Speakers

Audacia Ray

Audacia Ray is an executive editor of $pread, a magazine by and for sex workers, and is a contributor to the porn blog Fleshbot. Her first book, Naked on the Internet: Hookups, Downloads and Cashing in on Internet Sexploration (Seal Press, June 2007), is a cultural analysis of female sexuality and the Internet interwoven with the stories of 80 different women. The bisexual feature adult film The Bi Apple, which Audacia wrote, directed and produced, has become an Adam & Eve Pictures best-seller since its release in February 2007 and won the award for ‘Hottest Bisexual Sex Scene’ at the 2007 Feminist Porn Awards in Toronto. For the past two years Audacia has curated $pread magazine’s annual exhibition of sex worker art, Sex Worker Visions. She has a BA in Cultural Studies from Eugene Lang College, an MA in American Studies from Columbia University and has studied at the Summer Institute on Sexuality, Culture and Society at the Universiteit van Amsterdam. Audacia lives in Brooklyn and online at WakingVixen.com.

Elizabeth Wood

Elizabeth Wood is a sociologist, activist and writer. She is one of the founders of the community-focused site Sex in the Public Square, and continues to blog at sexinthepublicsquare.wordpress.com. She is assistant professor of sociology at Nassau Community College on Long Island in New York. She is a strong believer in the importance of maintaining and expanding public resources, in the importance of sex in human lives and communities, and in the power of organized individuals to make change in the world.

Ellie Lumpesse

Ellie has been writing about her thoughts on sex and the details of her sex life since 2005 and juggles graduate school and teaching with her sporadic blogging and podcasting. She started doing phone sex at the request of readers and podcast listeners and, as such, is lucky to have the best phone sex clients in the entire world. Her blog is at Lumpesse.com and her podcast is found at Bedroomradio.blogspot.com

j. brotherlove

j. brotherlove explores pop sub/culture, independent media, race, and sexuality at thebrotherlove.com. His work in erotica includes “urbanerotica”, a chapbook of short stories; and the controversial, single issue of “shaft”. He is also a columnist for Window Media the nation’s largest lesbian and gay newspaper group.

Joseph G

Joseph G has been cruising for sex online since 1994. In 1998, he earned a BA in Sociology from the University of California at Santa Cruz, where his studies focused largely on the intersections of sex and technology. Since 2001, he has maintained a personal blog at the website monotonous dot net, where he writes about sexuality, politics, pop-culture and every-day life in metro-Atlanta.

Kristi Kane

Writer, blogger, and all-around-Jill-of-all-trades Kristi Kane decided to try her luck as an independent escort in late 2002 while looking for a second job that PAID. A musician friend of hers put her in touch with an escort that he said made $1,500 in one afternoon, and this kind lady showed Kristi the ropes. By advertising solely on the Internet via message boards and classifieds sites, Kristi bypassed the agencies and earned $200+ an hour without having to give an agent her cut. After being laid off from her day job about a month after she became a “provider,” Kristi earned her living primarily as an escort for the next two years.

She quit advertising online after about 6 months and only saw regulars after becoming annoyed with the drama that comes with being active and open in online escorting communities; the perpetual fear of being victimized, robbed or stalked by clients or other providers and having no legal recourse; and, of course, the fear of being arrested and jailed.

Despite realizing that the lifestyle was not for her, Kristi remains an active supporter of sex workers’ rights and the decriminalization of prostitution, as she believes that many of the mafia-esque problems inherent in the business derive from its black-market, underground business model. Kristi is now happily married and does not miss being a sex worker, but is participating in Sex 2.0 because she believes that hooking IS real employment and hopes to promote open discussion and decriminalization of the world’s oldest profession.

