Ben Brown (blogger)

Ben Brown (born January 25, 1978 in San Francisco, California, USA) is a co-founder of the social networking website Consumating and is also known as the Internet Rockstar [As of 2006-08-11, a Google search for [http://www.google.com/search?q=internet+rockstar&btnG=Search internet rockstar] returns over 4 million entries. Ben Brown occupies the top 9.] , in part due to an article written by Adam Mathes that coined the term Google bomb. Raised in Derwood, MD, he began attending the University of Maryland in 1996 but did not complete his degree in English and instead dropped out in 2000 in order to pursue personal interests.

Publishing

Ben has been a co-founder of several zines including FlabJab, TEETH [ [http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.teethmag.com/ Partial archive of the zine TEETH] , as provided by the Internet Archive. Retrieved on 2006-08-11.] , and Über [ [http://uber.nu/ Archive of the zine Über] ] . Retrieved on 2007-05-17.] . His personal website http://benbrown.com/ has been in existence since 1997 [Prior to 1997, Ben used the FlabJab site for his personal page, according to a [http://www.webbieworld.com/interview.asp?interviewnum=5&page=1 WebbieWorld interview] by Mark Connell with him, circa 1999. Retrieved on 2006-08-11.] and has at times served as an outlet for his creative works of fiction, as a personal blog, and also as a connecting reference for his software and literary publications.

In 2001 he co-founded

cite web
url=http://www.bookslut.com/features/2002_10_000331.php
publisher=Bookslut
title=Bookpunks: So New Media and their very serious stapler
date = 2002-10-01
accessdate = 2006-08-11

] an "ultra-micro-mini" publishing company with James Stegall named [http://www.sonewpublishing.com/info/ So New Media] and used it to create and publish the literary magazine Words! Words! Words! [Words! Words! Words! [http://www.sonewpublishing.com/stacks/wordsmag/ continues in print] but is now edited by Amy Rainey.] as well as the public performance venue Bookpunk [ [http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://bookpunk.com/ Partial archive of Bookpunk] , as provided by the Internet Archive. Retrieved on 2006-08-11.] .

Internet

In 1999, Brown co-founded the Deepleap website which provided an extensible utility for searching and interacting with various websites, social bookmarking, and eventually user-generated XML feeds for creating custom web applications. The site shut down in late 2000 for financial reasons

cite web
url=http://www.bryanboyer.com/orphaned/2000-08-22.phtml
publisher=Bryan Boyer, co-founder of Deepleap
title=Goodnight, Deepleap.
date = 2000-08-22
accessdate = 2006-08-11

] .

In 2001, he moved to New Zealand where he was on the team that created an online tool for the certification of milk and dairy exports for the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. While in New Zealand, he was also hired to write episodes of a popular children's television show, Squirt [imdb title|id= 0166460|title=Squirt (TV)] . He was once married to Ani Moller, a blogger from New Zealand.

In 2002, he and Adam Mathes created the Personals sub-section http://personals.uber.nu/ on their zine Über, which served as the initial foundation for and was eventually renamed to Consumating.

Ben served as founding editor

cite web
url=http://www.austinist.com/archives/2005/03/08/an_excess_of_civic_pride.php
publisher=Austinist
title=An Excess Of Civic Pride
date = 2005-03-08
accessdate = 2006-08-11

] for the [http://www.austinist.com/ Austinist] social event blog beginning in early 2005. In late December of that year, he announced

cite web
url=http://www.consumating.com/about/news/entries/2
publisher=Consumating
title=Consumating is now part of CNET Networks
date = 2005-12-05
accessdate = 2006-08-11

] the CNET purchase of Consumating, ceased work with Austinist, and moved to San Francisco to work on Consumating with Josh Goldberg.

On April 3rd, Ben announced

cite web
url=http://consumating.com/profiles/Internet_Rockstar/topics?id=96247&responseoffset=0#link1980934
publisher=Consumating
title=You can now download the source code that powers this site!
date = 2007-04-03
accessdate = 2007-04-18

] he was leaving CNET and Consumating to work on a next-generation community site with extreme programmer Robert Swirsky.

Notes and references

External links

* http://benbrown.com/says/ - Ben Brown's current blog
* [http://www.ifctv.com/ifc/what?CAT1=6966&AID=16308&CLR=black&BCLR=000000 Video stream] of the Independent Film Channel's 2006-05-01 television broadcast of "SXSW 2006: Behind the Badge". Ben Brown was one of only three SXSW presenters selected for this show. Retrieved on 2006-08-11.
* Wired News interview with Ben regarding Consumating - cite news
first = Rachel
last = Metz
url = http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,70212-0.html
title = Even a Geek Needs Lovin'
publisher = Wired News
date = 2006-02-14
accessdate = 2006-08-11

* Ben physically assembled each book in the printing of: cite book
last = Pollack
first = Neal
authorlink = Neal Pollack
title = Beneath the Axis of Evil: One Man's Journey into the Horrors of War
publisher = So New Media
date = 2003-01-25
id = ISBN 0-9727636-0-0