Buylink In 1996 Dunning co-founded and was
chief technology officer for Buylink Corporation. Buylink received
venture capital funding from
Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. In 2000 he participated in a presentation on Buylink at The Berkeley Entrepreneurs Forum called
Bricks to Clicks in the New Internet Reality. He discussed the company on
CNNfn's
Market Call, in Rhonda Schaffler's
Maverick of the Morning segment. In 2002, Dunning left his position as CTO of BuyLink. Between 1997 and 2005 he was technical editor for
FileMaker Advisor magazine, and contributing editor of ISO FileMaker Magazine, 1996–2002, winning one of the FileMaker Excellence Awards at the 2001
FileMaker Developers Conference.
Skeptical activism Beginning in 2006, Dunning hosted and produced
Skeptoid, a weekly audio
podcast dedicated "to furthering knowledge by blasting away the widespread pseudosciences that infect popular culture, and replacing them with way cooler reality". He is also the author of the book of the same title and a sequel. Beginning in 2007, Dunning periodically released video episodes of his
InFact series. Each episode is under four minutes long and covers issues similar to those explored in more depth in the
Skeptoid podcast, but is intended to reach a wider audience due to its brevity and availability on
YouTube. In 2008 Dunning produced
Here Be Dragons, a free 40-minute video introduction to critical thinking intended for general audiences, and received an award from the Portland Humanist Film Festival for this in November 2011. In 2010 Dunning was awarded the
Parsec Award for "Best Fact Behind the Fiction Podcast". In August 2010 he received an award recognizing his contributions in the
skeptical field from the
Independent Investigations Group (IIG) during its 10th Anniversary Gala. In June 2017 Dunning's second film,
Principles of Curiosity, was released. According to Dunning, this "presents a general introduction to the foundations of scientific skepticism and critical thinking... It is nonprofit, noncommercial, and licensed for free public, and private screenings. It is provided with free educational materials for teachers, designed for high school through college. It is suitable for all audiences. Its 40-minute runtime should fit into most classes." In October 2019, a special preview of the Skeptoid Media documentary,
Science Friction, was shown after
CSICon in
Las Vegas. Through a series of interviews, the film addresses the issue of scientists and skeptics being misrepresented by the media. Produced by Dunning and directed by filmmaker and comedian
Emery Emery, release of the film is scheduled for 2020. Dunning has written articles for Skepticblog.org, published by
The Skeptics Society, and was an executive producer for the unreleased network television pilot
The Skeptologists. He is a member of the
National Association of Science Writers, and is the "Chancellor" of the non-accredited "Thunderwood College", a parody of
unaccredited institutions of higher learning which offer "degrees" in a variety of subjects.
Wire fraud case In August 2008,
eBay filed suit against Dunning, accusing him of defrauding eBay and eBay affiliates in a
cookie stuffing scheme for his company, Kessler's Flying Circus. In June 2010, based on the same allegations and following an investigation by the
Federal Bureau of Investigation, a
grand jury indicted Dunning on charges of
wire fraud. On April 15, 2013, in the
San Jose, California, U.S. District Court, as part of a plea agreement, Dunning pleaded guilty to wire fraud. The eBay civil suit was dismissed in May 2014 after the parties came to an agreement, while Dunning was sentenced in August 2014 to fifteen months in prison as a result of his company receiving between $200,000 and $400,000 in fraudulent commissions from eBay. In a statement on his website, Dunning explained the circumstances, and initially accepted responsibility for his actions, ==
Skeptoid podcasts==