De Vellis previously worked as a senior strategist at Blue State Digital, a progressive internet consulting firm. He was director of Internet communications for Sherrod Brown’s successful 2006 U.S. Senate race in Ohio, deputy internet communications director for Wal-Mart Watch, and was deputy field director for Cuyahoga County, Ohio on the Kerry-Edwards presidential campaign. Prior to his full-time work in politics, he was a freelance video editor and motion graphics designer in his home town of Los Angeles. De Vellis graduated from UCLA with a BA in history.

At last year’s mesh we had a blast talking about the future of broadcasting with Jian Ghomeshi, Barnaby Marshall, Amber Mac and Andrew Barron. At mesh ‘07, we’ll be talking about video even more, but we’d also like to spend some time showcasing video that helps us understand the power of the Web and its role in changing the way we interact with video. Last year, our (ridiculously talented) friends at Storystream produced some video shorts for us to do just that. And recently we were all dazzled by an extraordinary video about the Web produced by Michael Wesch, a Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University. And of course, who can forget such classics as EPIC 2014 and 2015, and The Master Plan?

So for this year, we’ve decided to hold a video ‘contest’. We’re looking for videos that capture the essence of Web 2.0 – whatever that means to you. It might be an ode on the power of the Web to bring new models of outreach to the world of non-profits and charities. It might be an essay about the Web’s ability to give a global platform to anyone’s creativity. Or something else entirely. Something to remember, though: our goal at mesh is to connect, share and inspire.

We’ll choose the winner in the lead-up to mesh ‘07 – judging details to be announced. Oh, and we’ll fly the winner to Toronto (maximum travel cost is $1,000 in Canuck bucks), put them up in the conference hotel on us (room only – your, er, videos and everything else is on you), give them a ticket to mesh (wow – two days of breakfast and lunch, and cocktails on day 1, included – such a deal), and we’ll showcase their video at the conference. Naturally, this offer is void where prohibited, and perhaps even some places where it’s not.

If you’re interested, you should submit your video by May 10 as a YouTube response to the mesh ‘06 media video. Only videos created for mesh will be considered – that’s right, new content only. There are no other rules about video content, except for the obvious ones. And any questions about what the content ought to be, or how long the video ought to be, will be cheerfully and enigmatically ignored.

If you’ve got something interesting to say about Web 2.0, we’d like to hear from you. And maybe we’ll see you at mesh.

Update: Cool – Mary’s set up a playlist of mesh videos at Dabble. Check it out.

Updater: We’ve been asked whether submissions need to be responses on YouTube. No, they don’t. If you want to use some other method email us at info[at]meshconference.com and we’ll make other arrangements with you. Also, we are looking for illumination and entertainment, so if we think that none of the submissions are sufficiently – well, illuminating or entertaining – to be shown at mesh, we do reserve the right to not select a winner.