Chris Willis

Mr. Willis is VP of social media at Footnote.com, a place where people discover, contribute and share historic documents. He enjoys speaking and writing about the disruptive and democratic nature of the web. His last paper co-written with Shayne Bowman, “We Media: How audiences are shaping the future of news and information,” has been downloaded more than 250,000 times in both English and Spanish. As a visual journalist and editor, Willis has received some of journalism’s highest honors working for newspapers such as The Detroit News, The Dallas Morning News, and The Cleveland Plain Dealer. He co-founded the successful city magazine HOUR Detroit and did concept work for Hearst magazines. In 2002, he co-wrote a successful ecommerce book, Designing Web Sites That Sell, published by Peachpit/Rockport. His latest project, The Interactive Vietnam Memorial, has been featured by CNN and can be viewed at go.footnote.com/thewall. His blog can be read at hypergene.net/blog.