Summary

News

About

Overview

Chair, AIR Networks & Technology
Director, onAir Networks and Democracy onAir

Interests:  Knowledge Networks, Catalyzing Innovation, Tech Entrepreneurship, Healthy and Sustainable Communities

As a partner in one of the first futurist consulting firms, Joy explored commercial spin-off applications of NASA technology for Rockwell (1975-1976). Based on these studies, Joy assembled a team of engineers and marketers as Scienco (Scientific Entertainment Company) and successfully designed and developed, for the game and toy industry, some of the original consumer applications of the microprocessor (1976-1982). He has led the design and development of the first microprocessor-based computer for children (Smart Alec, 1978) and the the first Internet Cafe (The Planet, 1980).

In 1990, Joy founded TelePad corporation.  At TelePad, Joy led the design and development of the first multi-purpose, pen-based handheld and tablet-size computer and communications devices. Vertical applications included use in hospitals and nursing homes.  As Chairman and majority shareholder and CTO, he took TelePad public in 1994 raising over 25 million in the first year.

As founder and president of Roku Technologies (1996-2001), Joy pioneered the wireless connection of mobile devices to PCs, servers, and the Internet via peer to peer software.

My onAir Activity

Past Education & Research

Discovery at Briggs Pond

Part of masters degree program in Education at the University of Massachusetts, I worked with leading New England educators and large suburban real estate developers exploring how to design and build new kinds of educational communities (Discovery at Briggs Pond, 1970) and Supplemental and Alternative Programs (SAP Directory, 1972).

Future Options Room

In 1974, established one of the first futures research consulting firms, Future Options Room (FOR) with partners Jerry Glenn and Roy Mason with a distinguished board of futurists including Alvin Toffler (author of Future Shock), Herman Kahn (Founder of the Hudson Institute), and Ted Gordon (Founder of the Futures Group).

Jerry Glenn has been Executive Director (and co-founder) of the Millennium Project since 1996.

Developed categorization and retrieval system for organizing future options in business, government, education, scientific research, non-profits and other disciplines (FOR, 1975)

Smart Alec

At Scienco (see Technology section) I designed one of the first microprocessor-based computers for children that many years later was popularized by Leapfrog.

Select GMU projects

While researching how a research university functions at George Mason University, Scott was involved with facilitating and catalyzing numerous projects. Some of the projects he spearheaded include the creation of a Geospatial Intelligence certificate program (2006-7); a Strategic Plan for the new College of Science (see below); a multi-purpose meeting and presentation facility (COS Showcase 2007- present); and 2C Lab (2008 thru 2011) formed to facilitate Creativity and Collaboration including “Flex Offices” that integrated information and communications technologies into new and renovated office and small conference spaces. For more information on the Showcase and 2C Lab, see Space Designs below.

In 2012, AIR networks was contracted by the GMU Office of Research to develop a website with posts on the 400 GMU research centers and separate profile posts on their research directors.  An example of what the research center posts were like can be found in this slideshow.

Joy has sponsored and supported numerous student capstone projects (e.g. with College of Engineering and Computing SEOR and IS&T seniors) and internships (e.g. witn Schar and Arlington Fellows students).

In the spring of 2023, while supporting Democracy onAir, coordinated student interns in their management of a Congres Day in the Hub Ballroom with presentations by current and former congressional members and a special panel on ‘Women in Politics’. One of the speakers at this event said that Ron Daniels, JHU President, wanted to have a similar event at Hopkins.

I am currently assisting Democracy onAir in its efforts to work with 23 GMU research directors who signed up to give presentations on their centers research and related public policy goals and engage the Mason community, policy makers, and the NoVA public in town halls and roundtables at a Meet the Changemakers Day.

Strategic Plan for the new College of Science

Download (PDF, Unknown)

Past Technology & Entrepreneurship

Scienco

Founder and partner(1976 to 1982). Scientific Entertainment Corporation (Scienco). Scienco and its engineers designed and co-developed some of the first consumer applications of the microprocessor  targeting the toy and game industry.

