Mike Greenly

Mike Greenly
Born	October 2, 1944 (1944-10-02) (age 67)
Residence	New York City
Alma mater	Duke University, NYU Graduate School of Business
Occupation	Speechwriting/coaching, Lyrics, Consulting
Website
www.mikegreenly.com

Michael S. Greenly (October 2, 1944(1944-10-02)) is an American writer, entrepreneur, and lyricist who helped to popularize interactive online journalism in the mid-1980s as a kind of forerunner to blogging.

Background

In 1983, Greenly left his position as a marketing vice president of Avon Products to become a freelance marketing consultant and writer. In an article for The Futurist magazine (March-April, 1987), Greenly credited the Alvin Toffler book, The Third Wave, as being a catalyst in his decision to change his life and become an active part of the Information Age.

Greenly has been called "probably the most widely read writer on The Source", one of the first online services oriented to the general public and attracting 60,000 subscribers at the time.^[1]

Sometimes called "planet earth’s first interactive journalist", Greenly and the two friends he met online – Sherwin Levinson and Diane Worthington – became the first journalists ever allowed to cover the Democratic and Republican political conventions via computer (in 1984).^[2] Greenly wrote a cover story for Portable 100/200 magazine (April, 1985) about using an early laptop computer to create this interactive, online journalism from the convention sites (Houston and San Francisco) and to answer reader questions and comments during the process.

Greenly went on to become the first journalist ever allowed to cover Hollywood’s Academy Awards ceremonies by computer, again sending online reports of his interviews and experiences to readers around the world via laptop, and responding to them from on the road.

In 1986, a series of first-hand interviews Mike conducted about AIDS and placed online was published as Chronicle: The Human Side of AIDS (Irvington Publishers, Inc.).^[3] In 1987, Greenly received an award from the Computer Press Association in the category of "Best On-Line Publication" for his interactive electronic coverage of Appleworld, Macworld Conference & Expo, and Comdex '87.

In addition to Greenly's work today as a speech and presentation writer and speech coach for business executives, his website notes that he is actively pursuing his interest as a lyricist. His song, "How Many Christmases", written with composer Jim Papoulis and recorded by Rosanne Cash and the Young People’s Chorus of New York, is being marketed globally by Boosey & Hawkes, a British music publisher.

By the spring of 2010, another of Greenly’s songs “Get Up”, had been released. It was written with Jim Papoulis, sung by Kimberly Davis, and published by D1 Music. “Get Up” was on BILLBOARD magazine’s chart of the Top Dance Club songs in America for at least 10 straight weeks, attaining the #12 position in the magazine’s print edition, dated April 24, 2010.

References

1. ^ Elmer-Dewitt, Philip. "Here Come the Networkers." Time Magazine. 18 April 2005.
2. ^ Kott, Stefanie (1985-08-01). "Netweaver: Interview with Mike Greenly (8/85)". Netweaver. Archived from the original on 2008-08-06. http://www.webcitation.org/5ZsTFq8gi. Retrieved 2008-08-06. 
3. ^ Cornish, Edward (March 1987). "The Laptop Book". Futurist 21 (2): 16. ISSN 00163317.