Omar Wasow�s Media Kit

2010-01-11T13:24:00.001-05:00

Reid vs. Steele? My comments on NPR's Tell Me More: http://bit.ly/8XaDhq and a great roundup in New York: http://bit.ly/8XNXDK.

2010-01-10T20:47:00.002-05:00

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid privately told two journalists in 2008 that Obama was more electable because he's "light-skinned" and lacked a "Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one." While the media is abuzz about "sensational...racially tinged remarks," I ask "Was Harry Reid Right?" See my take at The Root: http://bit.ly/4z3G9F

2009-12-30T12:17:00.002-05:00

Props to Mom:

About ten years ago, Brian Lamb, founder of C-SPAN, had just interviewed the writer Frank McCourt. McCourt invited Lamb to head uptown on the subway. My mom sees them and introduces herself to McCourt as the mother of a former student (McCourt was one of my HS English teachers). En route uptown, they all chat and it makes such an impression on Lamb that he reached out recently and invited me to be a guest on his show Q & A.

2009-12-22T18:02:00.000-05:00

Below are three biographies of varying length.

Also, in case it is helpful, Wasow rhymes with Picasso (or, if you know your African geography, Burkina Faso).

One-hundred word bio:

Omar Wasow, 39, is a Ph.D. candidate in African American studies and Government at Harvard. His research focuses on race and politics, particularly in relation to education and crime. In addition, Omar is the co-founder and strategic advisor to BlackPlanet.com, a social network he helped grow to over three million users a month. Omar also works to demystify technology through regular TV and radio segments. In 2003, he helped found a K-8 charter school in Brooklyn. He is a recipient of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and the Aspen Institute�s Henry Crown Fellowship. He can be reached at owasow at gmail dot com.

Short bio:

Omar Wasow, 39, is a Ph.D. candidate in African American studies and Government at Harvard. In addition to his graduate work, Omar is the co-founder of BlackPlanet.com and an on-air technology analyst. Under Omar�s leadership BlackPlanet.com became the leading site for African Americans, reaching over three million people a month. Omar also works to demystify technology issues through regular TV and radio segments on shows like NBC's Today, CNN's American Morning and public radio's Tavis Smiley show. Similarly, Omar tutored Oprah Winfrey in her first exploration of the Net in the 12-part series 'Oprah Goes Online'.

In 1999, as a result of his active participation in a number of social issues, particularly the charter school movement, Omar was selected to be a fellow in the Rockefeller Foundation's Next Generation Leadership program. In fall 2003, a K-8 charter school that Omar helped found opened in his hometown of Brooklyn. In 2007, in recognition of the promise of his academic research, the National Science Foundation selected him for a Graduate Research Fellowship. Most recently, the Aspen Institute selected him for their Henry Crown Fellowship that recognizes emerging leaders. He received his BA in Race and Ethnic Relations from Stanford University. He can be reached at owasow at gmail dot com.

Long bio:

Omar Wasow, 39, is a Ph.D. candidate in African American studies and Government at Harvard. In addition to his graduate work, Omar is the co-founder of BlackPlanet.com and an on-air technology analyst. Under Omar�s leadership BlackPlanet.com became the leading site for African Americans, reaching over three million people a month. Omar also works to demystify technology issues through regular TV and radio segments on NBC's Today Show, CNN's American Morning and public radio's Tavis Smiley Show. Similarly, Omar tutored Oprah Winfrey in her first exploration of the Net in the 12-part series 'Oprah Goes Online'.

Omar's success as a credible and friendly guide to the Internet led Newsweek to name him one of the "fifty most influential people to watch in cyberspace," and People magazine to call him the "Sexiest Internet Executive." Successful Meetings Magazine named him one of the "21 Top Speakers for the 21st Century."

In 1999, as a result of his active participation in a number of social issues, particularly the charter school movement, Omar was selected to be a fellow in the Rockefeller Foundation's Next Generation Leadership program. In fall 2003, a K-8 charter school that Omar helped found opened in his hometown of Brooklyn. In 2007, in recognition of the promise of his academic research, the National Science Foundation selected him for a Graduate Research Fellowship. Most recently, the Aspen Institute selected him for their Henry Crown Fellowship that recognizes emerging leaders. He received his BA in Race and Ethnic Relations from Stanford University. He can be reached at owasow at gmail dot com.

2009-12-16T18:30:00.000-05:00

TV Appearances:

Here is a a 90-second clip with highlights of various TV appearances:

2009-12-14T10:40:00.003-05:00

Martha Stewart and I discussed how technology can help people save money during the holidays on her show.

2009-12-13T11:33:00.003-05:00

What does the Perspective on Politics review say about my boy Keith Darden's new book? It's "a landmark," and "a remarkable contribution to the literature."

The review does a great job of explaining why the book matters. The author points to two ways of reading the book. First, "the book is about how economic ideas shaped the mental models and preferences of governing elites of the post-Soviet states and, consequently, shaped the institutional arrangements of those countries." Second, you can "read it as an attempt to use the case of post-Soviet states as a vehicle for developing a very challenging theory of economic ideas..."

