The moderator of this interactive web public video forum on orangutans and apes is Shawn Thompson, a writer, traveller and university professor who published the book The Intimate Ape: Orangutans and the Secret Life of a Vanishing Species (2010) and is a member of the board of Orang Utan Republik, a non-profit organization working at a grass-roots level in Indonesia to save orangutans from extinction.

Shawn is working on another book about apes and morality. He will lend assistance to anyone working on a book or a documentary about apes. He will also help publicize projects and information about orangutans and apes through this web broadcast project.

Shawn has published six books and a number of magazine articles. He teaches writing, photography, video production and journalism at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, British Columbia, and lives part of the year in Seattle, Washington with his partner Wendy and the dog Emo. See Shawn's blog at www.intimateape.blogspot.com