Scienco was also responsible for the design of ROM, the first cyborg toy that was marketed by Parker Brothers which became the inspiration for the Marvel comic series of the same name.

TelePad

Designed and developed one of the first pen-based, pocket-sized handheld computers that featured multipurpose data management and voice/data/video communications i.e. a smartphone (Uni,1990) and some of the early tablet PCs (TelePad Sl, 1991 and the TelePad 3, 1994). Founder and chair of tablet computer company, TelePad Corporation. Took TelePad public as majority shareholder and raised 30 million dollars in equity capital in the first year (1993-94). Telepad was a pioneer in outsourcing electronics manufacturing in Taiwan in addition to  final assembly in US as one of IBM’s first outside manufacturing clients (TelePad, 1995).

TelePad’s initial product development efforts focused on the Uni in 1990.  The Uni was a smartphone prototype designed and developed with the principal developers of the Amiga Computer. The Uni could be operated with a pen or by touch, had voice communications and data modem capability, and much of the computer functionality of the early Palm  handheld computers.

The TelePad SL in 1991 was one the first tablet computers to use Windows Pen Computing software.

TheTelePad 3, which I was the principal designer, was considered a “a complete rethinking of what a portable computer should be and, in our opinion, succeeded brilliantly” according to Pen Computing magazine in a 1995 issue

Roku Technologies

Past Space Design & Development

Commercial Real Estate Development

Partner  from  1985-1990  in a DC based commercial development firm, CDC, that renovated numerous historic buildings in DC and Pennsylvania.

Dupont Circle Building

Bedford Springs Hotel and Conference Center

Contact

Email: OnAir

Web Links

• onAir Networks

OnAir Networks

The onAir Networks mission is to make it easy to find, learn about, and interact with people and organizations who are developing and implementing solutions to global as well as national, state, and local challenges.

Our six main onAir portals & affiliated nonprofits managing the portals are: Nature onAir, Health onAir, Science onAir, Tech onAir, Society onAir, and Nations onAir.

Learn. Discuss. Develop Innovative Solutions.  Find Common Ground.  

Find your interest communities;  Co-create a network!

Your Voice matters – onAir!

History and Plans

onAir Networks is chartered in Virginia in 2012 as AIR Networks with a mission to “Accelerate Innovative Research”.  AIR Networks was co-founded by Scott Joy and Todd Gillette to develop and implement the onAir knowledge network software system. Scott currently is the lead UX designer and Todd is the lead architect and programmer. In 2018, Todd recommended we apply the onAir software to support democracy in the US and around the world. To support this effort, we started Democracy onAir, a nonpartisan 501c3 nonprofit chartered in Virginia.

• Each onAir network uses the onAir software system and has a central Hub (e.g. US onAir National Hub) and related sub-Hubs (e.g. 50 state Hubs like the Virginia onAir Hub).  Initial Hub content is aggregated from publicly available sources e.g. from wikipedia and government agencies and freely viewable by everyone.
• Each Hub’s administration and curation is led by one or more university-based research centers or academic programs with affiliated associations, NGOs, and government agencies.
• Anyone can become an onAir member. Your voice matters onAir and  it’s free. We encourage high school and college students and the interested public to participate in online and aircast discussions and collaborations as long as they follow a hub’s guidelines.
• Our  first onAir networks are focused on how to support democracy around the world starting with the US and India networks. We have also begun networks around other key grand challenges such as climate change,  immigration, and cybersecurity.
• Each network is supported by individual donations, foundation and government grants, and sponsors. In addition, profile posts of organizations and individuals can be curated by the identified person or group for a monthly fee.
• OnAir Networks collaborates with its university partners to convene in person events like the Meet the Changemakers Day at GMU. These events will give students, faculty, and the public an opportunity to learn about and meet with researchers and research centers as well as federal, state, and local policy makers and other changemakers.
• OnAir networks is a nonpartisan, 501c3 nonprofit that assists its network curators with fundraising and accounting as well as provide technical and management support.

