A digital chameleon, technologist, producer, and executive working in over 10 profound technologies in my 30 year career, from digital video, animation, e-commerce, online hiring, presence detection, blogging, mobile computing, RSS, online publishing, and more. I've created two books, appeared as an author in numerous magazines, several O’Reilly books and blogs, the ZDNet Web 2.0 founding author, as well as being a widely cited expert in design. In 2003-04 I created the worlds first book dedicated to blogs as literature, “Never Threaten to Eat Your Co-Workers.” Many of the writer’s featured have gone on to be recognized for their online writing, including Heather Armstrong (Dooce), Will Wheaton (Star Trek), Choire Sicha (The Awl), & Mark Fraunfelder (boing boing).I spent three years at Discovery Channel during the launch of their Planet Green TV channel, and was responsible for the creation and launch of Discovery’s first music website, Instrumental.I'm also a frequent speaker on technology and the music industry. “I really like Alan. He’s smart, engaging, helpful, insightful, and a lot of fun to work with. He sees way ahead of the curve, understands markets deeply (publishing for example) and knows how to connect both in person and in the virtual forms.” Doc Searls, Harvard Fellow Author of Cluetrain Manifesto & The Intention Economy