We believe in truth, transparency, kindness and the American Way (whatever that is these days). Come watch us. Better yet: join us!
Our work is distributed simultaneously on multiple content and social networks . You can also find all our social network links on our Social Media Page
Who are we?
Chris Dykstra, Board Chair & Co-Founder
Chris has more than 20 years of progressively responsible business experience, the last 15 of which have been spent in software and web development. He s a founding partner in Warecorp, a web and software services company with development centers in the former Soviet Union. Warecorp balances traditional web and software engagements against its mission of serving as an incubator for socially conscious technology startups and progressive activism. The first of these startups, Zanby, is a social networking and organizational platform. He lives on a lake in Minnesota, has a kayak and a canoe, 4 boys, 3 cats and an undying love of soccer. // chris.dykstra at theuptake dot org // Twitter
Michael McIntee, Executive Producer, Co-Founder
Michael is a former network TV news executive with 29 years of broadcasting experience. He started and ran All News Channel a 24 hour TV news channel on DirecTV and managed and syndicated First Business, the number one-rated morning business program. He has also created and supervised programming for cable networks USA, VH1, and Lifetime. He is the founder of TimeScape Productions, a company that produces online videos and podcasts and manages user-generated video for magazines, associations and other organizations. Michael is an expert producer, writer, video editor and occasional fill-in host on Air America Minnesota. He has a fondness for new technology but insists he s not a geek // mike.mcintee at theuptake dot org//Twitter
Jason Barnett, Executive Director, Co-Founder
With a degree in Fine Arts, Jason spent 15 years as a professional sculptor. As a creative thinker with an interest in news, politics and technology, he recognized the power of online video and social networking which led to the founding of The UpTake in 2007. Jason has been cited as a journalism visionary and “journalpreneur” for his work in establishing TheUpTake.org as the vanguard of new journalism.
He has been invited to speak or participate at:
The Mobile Summit at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Personal Democracy Forum
National Conference of Media Reform
Poynter Institute: ONAvation Webinar “Mobile Apps:Expanding Your Reach and Audience”
Reynolds Journalism Institute – “Hardly Strictly Young Summit”
Association of Alternative Newsmedia Conference
Netroots Nation
Web of Change
Jason lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota with his wife, daughter and son, and for a while was a stay-at-home dad, feeling strongly that someone needed to be home to protect the cats from the two small humans. // jason.barnett at theuptake dot org //Twitter
Chuck Olsen, Co-Founder
Chuck is the founder of Minnesota Stories, called one of the best videoblogs by the New York Times and winner of two Vloggies Awards. He is the producer-director of Blogumentary, a documentary feature film about the rise of political and personal blogs. His work has screened at the Walker Art Center, Harvard University, and on renegade laptops around the world. In politics, Chuck has helped the campaigns of Rep. Keith Ellison and Sen. John Edwards use online video successfully. Chuck is the Minneapolis correspondent for Rocketboom and works as a freelance producer, videographer, editor and educator. The rest of the time, Chuck serves as a scratching post for his cat, Mooki, who has his own videoblog but is not running for office. //chuck.olsen at theuptake dot org // Twitter
Matt Johnson, Technical Lead
Matt wandered into our offices just before the RNC like an angel from above and helped us wire our offices for internet, phones and our top secret transporter room. He hasn’t left since (The UpTake that is, not our office & but sometimes we wonder.) Besides making video fly through the internet, Matt works part time for Warecorp.
Jacob Wheeler, Editor/videographer
In addition to shooting videos for The UpTake, Jacob Wheeler is a contributing editor at the progressive political magazine In These Times, publishes the Glen Arbor Sun in his native Michigan, and authored a recent book about the Guatemalan adoption industry titled Between Light and Shadow. Wheeler’s stories have appeared in such magazines as the Utne Reader, the Earth Island Journal, The Rotarian and Teaching Tolerance magazine, and newspapers including the San Francisco Chronicle and the Christian Science Monitor. He speaks fluent Spanish, German and Danish.
Bill Sorem, videographer/reporter
Bill Sorem was a longtime advertising agency professional starting with Campbell Mithun and ending with his own agency. After a tour as a sailing fleet manager in the Virgin Islands he turned to database programming as an independent consultant. He developed interactive web based databases in the early 1990s when few tools were available, He authored sailing guides for the British Virgin Islands and for Belize. He’s written for a number of blogs. In 2010 he volunteered as a citizen journalist with TheUptake and has continued as a video reporter for it.
