Ben Metcalfe

Originally from London England, Ben Metcalfe worked at the BBC for six years before transplanting himself to San Francisco 18 months ago. During his time at the BBC Ben worked his way up the organization, originally working as a software engineer through to finally co-launching and running the BBC’s developer network http://backstage.bbc.co.uk. Before that Ben launched his first startup, a free email service, when he was 17. These days Ben can be found advising several companies and startups in a number of overlapping skill and experience areas. He draws on his experience as a software engineer, product manager, technical evangelist and strategist to work with companies in the areas of:

• Platform & API projects
• Social media and the social graph,
• Web2.0 projects in the enterprise,
• Grassroots media/blogging and online media in general
• Disruptive technologies
• Community-orientated strategy

Ben is passionate advocate for the opening up of data sources, feeds and APIs – be they in the private or public sector – which in turn lead him to become a founding member of the Data Portability Initiative.

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