Melissa Gira

Melissa Gira is a writer, sex futurist, and human rights advocate. She is the editor of Sexerati, the award-winning blog about smart sex, produces The Future of Sex video podcast, writes on sexual education & pleasure for Good Vibrations, and is the co-founder of the sex worker rights blog Bound, Not Gagged. She is also a correspondent for Gawker Media’s Gridskipper and San Francisco Metroblogging. Her first-person reportage has been in print in $pread magazine and the forthcoming WHORE! magazine, and her nonfiction appears in the anthologies Best Sex Writing 2008 (Cleis Press) and Dirty Girls (Seal Press).

Currently, Melissa is the Development Coordinator and Social Media Consultant for St. James Infirmary, a free community health care clinic for sex workers and their partners, and has consulted for the Desiree Alliance, Center for Sex and Culture, and the Open Society Institute’s Sexual Health and Rights Project (with the Tactical Tech Collective) in creating peer-based trainings in how to use information and communications technology for advocacy.

She fully unpacked three times in the last year and would much rather work out of her purse-sized office: cell phone, wireless keyboard, and dv camera, wherever a cheap GPRS signal and fancy boots can take her. Melissa is based in San Francisco.

minx

minx has been practicing polyamory and BDSM for five years. In March 2005, she debuted the Polyamory Weekly podcast, a free weekly half-hour internet radio show dedicated to discussions of responsible non-monogamy from a pansexual, kink-friendly point of view. Each week, minx and thousands of listeners discuss issues as diverse as jealousy, how to argue, coming out to friends and family, who does the dishes, sexy threesomes and how polyamory is presented in the media. minx has spoken on dealing with jealousy at a local BDSM club and has led round-table discussions on the poly lifestyle in addition to building a very active 3,000-member community of perverts around Polyamory Weekly.

Rachel Kramer Bussel

Acclaimed author and editor Rachel Kramer Bussel is a contributor to over 100 anthologies, including Best American Erotica 2004 and 2006. Her Erotic Writing 101 workshop will cover basics of erotic writing, pseudonyms, sensual letter writing for lovers, writing for websites, magazines and anthologies, how and where to submit your work, as well as exercises to practice in class and at home. Rachel has edited over a dozen naughty books, including He’s on Top, She’s on Top, Caught Looking, Ultimate Undies, and Naughty Spanking Stories from A to Z 1 and 2, is Senior Editor at Penthouse Variations and a Contributing Editor at Penthouse, and hosts NYC’s monthly In The Flesh Erotic Reading Series.

Regina Lynn

Regina Lynn is the award-winning Sex Drive columnist at Wired.com and the author of The Sexual Revolution 2.0 (Ulysses Press).

She started writing Sex Drive early in 2003 and received a Maggie award for “Best Online Column” from the Western Publications Association in 2005, then has forgotten to audition again ever since. That’s okay though, because she received the high honor of being chosen as a finalist for the Erotic Awards in London. And Marie Claire magazine called Regina one of the “top five sex experts in the U.S.”; she is still trying to shrug off any performance anxiety this accolade might cause.

She has been featured in The New York Times, Newsweek, SexTV, CNN Headline News, Fox News, Spike TV, Playboy Radio, the Village Voice, G4TV, Digital Village Radio, and NPR New Zealand, among other places, but she is most humbled by her occasional appearances on FARK and Digg.

Regina lives in Los Angeles and San Francisco with her dog Jedi. When not researching or writing, she can be found at the barn with her horse and dog, just like she dreamed when she was 9. Her birthday is in May but she accepts presents all year.

Ren

Ren is a stripper, Internet porn performer, swinger, gonzo fan, BDSM tourist, blogger, history buff, feminist expatriate and all around gamer geek who is unapologetically addicted to caffeine, nicotine, action movies and sports. Her dreams of sailing the High Seas in search of adventure and booty of all types or becoming a soldier of fortune fell through so instead she went to college and got degrees in History and Theatre which sit unused in dusty frames on an obscure wall in her suburban den of iniquity. Her real name is neigh impossible to actually pronounce so she will answer to Ren or “Hey, you.” Her life’s ambitions include being the inspiration for an action flick villain, running the Boston Marathon, and finally figuring out after all those years of failed Algebra classes what X really is. She resides in the Washington DC area where all deviants go to plot world domination. And no, she is not ticklish.

