Steve Anderson
Steve Anderson is the Director of USC's PhD program in Media Arts & Practice and is an Assistant Professor of Interactive Media at the School of Cinematic Arts. His research focuses on digital media and culture and the impact of emerging technologies on learning. He is also the Co-Editor of Vectors Journal of Culture and Technology in a Dynamic Vernacular, an online journal seeking to redefine scholarly research and publication in the digital age. He is the Principal Investigator on Critical Commons.

Holly Willis
Holly Willis serves as Director of Academic Programs at USC's Institute for Multimedia Literacy. Her current research centers on the intersection of media art, graphic design and rhetoric, and the ways ideas and formal strategies from each might inform contemporary media-rich scholarly practices. Willis oversees the IML’s research in the pedagogical uses of multiuser virtual environments such as Second Life and promotes the use of numerous online tools for scholarly production and research. Willis is also the editor of The New Ecology of Things, on design and pervasive computing, and author of New Digital Cinema: Reinventing the Moving Image, which chronicles the advent of digital filmmaking tools and their impact on contemporary media practices. She is the Co-Principal Investigator on Critical Commons.

Erik Loyer
Erik Loyer is a media artist and creative director whose work explores the intersection of interactivity, story, music and animation. Loyer created the award-winning The Lair of the Marrow Monkey, one of the first websites to be added to the permanent collection of a major art museum.  He received a 1999 Rockefeller Film/Video/New Media Fellowship to develop Chroma, a a serialized narrative about racial identity and the digital that went on to win the Best Digital Creation award at the Montreal International Festival of New Cinema and New Media. Loyer recently taught courses for the University of Southern California’s Interactive Media Division and is currently Creative Director of Vectors: Journal of Culture and Technology in a Dynamic Vernacular, an experimental interactive academic journal. He is the Creative Director of Critical Commons.

EngageMedia
EngageMedia is a video sharing site focusing on social justice and environmental issues in the Asia-Pacific. It is a space for critical documentary, fiction, artistic and experimental works that challenge the dominance of the mainstream media. The EngageMedia Collective developed Critical Commons using the free, open source content management system, Plumi.

Infinite Recursion
Infinite Recursion is a bespoke software services company that was responsible for the final stages of development of Critical Commons as well as the development of Critical Commons' companion site for mobile users.

Alex Louie
With a passion for information and graphic design, Alex enjoys the challenges that arise from visual communication and human/computer interaction. Throughout his career he has designed interfaces for websites, wireless handheld devices, and mobile phones. After receiving his BFA in Graphic Design from the California Institute of the Arts, Alex defined design solutions ranging from Fortune 500 companies to startups. Alex is currently a Creative Director at Razorfish Los Angeles, where he is responsible for guiding the design team toward the development of innovative and effective digital user interfaces. Alex was responsible for the graphic design and layout of Critical Commons.

Supporters
Critical Commons received generous funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation as part of the 2008 Digital Media and Learning Initiative and is an ongoing project of the USC Institute for Multimedia Literacy. Seed funding for this project was provided by USC's James H. Zumberge Research and Innovation Fund.