In 1992 James John Bell left a four-year career in television news with ABC to support Native American sovereignty struggles with creative media strategies and award-winning documentary video-making. In 1996 he founded CounterMedia in Chicago to provide alternative media coverage of the Democratic National Convention, helping to lay the foundation for the Indy Media Center and today’s global independent media movement. James was the writer/director at the Chicago-based nonprofit public interest communications firm Sustain, where he managed advertising and public relations campaigns for critical environmental and social issues surrounding biotechnology, energy, land use and transportation for the Sierra Club, Rainforest Action Network, Earthjustice, Friends of the Earth and the Center for Food Safety, among others. His work has appeared in many publications, most notably the New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post and Communication Arts. James is currently an award-winning advocacy advertising writer and producer for print, television, radio and the Web for the nonprofit communications firm that he co-founded in 2003 called SmartMemeStudios.com. His clients include national nonprofits, like Greenpeace and the Breast Cancer Fund, and SmartMeme now has offices and staff on the West Coast, East Coast, Midwest and Northwest. An avid gamer, hacker and writer, he continues to write about social issues and technology for a number of countercultural magazines and Web sites like Clamor, the Earth First! Journal and Verbicide, as well as mainstream science and technology publications, like the Futurist. He recently authored the afterword to the eco-sci-fi classic The Sheep Look Up by science fiction legend John Brunner, published by Benbella Books.