Hal Wayne Plotkin (born September 14, 1957) is an American journalist and activist. He is currently the senior open policy fellow at
Creative Commons
Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...
.
From 2009 to 2014, Plotkin served as the Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of the Under Secretary of Education,
United States Department of Education
The United States Department of Education is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government. It began operating on May 4, 1980, having been created after the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was split into the Department ...
, which has responsibility for all federal U.S. higher education policies and programs.
In 2003, Plotkin initiated the Foothill-De Anza Community College District's Policy on Public Domain Learning Materials which are now more commonly known as
Open Educational Resources
Open educational resources (OER) are Instructional materials, teaching, learning, and research materials intentionally created and Free license, licensed to be free for the end user to own, share, and in most cases, modify. The term "OER" descri ...
.
Early life
Plotkin attended
Palo Alto High School
Palo Alto Senior High School, commonly referred to locally as "Paly", is a comprehensive public high school in Palo Alto, California. Operated by the Palo Alto Unified School District, the school is one of two schools in the district, the other b ...
, where he was an editor for the student newspaper, ''The Campanile''. Family circumstances led him to drop out of high school during his junior year in order to work full-time in whatever jobs he could find, including gas station bathroom cleaner and pizza maker.
Plotkin managed to graduate with his high school class in 1975 after administrators gave him course credit for some of his employment activities.
He attended college part-time over the next 10 years while working a variety of jobs, including as a
Comprehensive Employment and Training Act
The Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA, ) was a United States federal law enacted by the Congress, and signed into law by President Richard Nixon on December 28, 1973 to train workers and provide them with jobs in the public service. ...
worker serving as an aide to then-Santa Clara County Supervisor
Rod Diridon, Sr. In 1979, Plotkin began working as a researcher, writer, editor and broadcaster. His earliest journalism jobs included serving as news and public affairs director for
KPEN 97.7 FM and writing for the ''
San Jose Metro
''Metro'' is a free weekly newspaper published by the San Jose, California, based Metro Newspapers. Also known as ''Metro Silicon Valley'', as well as ''Metroactive'' online, the paper serves the greater Silicon Valley area. In addition to print ...
'' alternative newspaper. Plotkin eventually earned his Associate of Arts degree in history from
Foothill College
Foothill College is a public community college in Los Altos Hills, California. It is part of the Foothill–De Anza Community College District. It was founded on January 15, 1957, and offers 79 Associate degree programs, 1 Bachelor's degree pr ...
in 1985 and his Bachelor of Arts degree in behavioral sciences, with distinction, at
San Jose State University
San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sys ...
in 1986. He also ghostwrote two books and served as an editorial consultant on several others during this period.
Professional career
Plotkin worked as a
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...
-based journalist and commentator, with his work often focused on technology, business, public policy, education and science. He was a founding editor of
American Public Media
American Public Media (APM) is an American company that produces and distributes public radio programs in the United States, the second largest company of its type after NPR. Its non-profit parent, American Public Media Group, also owns and oper ...
's ''
Marketplace
A marketplace or market place is a location where people regularly gather for the purchase and sale of provisions, livestock, and other goods. In different parts of the world, a marketplace may be described as a '' souk'' (from the Arabic), ' ...
'' program and a former columnist for CNBC.com and
SFGate.com
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The p ...
, the website of the ''
San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...
''. He joined CNBC.com the following year as full-time Silicon Valley correspondent for the online operations of the financial news television network. He worked for CNBC.com from the day the site went online in July 1999 until Microsoft Corp. took over editorial operations in July 2001.
Plotkin has written more than 650 articles for a wide variety of publishers, including ''
Barron's Barron's or Barrons may refer to:
*Barron's Educational Series, a publisher of books, as well as college entrance exam preparation classes and materials, now an imprint of Kaplan Test Prep
** B.E.S. Publishing, the former owner of Barron's
* ''Barr ...
'', ''
Inc.'', ''Forbes ASAP'',
Harvard Business Publishing
Harvard Business Publishing was founded in 1994 as a not-for-profit, wholly owned subsidiary of Harvard University (distinct from Harvard University Press), with a focus on improving business management practices. The company consists of three ...
, ''California Business'', ''
Metro
Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to:
Geography
* Metro (city), a city in Indonesia
* A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center
Public transport
* Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urba ...
'', ''Family Business'' and ''International Business'' magazines.
Plotkin's articles and essays include "Riches From Rags," one of the first printed references to the term "
mass customization
In marketing, manufacturing, call centre operations, and management, mass customization makes use of flexible computer-aided systems to produce custom output. Such systems combine the low unit costs of mass production processes with the flexibility ...
;" "Tear Down the Walls," which made an early case for what has become the Open Educational Resources movement, a description of the new "higher education ecosystem" made possible by the Internet; the first article about
Creative Commons
Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...
, and a variety of articles for Harvard Business School Press.
In 1988, Plotkin's investigative reports on potential media influence buying by
Pentagon
In geometry, a pentagon (from the Greek πέντε ''pente'' meaning ''five'' and γωνία ''gonia'' meaning ''angle'') is any five-sided polygon or 5-gon. The sum of the internal angles in a simple pentagon is 540°.
