Born in West Africa to foreign service parents, Nicco Mele is a Co-Founder and Partner at EchoDitto. Mele has broad experience working with emerging technologies and is a considered a pioneer in the social media and Web 2.0 field. As the Internet Operations Director of Gov. Dean's presidential primary campaign in 2003, Mele managed all technical, functional and design aspects of Gov. Dean's national web presence. Mele is a co-founder of GeniusRocket.com, a crowd sourced creative ad agency, and he is a co-founder of ProxyDemocracy.com, an online resource for proxy voting and shareholder resolutions. In December of 2003, Mele was named one of America's "best and brightest" by Esquire magazine. Mele teaches at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and was a Fall 2008 Fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University. Mele sits on the board of Democracy 21, a non-partisan campaign finance reform group, founded by Fred Wertheimer, and the Lower East Side Girls Club. He is passionate about modern poetry and Mayan archaeology. He is a co-founder of the Massachusetts Poetry Festival. His podcasts from Mayan archaeological digs are an internet favorite.

Michael Silberman, Co-Founder and Partner, managed the Dean campaign's hugely successful Meetup operation in over 1,200 cities worldwide. Today, he speaks frequently on the effective use of technology for converting online activity into real-world action. He also served as the 1Sky climate campaign's Internet Director during its first year, where he planned, led, and implemented a successful nationwide internet organizing, communications, and fundraising strategy. As Dean’s National Meetup Director, he developed a team and technology strategy that mobilized 189,000 grassroots volunteers, and he served as the liaison between grassroots organizers, the activist base and campaign leadership. Michael also gained valuable organizing and political experience at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and in the Clinton White House at the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). He graduated on skis with a B.A. from Middlebury College.

Prior to joining EchoDitto over 3 years ago, Cristen Perks, the Director of Client Services, was a consultant specializing in the creation and marketing of custom issue advocacy campaigns. During the 2004 election, she worked in online advertising at MSHC Partners. It was there that she developed and implemented large-scale online advertising strategies for issue advocacy groups and political campaigns, including John Kerry for President and the Democratic National Committee. Additionally, Cristen has significant experience in online campaign management, search engine marketing and optimization, and technical project management. Cristen Perks received her MBA and degrees in Management Information Systems and Graphic Design from the University of Tulsa.

Partner and Chief Technology Officer Justin ("JP") Pinder has been tooling around on the Internet and with its related technologies for over 20 years. An avid tinkerer, he is known for taking apart everything he owns—from iPods to air conditioners—and occasionally putting them back together sans one screw. Prior to co-founding EchoDitto, he was the lead developer for Howard Dean’s massive online organizing effort. Justin has also worked previously as an independent consultant, developing custom Web applications for non-profits and small businesses. During the bubble, he was employed building enterprise-class web applications for the corporate sector. He graduated from the University of Vermont with a B.Sc. in information systems, where he also pranced around in tights competing in NCAA men's gymnastics.

Joshua Wachs, Managing Partner at EchoDitto, has been merging creativity and technology for the last 21 years. In 1987, after graduating from Emerson College with a degree in Mass Communications, he founded a Massachusetts custom database development and consulting company. For more than 12 years, Wachs was President, CEO, and visionary behind Natural Intelligence, Inc. Known nationally and internationally for its innovative custom technology, Natural Intelligence was recognized for pioneering software in the Java world, creating Roaster, a first-to-market Java Development Environment and clean-room virtual machine for the Macintosh. Despite demanding career activities, Wachs is an active participant in a wide variety of community activities. He was an early supporter and contributor to a variety of industry volunteer networks, including The Boston Computer Society. He was a member of the YEO (Young Entrepreneurs Association), is on the Board of Directors for Voice of the Turtle, and was a corporate sponsor of Public Radio. He can be found Twittering at http://twitter.com/schwachs.

Bryn Bellomy, Software Architect, began his career as a software developer writing simple computer games when he was 12. He spent his next ten years self-employed as a freelance web designer in Houston. Bellomy is a recent graduate of Georgetown University, where he studied political theory, cultural theory, and philosophy. Bellomy traveled to Kantolomba, Zambia in 2007 to assist an NGO in setting up a small microfinance bank and developing an adult curriculum for business, English, and public health. With this intoxicating experience under his belt, he decided to direct his energies toward supporting progressive causes and international development organizations by joining the EchoDitto team in Washington, DC.

Travis Black, Software Architect, is a development ninja with an arsenal of tools in his belt including PHP, Ruby, and even small doses of Python. He began his web development career in high school building websites for rock bands, including his own. Black began his professional career learning PHP at a Northeast Louisiana e-commerce company in 2005. Travis is also an active member of the Symfony/Doctrine community and a frequent contributor to both projects. He organizes the Symfony Showdown, a 48 hour Symfony programming competition, and can often be found speaking at meetups and user groups to teach others about the technologies he uses most often.

Project manager Matt Burge has been online ever since he can remember, embracing the ever changing scope of the online world. Prior to joining EchoDitto he managed the development of applications for large corporations including financial forecasting tools, relationship management software and social media websites. Matt also worked closely with his clients to plan, manage and execute multi-faceted marketing campaigns. Matt holds a B.A. from St. Mary's College of Maryland where he studied economics and political science with an emphasis on international studies. During his free time he enjoys hiking and camping, aimlessly beating on his keyboard attempting to make beautiful music, and trying to keep his puppy under control.

