I’ve been a lot of different things: PhD, academic and lecturer, Fulbright scholar, pro photographer, US diplomat. Currently, I’m the President of Frontier Digital Media, a boutique digital media and technology company based in Boulder, CO.
BACKGROUND
I walked an unusual path to arrive in this position. I graduated Summa Cum Laude from Marquette University’s School of Business in 1998. After working for two years as a project manager at the Center for International Development and Conflict Management in Washington DC, I pursued graduate study, earning two Masters degrees: in Applied Economics and in Political Science in 2004, and a PhD in Political Science in 2008. During that time, I was also a two-time Fulbright Scholar to Indonesia. While in Indonesia, my research focused on pressing issues of economic development and environmental management.
I took a hiatus from graduate study to work as photojournalist covering humanitarian, environmental, and cultural stories for OnAsia, a leading provider of Asian editorial imagery based in Singapore and Bangkok, and for HDNet, a leading provider of high definition television in the United States. I covered diverse stories including orangutan rehabilitation in Sumatra, Komodo dragons, illegal logging in Borneo, national parks throughout Indonesia, the life of a Mentawai shaman clan in Siberut, the Baliem Festival in Papua, the Pasola festival in Sumba, the eruption of Mount Merapi in Java, and protests and floods in Jakarta. Credits and clients include Asian Geographic, the BBC, Conde Naste Traveler, the Indonesian Department of Forestry, the Sydney Herald, Reader’s Digest, the University of Wisconsin, the Wall Street Journal, Yale University, and many others.
I returned to the United States in 2007, and completed my PhD in 2008. Looking for something that would allow a more immediate positive impact on the world than academia, I joined the United States Foreign Service (diplomatic corps) and was slated to the be the US Economic Officer in the Republic of Congo. I continue to have a great degree of respect for the US State Department, and especially for the 139th Foreign Service Officer class. But the environment and emphasis there did not fit with my own vision. So, after a very brief tenure, I left government service to start Frontier Digital Media in 2009.
FRONTIER DIGITAL MEDIA
Frontier Digital Media is a digital media and technology company. We provide online publishing and related services. For now, we are mostly focused on the photography and WordPress communities, two fields in which our team has experience and passion. But we expect our focus to expand dramatically in the years to come.
Frontier Digital Media is distinctive as a project in social entrepreneurialism, or more specifically what I like to call philanthropic capitalism. Our mission is to become a major source of funding for select humanitarian and environmental organizations – an engine of philanthropic giving for decades to come. Yet we believe the best way to do that is by building an aggressive and tightly run company focused on growth and profitability. We have a powerful team and an auspicious start. At the end of our first year, our annualized revenues are approaching $250,000. We expect to achieve annual revenues of $500,000 in 2010. And since Frontier Digital Media dedicates 25 percent of all profits to selected charities, we expect to give away as much as $25,000 in 2010.
Projects. Our current for-profit projects focus on photography, building on our team’s history and interest in that field. We run the popular photography blog and gear review site Photocrati, which at the end of its first year, attracts approximately 150,000 page views per month. Its mission is to bring together and foster discussion between photographers from diverse fields. Photocrati is also set to become the leading provider of WordPress themes for photographers (this website is based on a Photocrati Theme).
Presently, we are set to launch our second major project, Best of Wedding Photography. We’ve collaborated with some of the top wedding photographers in the world, including David Beckstead, Ben Chrisman, Del Sol Photography, Glen Johnson, Anna Kuperberg, Crash Taylor, and David Ziser. Best of Wedding Photography will be an invitation-only membership group reserved for the top wedding photographers in the world. We hope to establish it as a mark of excellence and the most elite and prestigious grouping in the world for wedding photographers.
In addition to these two, we run a handful of smaller websites and blogs, and provide a growing array of web development and SEO services.
Our Charities. Our selected charities for 2010 include the following. Depending on revenue growth, profitability, and our ability to give, we may add additional partners in the course of this year.
- The Photocrati Fund will offer $5000 grants to photographers to undertake important humanitarian and environmental photography projects. We’re proud to partner with some of the best known environmental and cultural photographers in the world on this project, including Steve McCurry, Nick Nichols, and Art Wolfe, who together serve as board members and judges responsible for deciding the winner of the grant competition. We plan to announce Photocrati Fund winners each year at the Look3 Festival.
- Health in Harmony works at the intersection of personal and environmental health, saving lives and critical rainforest habitat through its support of Alam Sehat Lestari (ASRI). The name translates to: “healthy nature everlasting” and ASRI is an Indonesian word meaning “harmoniously balanced.” Project ASRI partners with local communities in West Kalimantan, Indonesia to integrate high-quality, affordable health care with strategies to protect the threatened rain forests of Gunung Palung National Park.
Project ASRI serves local health needs at affordable prices, and allows patients to pay for their care through conservation-oriented and environmentally-friendly labor. While care is never denied to anyone, an incentive program provides additional powerful incentives to communities who demonstrate that they are not participating in illegal logging activities.
- Water for People assists people in developing countries improve their quality of life by supporting the development of locally sustainable drinking water resources, sanitation facilities and health and hygiene education programs.
WFP has a vision of the world where all people have access to safe drinking water and sanitation; a world where no one suffers or dies from a water- or sanitation-related disease.
A guiding principle in WFP programming planning is that drinking water, sanitation and hygiene problems are most effectively solved using local resources. Local communities must be the driving force in all Water For People programs to make sure solutions are sustainable. Water For People also understands the value of partnerships. WFP develops long-term working relationships built on trust with local counterparts. Water For People is committed to successful programming and that entails managing program resources effectively and efficiently.
The philanthropic mission of Frontier Digital Media gives our team a rare degree of passion and purpose.
This is my personal blog, focused on a blend of entrepreneurship, web-based media, philanthropy, and the economic and environmental causes that are the focus of our charitable giving. Welcome and thanks for visiting.
Erick Danzer