Porter Bayne

Founder

Porter, a former die-hard College Republican and transplanted Texan has been a UI designer/developer in the startup world since 2002, save for brief stretch of eternity when he worked for Travelocity - which confirmed that he is meant for the startup world. The spark for Ameritocracy came in 2004, when frustration with small, powerful bits of misinformation from all sides of the political aisle made him up and vote Democrat [sic].

Porter hates the word "webpreneur" and is skeptical of the "entrepreneurial eye-glaze". He exemplifies the "will, not skill" mantra of startups, but is an expert at surrounding himself with people notably cleverer than he - which, he likes to think, isn't as quite easy as it sounds.

Bobby Kennedy

Outreach Director

Bobby Kennedy III joined Ameritocracy last fall to help drive outreach and refine the concept. A long-time interest and exposure to issues surrounding politics and political information, he's been particularly influenced by the competition of information and misinformation regarding environmental policy domestically and abroad, which he studied at Brown University and works in now at a large environmental remediation firm.

Fluent in Italian, Bobby has the biggest, and only, fro on the team, and he's always a few steps ahead of the rest of us, mostly thanks to his 3-hr time zone advantage.

Brian Finney

Systems Engineer
& Release Manager

Brian Finney spent most of his younger years tearing apart anything with a circuit and wondering what all those extra parts were for after putting them back together. As a self taught technologist he started exploring computers and the inner workings of the internet in the late 90's and hasn't stopped since.

Brian's been in the startup world for about 2 years, traveling to Seattle with Mixxer/3Guppies in 2006. As we say, "someone around here needs to think", and often, that's Brian.

Iris Chamberlain

Creative Director

Iris Chamberlain spent much of her younger years attempting to build encyclopedic websites for obsessions like Sailor Moon and constantly scribbling in one of her many sketchbooks. After school-hopping in New York and Hawaii, she finally swiped a BFA in Graphic Design (with minors in Sociology and Japanese) from the Rochester Institute of Technology. Her interest in socially responsible design made her feel like the proverbial black sheep, particularly because the issue was seldom brought up in class. This experience was an epiphany, and helped her solidify her goal to use the designer's voice to create positive change, and ultimately, save the world. She is co-creator and Creative Director for Ameritocracy.

James Peterson

CTO

James started with computers when he built his first one from a kit over 30 years ago, and has been learning and growing ever since. Having mastered many the forgotten programming languages, he is enjoying observing all languages slowly evolving to 'innovate' features LISP had in 1960.

In his previous life, James jumped from airplanes and carried 200-lb infantrymen through triple canopy jungle as a medic in Central America in the late 1980s. His current areas of interest are Ruby on Rails, collective intelligence, and information assurance. When he isn't geeking, James enjoys tuning his body, mind, and spirit by doing damn near anything that involves moving his body in the great outdoors, especially if it involves adrenaline, peril, and glory.

John Brooks

Community Director

John is a writer, thinker, talker, politics-obsessor, and a sarcastic Wordtwist addict living in a studio apartment with his patient, equally sarcastic and talented girlfriend in Astoria, Queens. Until recently, he worked as an assistant editor at Beliefnet.com, developing Beliefnet's social networking community and doing content management.

His written work can be found in various pockets of the internet, including Bettiemag.com and TheDailyHated.com, which helps him maintain his sanity in the face of a considerably less-sane world. His love of politics, justice, and accountability (but who doesn't love accountability?) made Ameritocracy an obvious fit. He's bursting with excitement for having joined this team.