About Us

What We Do

Interactive Knowledge, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, has been in business for over twenty years. Since 1991, we have consistently created interactive experiences that were impossible to imagine even a few years earlier. We are focused on creating websites that engage visitors with outstanding visual design and intuitive interfaces. As technology shifts and advances, we search for the best way to deliver a compelling experience using the most appropriate tools available.

We have an outstanding client list and work primarily with three types of nonprofit organizations:

Cultural Institutions including museums, libraries and education providers (e.g. Smithsonian Institution, US Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Girl Scouts)

Filmmakers and Producers who create documentary films that reach a national audience on PBS (e.g. American Experience, WETA and California Newsreel)

Foundations and Associations including some of the most innovative thinkers in America (e.g. Duke Endowment, Fetzer Institute, National Council of Teacher's of Mathematics)

Our Team

Tim Songer
President & Lead Consultant
tim@interactiveknowledge.com

Tim is a leader in the field of applying new technological solutions to the education issues facing this country. He has testified before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Science, Research and Technology on a bill that shaped the reauthorization of the Adult Education Act. He has spoken at the United Nations headquarters, demonstrating technology-based research and development during UNESCO’s conference titled Literacy: An International Urban Perspective.

Tim was one of the founders of Interactive Knowledge in 1991. He has served as the president and managing partner since the company began. In that role he has been instrumental in leading the company through a series of important changes. He negotiated the firm’s successful sale of its CD-ROM based product line in 1997. His leadership was critical as the company made the transition from educational publisher to web designer. He has helped initiate and maintain a series of successful business and consulting relationships with some of the best known non-profits and cultural institutions in America including, PBS, Smithsonian Institution, CPB, The Duke Endowment, The Kennedy Center and many more.

Education: Tim has a B.A. in Secondary Education from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio and a M.Ed. in Instructional Design and Educational Media from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Recent project involvement: Executive Producer –  Smithsonian’s Web Redesign, Calculation Nation, PBS StoryShare, MySource, Carrier, The War, Off the Map, The Penland Experience, Key Ingredients, Race – The Power of an Illusion.

Lou Kinard
Creative Director
lou@interactiveknowledge.com

Lou has 27 years of communication and design experience in a variety of fields that include retail advertising, magazines and newspaper, multimedia packaging, corporate communications and currently web design. In 1988, Lou was working as a traditional illustrator at a newspaper when she began using a small Macintosh computer purchased to create information graphics. She quickly discovered that she had a natural talent for technology and soon began teaching friends at local ad agencies and design firms how to use their newly purchased Macs. For several years, she had her own design and illustration business where she worked with local and national clients. In 1998, Lou managed a creative services team that specialized in employee communications and supervised campaigns for national clients such as Tiffany & Co., Saks Fifth Avenue, The Limited, Home Shopping Network, Pep Boys, and Office Depot. After 18 years in print design, Lou decided to teach herself web and interactive design. In 2001, she was hired by Interactive Knowledge.

While at Interactive Knowledge, Lou led a three-year project funded by the National Science Foundation to persuade teenage girls to enter the field of information technology. This project, titled Girls are IT, centered around four technology-based activities performed on a school bus outfitted with an array of laptop computers and other IT gadgets. Lou researched and developed the activities while supervising dozens of contract designers, developers, writers and artists across the country. In 2006, Interactive Knowledge began a relationship with WETA to produce the site for Ken Burns “The War” on PBS. Lou worked closely with director/producer Lynn Novick to capture the feel of the WWII documentary and make available the extensive background information gathered by Florentine Films over six years of research. Currently, she is working on two projects for the Smithsonian, as project leader and designer for both the “refresh” of the main Smithsonian portal and an exhibition site on the history of Latino Music in the U.S.

Lou has been asked to judge several local and national design competitions, including the prestigious Interactive Design Competition for Communication Arts magazine, the UCDA Design Competition, HOW Magazine’s 10^th Annual Interactive Design Awards. Recently, she served as a judge for the 2010 Webby Awards in the “Websites,” “Interactive Advertising & Media” and “Online Film & Video” categories.

For the past year, Lou has managed a community site of 250 people using the NING platform. She advises churches and other local non-profits on creating and maintaining online communities, as well as best practices in other forms of social media.

Education: Lou has a B.F.A. in Graphic Design from the University of Georgia in Athens.

Recent project involvement: Producer / Visual Designer –American Sabor, Smithsonian’s Web Redesign, The Fetzer Institute, The Campaign for Love and Forgiveness, Carrier, Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhyme, The War, Flight & Rescue, Girls Are IT, Off the Map. Visual Designer – Race: The Power of an Illusion, New Americans, The Penland Experience.

