with over 10 years experience building and delivering a wide range of web based systems and services. Prior to joining allvoices, Miles was VP of Engineering at Moderati Inc, a mobile content company, where for 5 years he was responsible for all efforts in software development, data center operations, R&D, IT and consumer services.

Before Moderati, Miles spent several years consulting in various hands-on engineering roles, helping to build large scale J2EE applications such as supply chain management systems for APL, strategic planning interfaces for Marconi, and also troubleshooting mission critical business applications in the field with Fortune 500 clients such as Wells Fargo.

Prior to his career in technology, Miles was a live and studio sound engineer for more than 10 years, working with an eclectic mix of artists ranging from Bob Dylan to The Specials, Ray Charles to Malkit Singh and James Brown to Tito Puente. A British citizen, Miles has a passion for technology, music and traditional English beer - not necessarily in that order.

Sanjay Sood

Dr. Sanjay Sood, the Chief Architect, comes to allvoices from Northwestern University where he received his PhD in Computer Science. Sanjay's focus is on designing and developing novel approaches to making sense out of large amounts of unstructured and disparate data. His areas of research encompass machine learning, relevance assessment, query formation strategies, tagging systems, information retrieval, and human-computer interaction. Sood's research has been incorporated into systems that are used by thousands of people every day and has been featured in Wired Magazine's NextFest for emerging technologies. He has collaborated with numerous Fortune 500 and technology companies including Motorola, Ford, Intellext, and Technorati.

Aki Hashmi

Aki is helping allvoices with Marketing while he is the CEO of Kalat. Aki brings over 20 years of management experience in consumer and business services. As President and COO of Nextdoor Networks he was responsible for all of the operations, with a focus on sales, business and corporate development, product marketing, and customer implementations. Previously, he was the Executive Vice President of Terra Lycos Quote.com and Vice President of Reuters America. His career spans 20 years working in a variety of senior management roles in start-ups, and global fortune 500 organizations including Quote.com, Knight Ridder and Morgan Stanley. Aki has worked with small and large teams to develop business from their early stages through to market leadership.

Confiz

Confiz Solutions is a software services company specialized in building consumer internet applications using latest tools and technologies. They have been an important part of the team building allvoices.com web platform.