Singing Deer

Singing Deer is described by those who have received her as: “Holy Woman, Healer, Teacher, Guide, Advocate, Sacred Intimate, Domme, and Heretic”. She is also a writer and an artist based in Atlanta, Georgia. She spent five years in intensive study with a Native Shaman as well as being instructed, mentored and transformed by wise ones at the Body Electric School in Oakland, California since 1999. She has been assisting people one-on-one and in groups since September, 2001 with a focus on channeling erotic energy and recognizing it as sacred, creative life force.

Alice Walker wrote, “Now is the Time to Open Your Heart”. Singing Deer agrees entirely with her heart and soul and is committed to helping as many people as possible to do just that. Now is the time.

Please see www.singingdeer.net for more information.

Stacey Swimme

Stacey Swimme has been working in the sex industry for 10 years. She helped found the Sex Workers Outreach Project USA and the Desiree Alliance. She is currently completing her degree in Sexuality and Social Justice.

Steve Eley

Steve Eley is the creator and host of Escape Pod, the world’s leading science fiction podcast, presenting short stories from top authors every week. He is also the producer of Pseudopod, the world’s leading horror fiction podcast; co-host of Podholes, the irreverent Q and A podcast for podcasters; and launched the first podcast CD distributor, PodDisc.com.

He is one of the few podcasters to earn a sustainable profit from listener donations, and is developing new properties through his company, Escape Artists, Inc. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife, two-year-old son, and their Welsh Corgi (who is smarter than all of them).

Tara Sawyer

Tara is a wanna-be ally to the sex worker community. She is a differently bodied female, who used to work full time doing internet and computer technical things. She has since realized her passion is Sex Worker Rights, and has therefore re-aligned her life with her passion and slaves away with Sex Workers Outreach Project. Tara is trying to learn Mandarin, while avoiding sugar on the beaches of California.

Twanna A. Hines

A New York-based writer, Twanna A. Hines is a contributing blogger at Nerve magazine, editor/publisher of the personal blog funkybrownchick.com, and host/producer of the internet radio talk show and podcast “Dating Roadkill.” Her writing frequently covers interpersonal relationships (online and offline), sex & dating, contemporary lifestyle, arts & entertainment and travel. She enjoys passionate love affairs with far-away lands and intelligent men. She has lived in London, Chicago, Amsterdam, Los Angeles and The Hague. Her degrees include a BS and an MA in Sociology. For more information about Twanna A. Hines, see: www.funkybrownchick.com.

Viviane

NYC based librarian, sex nerd, and blog mommy. In 2005, I met Jefferson by working on his blog, which led to commenting, which led to The Sex Carnival, a group blog about sex and sexuality. In 2006, I wanted to meet the faces behind some of the blogs, so I organized the NYC Perverts’ Salon, a regular gathering of sex bloggers. I’ve also been editor of TGP.com and used to contribute a regular Sex Blog Roundup to Fleshbot. My interests include BDSM, bondage, polyamory, sex and social media. I am a member of TES (the Eulenspigel Society) and the Lesbian Sex Mafia.

Who Can Speak at Sex 2.0?

You can. Yes, you. Everyone can. Unlike a regular conference where speaking slots are allotted only to the highest bidder, unconferences are by you, for you. If you don’t see a session here that you want, create one and present it! Share what you know, and your fellow participants will do the same.

The Law of Two Feet

Simply put: your experience at Sex 2.0 is what you want it to be. At any time, if you’re not learning what you want to learn, if you’re not getting what you need, you have every right to depart the session you’re in and move to a different one, or none at all.

The Law of Null Space

You are very likely to learn the most in the spaces between sessions, at lunch, at breaks, etc. when you can just talk and hang out with people. Be ready! Have your notebook out, your business cards handy, and be ready to learn at the most unlikely times.