Daniel Terdiman game development advisor for US National Public Radio (NPR) for the Talk of the Nation broadcast and for the BBC in the UK. He edited and contributed as an author to "" (), a 2002 book about the annual Burning Man arts festival, held in the Nevada Desert. He wrote "The Entrepreneur's Guide to Second Life: Making Money in the Metaverse" (). He was the panel moderator at the Game Developers' Conference 2007, on the topic of Burning Man. He holds a Masters of Science degree in Journalism from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He currently works as
Burning Man Sculptor Mary Grauberger, a friend of Harvey's girlfriend Janet Lohr, held solstice bonfire gatherings on Baker Beach for several years prior to 1986, some of which Harvey attended. When Grauberger stopped organizing it, Harvey "picked up the torch," and ran with it. He and Jerry James built the first wooden effigy on the afternoon of June 21, 1986, cobbled together using scrap wood, to be torched later that evening. In 1987, the effigy grew to tall, and by 1988, it had grown to . By 1988, Larry Harvey formally named the summer solstice ritual "Burning Man," by titling flyers for