Steven Starr

Steven Starr (born 1957) is the founder and CEO of Revver.

Background

Steven Starr was born in 1957 on Long Island. Steven started his media career as a high school volunteer at WLIR-FM in New York, pursued a degree in Radio, TV and Film at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and worked his way through college as a campus journalist, DJ, CBS Records college rep, and a concert promoter for Bob Marley & The Wailers.

Career

After starting in the mail room at the William Morris Agency in 1980, Steven launched a homevideo and an audiobooks division, packaged television and screenplays, then headed the New York Motion Picture department. His clients over the years included Andy Grove, Joseph Papp, Larry David, Ang Lee, Andy Warhol and Tim Robbins.

Steven left Morris in 1991 to produce the film Johnny Suede, nominated for the Grand Jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival, [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104567/awards imdb awards page] ] and then write, direct and produce [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107273/ Joey Breaker] which won an Audience Award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107273/ imdb listing for Joey Breaker] ] . He also co-created and produced the Ace Award series nominee The State for MTV and CBS, and worked on a variety of film and TV projects, including a Bob Marley biopic. [ [http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117490521.html?categoryid=13&cs=1 Bob Marley biopic] ]

Steven then began focusing full-time on media democratization, as a co-founder of the [http://www.la.indymedia.org/ Los Angeles Independent Media Center] , and founding CEO of [http://www.disobey.com/ghostsites/show_exhibit/anteye AntEye.com] , a user-generated video site where video creators, voted on by their peers, were awarded micro-pilot budgets in various categories. Despite thousands of submissions and a first-look partnership with HBO, by mid-2000 bandwidth costs were prohibitive and AntEye became unsustainable.

In an effort to address the bandwidth problem, Steven co-founded [http://www.uprizer.com/ Uprizer] with Freenet Project founder Ian Clarke and Rob Kramer. A [http://www.openp2p.com/pub/a/p2p/2001/05/05/uprizer.html pioneer] in P2P and funded by Intel and others, the goal was to develop a zero-cost bandwidth solution for independent creators. After Hummer-Winblad was named in the Napster lawsuits, Uprizer re-oriented as an enterprise software solution, Steven and Ian departed, and the company was later sold to Redux Holdings.

Steven was then approached by the Pacifica Foundation to reorganize [http://kpfk.org/ KPFK-FM] , the largest progressive radio signal in the US. After [http://www.ominous-valve.com/pac/archive/starr_ipnb.html helping to restore] community and financial controls he started ChangeTv, a user-generated digital cable network designed to filter online video onto cable and reward creators, and advised by John Perry Barlow and Amnesty International's Jack Healy.

Revver

When cable network financing proved difficult, Steven repurposed ChangeTv into an online creator marketplace, bringing on Ian Clarke, Andrew Clarke, Oliver Luckett and [http://downhillbattle.org/ Downhill Battle] as consultants, focusing on how to reward online video creators in direct proportion to virality. After raising capital from the syndicate that funded Skype, Ian and Oliver were named co-founders and the Revver beta [http://news.com.com/Start-up+Revver+zooms+in+on+Net+video+sharing/2100-1025_3-5924327.html launched] on October 29, 2005.

Revver splits advertising revenue 50/50 with creators, and gives 20% of advertising revenue off the top to syndicators. To allow sharing of Revver videos, the upload license enables redistribution under the Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Creative Commons License. Although a lot smaller than sites like YouTube and MySpace, Revver’s creator-centric business model has had an impact; numerous video sites now offer advertising revenue share to creators.

In 2006, Revver was awarded the [http://www.tvweek.com/article.cms?articleId=30864 Most Influential Independent Website] by Television Week, nominated for an [http://www.emmyonline.org/emmy/advmedia_nom_release.html Advanced Technology Emmy Award] , and honored as one of the 100 most promising startups by Red Herring. In 2007, Revver announced it had paid out its [http://newteevee.com/2007/09/12/revver-reaches-one-year-1-million/ first million dollars] to online creators and syndicators. In February 2008, Revver was sold to LiveUniverse.

FLOW: For Love Of Water

Steven stepped down as Revver's CEO in June, 2007 to focus on the production of a feature-length documentary about the global water crisis entitled "". The film was invited to the 2008 Sundance Film Festival as part of the Documentary Competition, the Mumbai International Film Festival in Bombay, India, and had its New York premiere at the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

Notes

External links

* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5100717559997587141&q=kpfk+starr&total=1&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0 Report to the Pacifica National Board]
* [http://creativecommons.org/video/revver Creative Commons interview]
* [http://uscpublicdiplomacy.com/index.php/events/events_detail/1861/ USC Center on Public Diplomacy/Cory Doctorow interview]
* [http://www.flowthefilm.com Official Website for "Flow: For Love Of Water"]