Gail Ann Williams' Bio
Gail Ann Williams is the Director of Communities at Salon.com
She oversees all aspects of the operations of Salon Table Talk and The WELL, where she served as Executive Director prior to Salon�s acquisition of the acclaimed site in 1999. Originally, Williams got involved in online communities by coming to The WELL in 1990 as part of a CompuMentor volunteer project to match nonprofits with expert computer professionals. She then joined the WELL management team in 1991 as the Conferencing Manager. Williams served as the primary official liaison with the system�s users for the first ten years of that period, responsible for the human issues in the legendary discussion community. She managed and trained staff members and over 200 volunteer conference hosts and coordinated interactive software development initiatives and feature additions, before moving to overseeing all operations.
Williams has spoken on online community management issues at such diverse gatherings as Computers Freedom and Privacy, South By Southwest, MacWorld, IEEE Community Networking, VirComm, and Online Community Summit.
Prior to her work at The WELL, Williams spent over twelve years in alternative arts organizations, in both creative and administrative roles. She was was a core member of the award-winning satire group, the Plutonium Players, and a writer, performer and co-director of their long-touring show, �Ladies Against Women.� Her years in theater were marked by her dual focus on irreverent satire and on intense audience interactions, including improv.
Her current passions include social networks, wilderness, baseball and photography. She is a frequent poster at Flickr, as fotogail. In 2000 she was honored one of the Top 25 Women on the Web.
