Michael Furdyk is the Co-founder and Director of Technology for TakingITGlobal.org, a global online community for young people, engaging hundreds of thousands of youth in over 200 countries and territories. Along with managing the technology team at TakingITGlobal, Michael is involved with the TIGed education program, and has spoken to over 50,000 educators about the importance of engaging students and integrating technology and global perspectives into the classroom.

In the past, he has turned his interest in technology into a series of successful online companies, co-founding MyDesktop.com (later sold to Internet.com) and BuyBuddy.com (which raised $4.5-million of venture capital). Over the last few years, Michael has consulted for many Fortune 500 companies, including a 6-month engagement developing youth strategy with Microsoft in Seattle, Washington.

As one of Teen People's "20 teens that will change the world", Michael has shared his opinions about Youth Engagement and experiences as a member of the Net Generation by speaking at dozens of events, including the World Congress on IT, the US Government's National Youth Summit, Microsoft's Anytime, Anywhere Learning Summits, The Business Council, and TED. He has made numerous media appearances including The Oprah Winfrey Show, Time Magazine, Fast Company, BusinessWeek, CNN, MSNBC, and USA Today. He is a board member and advisor to numerous groups including Microsoft, Pollution Probe, the Anytime, Anywhere Learning Foundation, and several other national and global organizations.

I was born in 1982, the year that the Commodore 64 made its entry onto the market. A few years later, at the age of 3, my family purchased a Commodore 64.

My facination with technology led to starting my first business, M&S Enterprises, before I turned 10. I discovered Bulletin Board Systems in the early 1990's, and started my own, participating in the early stages of technology-empowered community. After discovering the Internet through Compuserve in 1995, I presented to my Grade 8 class about a new phenomenon called Banner advertising, and a new company called Yahoo! that was relying on this form of advertising as a sole revenue model.

I soon became captivated with the idea of creating web sites after meeting people from around the world on Internet Relay Chat (IRC), and created a site called the Internet Exposed with a group of others. The idea behind the site was to 'expose' how easy the Internet was to use -- to review software tools and to explain to anyone interested how to use the Internet and create web sites. After meeting Michael Hayman, a young Australian, in an IRC chat room, the two of us decided to merge our sites together to create a 'megasite' called MyDesktop. MyDesktop grew to reach over 500,000 monthly users by 1999, at which time the pair and a number of others involved sold the site to New York City-based Internet.com, in exchange for a non-disclosed seven-figure sum and investment in BuyBuddy.com, our next project.

After the sale of MyDesktop.com, I received thousands of e-mails from young people around the world due to the media attention resulting from the sale. After meeting with friend Jennifer Corriero at a reunion of a summer program from 1997, we both recognized the need to create an organization that would respond to the global need of young people to be connected to opportunities, share their expressions, take action, and collaborate in a community -- and called it TakingITGlobal. After meeting with a number of mentors and advisors, including author Don Tapscott and RBC Financial Group SVP Charles Coffey, we connected with an executive from Microsoft, who invited us to share our message and understanding of the next generation with the company's business units.

I moved to Seattle and worked with Microsoft for 6 months in 2000, working with various product groups at Microsoft, and at the same time speaking at conferences around the country and the world about the idea Jennifer and I had for TakingITGlobal.

At the same time, BuyBuddy.com was still growing. The idea was to provide an un-biased source to help people make buying decisions, from computers to music to books, helping consumers help each other decide what products to buy and what retailer to buy them from. In early 2000, CNET bought competitor MySimon.com for $700 million, and the BuyBuddy team went to look for partners and investors to take their technology and success to a similar level. After a meeting with Rogers New Media CEO Mike Abramsky and CFO Butch Langlois, the pair (Mike and Butch) decided to leave Rogers and become BuyBuddy's CEO and CFO. In September 2000, the BuyBuddy team raised $4.5 million of venture capital from XDL Intervest. The company grew until late 2001, when the stock market affected customers to such a degree that the business model behind the company required the site to scale down to be run as a hobby by several of its staff.

I now invest my time as Director of Technology for TakingITGlobal, which has now grown into a community that has attracted over 5 million vistors and over 200,000 members from over 200 countries and territories. The site acts as a platform, resource, and network for the next generation, and connects young people together to help them be more effective in their quest for learning, expression, and the creation of positive change. I have continued to advise a number of major corporations on their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Youth Engagement efforts, and continue to speak at dozens of conferences every year. The travel is a refreshing reminder of the impact and opportunity for our work at TakingITGlobal!