Brent Dunn
Senior Web Developer
brent@interactiveknowledge.com

Brent has more than 10 years experience in web development and oversees the constantly changing technology side of our business. While he specializes in the creation of database-driven web sites and open source content management systems, Brent wears many hats at Interactive Knowledge — including strategic planning, designing innovative solutions for clients, and developing simple systems to meet complex needs. Not only can Brent design an awesome database system, he can also explain it to someone who has never used one.

He’s also skilled in server-side programming, front-end development and server administration. In his very rare spare time, Brent enjoys learning all he can about Drupal and playing any musical instrument that has strings. He has studied musical education and is still an active musician within the Charlotte community.

Brent stays at the top of his technology game by reading APIs, monitoring the web's latest trends, and attending seminars, classes and user groups for Drupal, Joomla, PHP and Linux.

Education: Brent has a B.M. degree in Music Education from the University of North Carolina in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Recent project involvement: Flash Developer / Database Developer – American Sabor, Smithsonian’s Web Redesign, Duke Endowment Company Intranet, Columbus Neighborhoods, The Fetzer Institute, Calculation Nation, Unnatural Causes, Memory Bridge, THE WAR, Off the Map, Learning@Whitney, The Penland Experience.

Eric Veal
Web Developer
eric@interactiveknowledge.com

Eric joined Interactive Knowledge in early 2010, and hit the ground running during one of the busiest times in the company’s history. He immediately made himself indispensable to IK and to our clients. Eric quickly learned the intricacies of Drupal while delivering a site for the Columbus Metropolitan Library. Then he went on to tackle the planning, wireframing and development for a large WGBH/American Experience project.

As is the case with all IK folk, Eric loves being involved in every part of the creation process. He is a self-proclaimed "CSS ninja," an evangelist for standards-compliant HTML, and an active member of the web's open source movement.

Eric’s technical skillset includes PHP, Drupal, Flash, HTML/XHTML, CSS, ASP.NET, AJAX, Javascript, Joomla, MySQL. He is looking forward to the next Internet evolution, HTML5, which will change the way the websites are used and created.

Education: BS in Computer Science, University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

Recent project involvement: Developer – Freedom Riders, Smithsonian’s Web Redesign, Columbus Neighborhoods, The Fetzer Institute

Allison Wolf Wright
Visual Designer & Producer
allison@interactiveknowledge.com

Allison began her relationship with Interactive Knowledge in 2005, when she was hired as a contractor to design educational materials and experiences for Girls are IT. She continued working as a freelancer in the Charlotte area, opening her own design studio which grew into a popular art gallery. Before long Allison was a successful graphic designer and prominent business owner. She garnered kudos from the local press and was proclaimed one of the “Women Who Rock: Presenting Six Ladies Who Make Charlotte A Cooler Place To Live.” To promote her gallery and design business, as well as her clients’ work, Allison created branding strategies that included fun and funky websites and email campaigns.

Eventually she was persuaded to join a local advertising agency where she worked with clients like the Ronald McDonald House of Charlotte, Johnson & Johnson, and the McGill & Hill Group. In August 2010, Allison and Interactive Knowledge were happy to reunite and bring Allison into the family as a full time web designer.

Allison has had an interesting journey on her way to IK. She finished college intending to be a doctor, but three days after graduating with a degree in Zoology and Healthcare, she went into the Peace Corps for two years and worked in public health. "In any project that we did, I always added an art element and that sort of thing. I came back from that experience very different. I was not going to go to medical school, was not going to go into public health." We at IK are very glad that she followed her artistic intuition.

A relentless bundle of energy, Allison continues takes art commissions and paint in her spare time, as well as learn new computer programs. In additional to her design skills, Allison has basic HTML programming experience and is studying Drupal.        

Education: BS Zoology/Pre Medicine & BA - Interdisciplinary Perspectives in Health Care, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina.

Recent project involvement: Designer & Producer – Freedom Riders, Smithsonian’s Web Redesign, American Sabor, Redesign of our own site

Andrew (Andi to us) Martin
Web Developer
andrew@interactiveknowledge.com

Andi Martin join the IK family In February of 2011. He is a skilled programmer in a number of languages. He comes with Joomla experience and is quickly acclimating to Drupal as he jumps headlong into several new projects. Andi has a BSc in Applied Computing from the University of Dundee. Did I mention that he’s Scottish? He was a Head Chef and Bartender in St. Andrews when a visiting Prince William complimented Andi on making the best chips (fried potatoes) he had ever tasted. There was also an incident with Sean Connery that Andi won’t talk about, but that’s all behind him now. Here “across the pond” he loves computers and we love having him on our team.

Recent project involvement: Developer – American Sabor, The Fetzer Institute, The Duke Endowment, King Events, Redesign of our own site