A pentagon may be simpl ...
contractors associated with misleading, unnecessary, and expensive full-page daily newspaper classified help wanted ads led to a congressional investigation, and an audit by the Department of Defense Contracting Audit Agency that illuminated opportunities for hundreds of millions of dollars in annual savings. Plotkin received a letter of commendation for his work from
David Packard
David Packard ( ; September 7, 1912 – March 26, 1996) was an American electrical engineer and co-founder, with Bill Hewlett, of Hewlett-Packard (1939), serving as president (1947–64), CEO (1964–68), and chairman of the board (1964–6 ...
, founder of
Hewlett-Packard
The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...
, and a former Deputy Secretary of Defense.
In 1996, Plotkin wrote one of the first articles on
Yahoo!
Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Man ...
, based on interviews he conducted with the founders while they were seeking initial investors, and which was published shortly before the company went public. He also wrote an early article about Confinity, which was later renamed
PayPal
PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support online money transfers, and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper ...
.
Plotkin is also the founder, chairman of the board, and former CEO of the
Center for Media Change, a Palo Alto-based non-profit organization that facilitates the creation, development and use of new business models to preserve the economic and professional viability of high-quality independent fact-based journalism. Plotkin was the founding editor of the Center for Media Change's first project, www.ReelChanges.org, which launched on May 1, 2008. ReelChanges was the first online site to pioneer crowdfunding of high-quality documentary film projects. ReelChanges won a small grant from the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is an American publicly funded non-profit corporation, created in 1967 to promote and help support public broadcasting. The corporation's mission is to ensure universal access to non-commercial, ...
's Media Innovation Fund but was unable to attract additional financial support. Despite generating considerable buzz ReelChanges went offline in March 2009, when Plotkin accepted a position in the Obama administration.
The Center for Media Change, Inc. also served as the parent 501(C)3 non-profit for a similar site,
spot.us
Spot.Us was a non-profit organization designed to bring citizens, journalists, and news publishers together in an online marketplace based on crowdsourcing and crowdfunding methods and principles. It was founded in 2008 by David Cohn, who receive ...
, founded by David Cohn. Spot.us was acquired by
American Public Media
American Public Media (APM) is an American company that produces and distributes public radio programs in the United States, the second largest company of its type after NPR. Its non-profit parent, American Public Media Group, also owns and oper ...
in early 2012.
In recent years, Plotkin has devoted much of his time to advancing the
Open Educational Resources
Open educational resources (OER) are Instructional materials, teaching, learning, and research materials intentionally created and Free license, licensed to be free for the end user to own, share, and in most cases, modify. The term "OER" descri ...
movement.
Activism
In 1992, Plotkin filed a class-action lawsuit against
General Electric Company
The General Electric Company (GEC) was a major British industrial conglomerate involved in consumer and defence electronics, communications, and engineering. The company was founded in 1886, was Britain's largest private employer with over 250 ...
in connection with the misleading packaging of incandescent light bulbs. The settlement of Plotkin vs. General Electric and a related agreement between the company and the Federal Trade Commission raised public awareness about the growing practice of "
greenwashing
Greenwashing (a compound word modeled on "whitewash"), also called "green sheen", is a form of advertising or marketing spin in which green PR and green marketing are deceptively used to persuade the public that an organization's products, aims ...
" and led to a settlement in which G.E. made customer refunds and financial contributions to environmental groups in the amount of $3.25 million. Plotkin received no funds from the 1993 settlement.
Politics
In 1993, Plotkin won the Democratic party's nomination for a special election to fill Silicon Valley's seat in the California state Senate but was defeated in the general election by
Tom Campbell, a former GOP member of the U.S. Congress. The following year, he was appointed to serve a two-year term on the California state Economic Strategy Panel by the then-Speaker of the California state Assembly,
Willie Brown, Jr.
In 1994, Plotkin served as a senior fellow of the World Economic Development Congress, where he helped organize a conference that brought PLO leader
Yasser Arafat
Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf al-Qudwa al-Husseini (4 / 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), popularly known as Yasser Arafat ( , ; ar, محمد ياسر عبد الرحمن عبد الرؤوف عرفات القدوة الحسيني, Mu ...
and then Israeli-president
Chaim Herzog
Major-General Chaim Herzog ( he, חיים הרצוג; 17 September 1918 – 17 April 1997) was an Irish-born Israeli politician, general, lawyer and author who served as the sixth President of Israel between 1983 and 1993. Born in Belfast and ...
together for peace and economic cooperation talks in Madrid.
While working for the
United States Department of Education
The United States Department of Education is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government. It began operating on May 4, 1980, having been created after the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was split into the Department ...
, Plotkin worked to advance the use of Open Educational Resources to increase access to high-quality educational opportunities and improve the quality of teaching and learning while lowering costs imposed on students, communities and schools.
Awards
In 2006, Plotkin was the recipient of the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Family and Children's Services FAMMY award. In 2016, Plotkin was inducted into the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) prestigious Hall of Fame. Individuals inducted into the Hall of Fame "have contributed significantly to the field of distance learning through leadership, technology, research, teaching and actively support the mission of USDLA."
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Plotkin, Hal
Living people
1957 births
People from Palo Alto, California
San Jose State University alumni
American male journalists
Jewish American journalists
Journalists from California
Palo Alto High School alumni
21st-century American Jews
Foothill College alumni