In sum: "The measure of Darden�s achievement is the fact that irrespective of how one reads the book�as an applied comparative politics study or as an effort at broad theory development�the conclusion is bound to be the same: It is a remarkable contribution to the literature."

2009-12-08T08:36:00.003-05:00

Some tips for saving money this holiday shopping season:

find the right products with ConsumerReports.org
find the best prices with shopping.google.com
find discounts and coupons with retailmenot.com
comparison shop while in-store with redlaser
find coupons and discounts for nearby retailers with Yowza
stay on top of your money with mobile banking
keep track of receipts from your iphone with DocScanner
store your notes and paper for ready access with Evernote

Have other tips or suggestions? Send me an email at owasow {-at-} gmail dot com or find me on twitter: @owasow

2009-11-23T09:39:00.001-05:00

Five tech gift suggestions on Today in two minutes and twenty-six seconds:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

{and in under five seconds: Kindle for readers, Ooma free phone calls in US, Kodak Zi8 for portable HD video, Jawbone PRIME for quiet calls, Samsung LCD TV for couch potatoes}

2009-10-30T12:11:00.003-04:00

Is using wifi safe? Yesterday's Today Show segment shows how easy it is to sniff unsecured packets of data. I offered a few tips but wasn't able to convey that the odds of something bad happening when using unsecured wifi are very low. Case in point, I share my home wifi.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

2009-10-27T14:44:00.003-04:00

How to get smarter about social media? Some recommendations from the NAMIC conference panel with Kay Madati, Laela Sturdy, Denmark West:

read mashable
read Marketing to the Social Web
read The Facebook Era by Clara Shih
read 360i's Social Media Playbook
check out readwriteweb
My friend Jeff Yang writes: "For a deep and wide tour of what's out there in the space, regularly updated, definitely check out Emily Chang's e-Hub"

2009-10-27T14:43:00.003-04:00

Forgot to mention my appearance on Oprah last week - her favorite new gadgets.

2009-10-21T15:13:00.001-04:00

Oprah's new favorite jeans + gadgets? See this Thursday.

2009-09-11T11:00:00.002-04:00

Department of Shameless Self Promotion: 90 seconds of fall tech trends on Today.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

2009-07-21T04:14:00.004-04:00

For those at my TS2 Keynote, below are the 10 projects for integrating social media and face-to-face marketing:

Read Clara Shih�s The Facebook Era or the free ENGAGEMENTdb report
Set-up a Twitter account, use and promote a hashtag, get to 100 followers
Post status updates to your personal facebook account every day for two weeks or create a page for your event on facebook and get 200 fans through regular outreach
Join an industry-related online community or electronic mailing list and post a question or comment
Create and moderate an industry specific electronic mailing list where members can post questions, jobs, news items, comments. Try Yahoo Groups or Google Groups
Start an industry-specific blog with news, comments and other info. Try WordPress.
Build a private year-round community to for the folks who attend your conference or event. For something simple, try Ning. For a more sophisticated community, try a consultancy.
Use Twitter to start a breaking news feed for your industry.
Program or partner to develop an app for facebook, Force.com, iPhone, OpenSocial.
Develop a multi-channel approach including services like social networks, blogs, wikis, apps, YouTube and a private branded online community to superserve your audience.

2009-07-20T04:23:00.000-04:00

Tavis Smiley and I discuss the evolution of smartphones and growing competition.

2009-05-18T18:50:00.003-04:00

In the fight between Google and WolframAlpha, who's Bambi and who is Godzilla? Tavis Smiley and I debated on his show.

2009-05-07T14:59:00.002-04:00

The Kindle is great for a curated reading experience but a real pain if you're one of those crazy people who wants to read your own documents or interact with readers and authors. For more of my beef, see Three Problems with the New Kindle.

2009-04-16T12:48:00.001-04:00

Tavis Smiley and I discuss the hype and substance of Twitter on his public radio show.

2009-02-27T23:14:00.003-05:00

Tony Cox of NPR's News & Notes interviewed me and another guest about the "Obama Effect On Social Media".

2009-02-19T16:54:00.000-05:00

2009-01-27T10:09:00.002-05:00

2008-11-24T16:43:00.005-05:00

Frank Davies at the San Jose Mercury News gives my Internet President essay a shout out.

Unfortunately, according to political columnist Dick Polman at the Philadelphia Inquirer, I'm "a tad pie-eyed."

2008-11-06T00:37:00.003-05:00

Check out my article on The Root addressing how Obama became our first internet President.

2008-05-23T16:45:00.000-04:00

Headshots:

A handful of headshots can be viewed in this gallery. Higher resolution versions can be viewed by mousing-over an image and selecting one of the different "Photo Sizes" from the pop-up menu. "Original" is the highest resolution format though, be forewarned, the images are very large and range from two-to-four megabytes, each. Here is an example of a shot in original format.

To download an image, Windows users should right-click on the photo and Mac users should CTRL-click.