David LaFontaine

David LaFontaine is an author, journalist, digital media consultant, and adjunct professor at the University of Southern California. David specializes in content strategy, user interface design (UX & UI), and digital media production. His clients include: The Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry, U.S. State Department, Lynda.com, KelbyOne Media, CreativeLive, Wiley Publishing, B3Communications, AssetShield, and Roundabout Entertainment. His expertise in media and technology have earned him invitations to lecture at universities in the U.S., Latin America, and Europe, including at the Institute for the Digital Future of Journalism at the Mohyla University in Kiev, Ukraine, the Nelson Mandala School of Journalism in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and at the University Mayor in Santiago, Chile. In 2012, he traveled to Ethiopia as a Fulbright Specialist to training journalists, NGOs and pro-democracy groups in digital media communication skills. David has written or co-authored five books, including Social Media Design For Dummies, Mobile Web Design For Dummies, and the Poison Pen. He has also produced more than 20 hours of online training videos for KelbyOne. His curiosity and willingness to use himself as a human lab rat help him keep up with technology trends, test the latest digital tools, and produce the Sips from the Firehose blog. He is also a freelance writer whose work includes case studies on newspapers and multimedia for the Newspaper Association of America (NAA.org), the World Association of Newspapers (WAN), Advanced Interactive Media (AIM Group), Innovation International Consulting Group, Unity Journalists of Color, the Online News Association (ONA).