Dan Cocos, a Software Architect, has ten years experience developing software. He has extensive experience in both the public and private sectors, exposing him to a variety of clients from The Census Bureau to The National Education Association to the travel site Away.com. He holds a BBA in Information Systems Analysis and Design from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In his free time he can be found biking, playing kickball or with friends in Capitol Hill where he makes his home .

Sara Deneweth, Office Manager, joins EchoDitto from Michigan via San Francisco where she was the Post-Production Manager at Remedy Editorial, a film/video studio. At Remedy, Sara directed studio operations and oversaw the growth of the company from its founding. Besides producing hundreds of videos for corporate clients such as Cisco, Genentech, and Autodesk, Sara started the Adopt-a-Doc program, which provides support to independent filmmakers. Adoptees have included films that have won numerous awards on the festival circuit, aired on national television, and been released theatrically. Sara graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in Environmental Policy. She has a diverse background in political campaign management, non-profit arts organizations, and graphic design. During the 2008 election, Sara volunteered for OFA in the Chicago headquarters and is a recent graduate of the New Organizing Institute's bootcamp.

Tony Guzmán, Project Manager, is a lifelong activist. Tony was born and raised in San Francisco and received his BA in history at San Francisco State University. Upon graduating, he moved to Las Vegas to become a community organizer in the anti-nuclear movement. Tony led campaigns to stop the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump and nuclear weapons testing in Nevada. He also helped found a national network of youth and students committed to nuclear abolition called Think Outside the Bomb. In 2007, Tony continued his slow trek east by moving to Salt Lake City to work for a nonprofit organization called DharmaTech that provides website and database solutions to progressive nonprofit organizations. In 2010, Tony jumped at the chance to join the EchoDitto team to continue his passion for strengthening the intersection between social change and technology. Tony has a soft place in his heart for baseball, Mexican food, and hip-hop.

Systems Administrator Alan Ivey has been exploring technology since using a Commodore 64 when he was six years old. While still in college, he was accepted his first sysadmin job in DC as a contractor for NASA Headquarters. Before joining the EchoDitto team, Alan spent a year leading volunteer-based teams at Momentum Christian Church for video editing, graphic design, and website development. While not at EchoDitto, his time is spent finishing school at the University of Mary Washington College of Graduate and Professional Studies, building websites for non-profit organizations, and playing music.

Jabu Mguni joins us as an intern at the Boston office after five years working in the Meetings and Conferences department at the Ritz Carlton, Washington, D.C. Prior to the Ritz he worked in Study Abroad at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. A common theme of his work experience involves facilitating productive connections and conversations between people from varying professions and backgrounds. He graduated from the University of Cape Town with a B.A. in economics. He spends his free time on the road exploring the world, and talking world politics.

Technologist Madeleine Perry has been avidly writing and reading since she was very young, and joins EchoDitto with a B.A. in English from Washington College in Chestertown, MD. Most recently, Madeleine worked as a researcher for Conflicts Forum, an organization dedicated to opening and fostering new relationships between the West and the Muslim world. Her interests include writing, reading, baseball, and playing the violin. During the months of August-October, you will usually find Madeleine in a nervous state, cheering on her Chicago Cubs in the hopes that they will one day actually win a World Series.

Bonnie Shaw, Strategy Architect and Project Manager, excels in making meaningful connections between people, place and technology. She approaches the social web from a fresh perspective with a background in urban design, grass roots community events organizing, and local community building and engagement. Bonnie has over 8 years of international professional experience in design, strategy, and project management in local grounded and global online projects. She is a founder of the world wide photographic treasure hunt Snap-Shot-City.com and regularly presents and mentors in ongoing research in online/offline community engagement, pervasive gaming, locative technologies, and digital storytelling. Bonnie has degrees in Landscape Architecture, Planning and Design, and a Masters in Urban Design. After living in Brisbane, Melbourne, and London she is very excited to call Cambridge, MA and EchoDitto home!

Strategy Associate Brian Sykora has followed the Internet space since he crossed paths with Michael Dell in 1997. As a recent transplant from North Carolina, Brian dodged the dot com boom-bust and joined the latest wave of tech start-ups in 2006. At UNC-Chapel Hill, he co-founded a small social venture, establishing partnerships with NGOs and Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai. In his unplugged world, Brian is a hiker, cheese connoisseur and international traveler.

Katie Wiese, Office Administrator, is a writer and cellist imported to the Cambridge office most recently from the Pacific Northwest. She is working at EchoDitto to further her hopes of sporting a pair of rectangular glasses, the hip ones, so you will usually find her sitting far too close to her computer screen. Katie is trained in copyediting, technical writing, and proofreading, as well as fiction and the ever-evolving genre of creative nonfiction. In the past, she has worked for nonprofit and community organizations, played in a lot of string quartets, and learned to love the serial comma. She earned her BA in creative writing from Western Washington University.

Software Architect Ethan Winn has been developing multimedia and internet technologies since 1994, when he supported customers using one of the first available web browsers, SlipKnot. The SlipKnot web browser, released prior to Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer, allowed individuals without dial-up connections to browse the fledgling web using pre-internet era file transfers such as XMODEM and Kermit. Winn went on to work in music production, assisting engineers developing many of the major labels' hits in the 90's. In 1999, he began building websites and programming custom content management systems specialized for marketing music via the emerging viral marketing ecosystems of the web boom. Ethan built his first site with the Drupal open source CMS in 2001, and in 2005 decided to refocus his work on projects with socially responsible, visionary organizations build on open source platforms. Winn is a proud member of the EchoDitto team, based in the Cambridge office.