Amanda Congdon (Courtesy Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Amanda Congdon (born August 4, 1981 in New York City) is a video blogger. She began her on-screen career as the first anchor of the online daily news show, Rocketboom, which she hosted and produced until 23 June 2006. She remains the co-owner (49%) of Rocketboom, but a dispute between her and the 51% shareholder Andrew Baron has resulted in her no longer hosting or producing the show.

Congdon was born and raised in Manhattan and graduated magna cum laude from Northwestern University.

Involvement with Rocketboom

Congdon began as Rocketboom's anchor with the show's 26 October 2004 debut.

The show went from an initial 700 viewers in 2004 to 70,000 viewers in the first ten months. The show's success was noted by CBS Evening News, Wired, the Associated Press. BusinessWeek labeled it "the most popular site of its kind on the Net". More viewers visited Rocketboom after a 11 June 2006 interview with Congdon on CNN. Rocketboom's audience continued to increase, going from 100,000 vlog viewers at the end of 2005 to 300,000 by the spring of 2006.

Congdon sometimes went on the road. One episode showed her dancing in various locations throughout St. Petersburg, Russia. She has performed her frenetic signature dance in the streets and parks of Austin and other cities. In the 15 April 2005 episode, she stood in Washington Square Park and posed the question "Mac or PC?" to anyone walking by. Eight months later, she returned to the same spot to ask, "Internet Explorer or Firefox?" In an Office Pirates video parody of Rocketboom, Manhattanites were asked, "Coffee or tea?" Congdon's news desk idiosyncrasies — her signature head swivel, "hair flip" and habitual paper tossing — were mocked.

Departure from Rocketboom

On 5 July 2006, Congdon released a video statement on her blog, Amanda UnBoomed, announcing her departure from the show. Andrew Baron, majority stakeholder of Rocketboom, stated she was leaving the show to "pursue opportunities ... in Hollywood" and Joanne Colan stepped in as Congdon's replacement. Congdon states that she was fired.

Amanda Across America

Congdon's first endeavor after Rocketboom was AmandaAcrossAmerica.com, a blog based on Congdon's travels through America in a hybrid vehicle. The show was produced by "mobile producers" Congdon, Mario Librandi, Rob Librandi, and Emily Golub. Timothy Shey served as stationary producer, and Rudy Jahchan developed the web site. The show was hosted by blip.tv. The journey took a circuitous route with stops in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Tennessee, D.C., Missouri, Wisconsin, Arizona and California. The show focused on interviews with activists and bloggers.

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