Building the Stack: Five Decisions

What are the biggest decisions people working in public media tech have to make? If there was a decision they could change, what would it be? 

In this webinar series from the Public Media Stack, we explored the art (and science) of making tech decisions with some of public media’s prominent voices. We asked them five simple questions and unpacked the issues that universally affect our industry – problems with workflow, the relationship between newsrooms and tech teams, reader engagement innovation, funding diversification – as well as the presence of and reliance on Big Tech and the efforts to create alternative ecosystems. 

All webinars are available to watch on our Public Media Stack PubPub site. Please click on the ‘Watch now’ links below and add your comments and views.

Alexis is a product design and innovation leader who has spent her career designing experiences for reading and writing on the internet. She is currently the VP of Product Design at Medium and has previously led design and innovation work at The New York Times R&D Lab, Axios, and Automattic. She co-leads the Ethical Futures Lab and has a deep curiosity about how humans and machines co-evolve with one another.

Jonathan is Chief Network Officer at the Institute for Nonprofit News. He leads the Amplify Project piloting news sharing and distribution models with newsrooms across the Midwest. Previously, he worked at Public Radio International, as executive editor for PRI.org, and The World Company, where he launched community news sites focused on health and sustainability.  He has been a speaker at numerous conferences such as the Online News Conference, and is a graduate of the William Allen White School of Journalism at the University of Kansas.

Noelle is a multi-award-winning technologist who specializes in conversational AI and Voice Development, Intelligent Apps and Agents, and Responsible AI Practices. She has lead teams at NPR, Microsoft and Amazon, and is the Founder of Women in AI and the AI Leadership Institute. She is currently Head of Instruction, Data Science, Analytics and Full Stack Web Development at HackerU, where she works with universities and leads a team of engineers to create innovative tech education programs to assist students into a career in the tech industry. 

Paul the CEO of Postlight, an award-winning design and development agency in New York. He’s a writer, product strategist, educator, programmer and software consultant and has managed digital and editorial strategies for Bloomberg, Condé Nast, Credit Suisse and VICE Media.  He’s written for the New York Times and Wired and in 2016, won the National Magazine Award. He’s advised startups and Medium, and was an advisor to the White House Office of Digital Strategy during the Obama Administration. He also teaches at the School of Visual Arts, and appears regularly on the radio, TV, and on podcasts.

Jarrod is a writer, entrepreneur and currently Vice President of Commercial at the Washington Post where he also founded RED, the Post’s research experimentation and development team, and is behind Zeus Platform, an innovative stack for advertising delivery and monetization. He was CEO of Po.et, a platform for decentralized media economy on the blockchain, and an advocate for a decentralized media industry.