The onAir System

OnAir is a dynamic, web-based knowledge sharing system.

• The onAir platform supports the development of onAir Hub websites and onAir Hub networks that aggregate and display posts curated by onAir members.
• All onAir Hubs are hosted on the “onair.cc” domain .
• OnAir  Hubs aggregate and promote the best, publicly available knowledge about a topic and its related news, events, resources, people, and organizations. OnAir Hubs also provide a variety of tools for Hub member engagement including forums in each post and aircasts (livestreamed zoom discussions).
• OnAir posts, by default, are under the CC-NC (Creative Commons-Non Commercial) license and can be shared with any other onAir Hub and automatically updated from the original post
• OnAir Networks provides its Hub organizers and managers with the support and guidance to make their Hub the go to place for their topic. OnAir Hubs can be customized by their administrators. OnAir also provides whatever design, development, and content support that is required.
• OnAir also develops and monitors the curation and moderation guidelines for the Hubs and manages the finances for each state hub. OnAir will share sponsor and other revenues with its hub administrative and curation partners.

Some Special Features

1. The core onAir element is the post. Every post can aggregate information from multiple sources. For example, this Senator Kirsten Gillibrand post  incorporates content from her government and campaign websites, YouTube videos, Twitter feed, News items, and other external sources such as Vote Smart, Congress.Gov, and Wikipedia organized in a persistent, easily accessible table of contents. Every post can appear in multiple categories within a hub as well as shared with other hubs. Shared post content is automatically updated wherever it is displayed. 
2. OAir hubs on any topic can be easily created, administered, and curated without any programming knowledge. OnAir Hubs are portals that organize the most comprehensive and publicly available content on issues, projects, people, and organizations.
3. OnAir Hubs have multiple ways of bringing together experts with each other, with students, and with the public to discuss best practices, new ideas, and innovative solutions. Every post has a forum that enables persistent, ongoing discussions on various topics as well as a place to ask questions and make suggestions, tell stories, and add endorsements. In addition, OnAir supports professionally produced, livestreamed Zoom interviews, panels, town halls, and other discussion formats without requiring video expertise and displayable in posts and social media. OnAir also provides students with training on how to coordinate in person events like our Meet the Changemakers days.

Viewing content

1. The core onAir element is the post. Every post can aggregate information from multiple sources. For example, this Senator Kirsten Gillibrand post  incorporates content from her government and campaign websites, YouTube videos, Twitter feed, News items, and other external sources such as Vote Smart, Congress.Gov, and Wikipedia organized in a persistent, easily accessible table of contents. Every post can appear in multiple categories within a hub as well as shared with other hubs. Shared post content is automatically updated wherever it is displayed. 
2. OAir hubs on any topic can be easily created, administered, and curated without any programming knowledge. OnAir Hubs are portals that organize the most comprehensive and publicly available content on issues, projects, people, and organizations.
3. OnAir Hubs have multiple ways of bringing together experts with each other, with students, and with the public to discuss best practices, new ideas, and innovative solutions. Every post has a forum that enables persistent, ongoing discussions on various topics as well as a place to ask questions and make suggestions, tell stories, and add endorsements. In addition, OnAir supports professionally produced, livestreamed Zoom interviews, panels, town halls, and other discussion formats without requiring video expertise and displayable in posts and social media. OnAir also provides students with training on how to coordinate in person events like our Meet the Changemakers days.

US onAir Network

The US onAir Network supports US citizens and democracy by bringing together information, experts, organizations, policy makers, and the public to facilitate greater engagement in federal, state, and local politics and more civil, positive discussions and collaborations on important issues and governance.

Learn. Discuss. Make a Difference.
Your Voice matters – onAir! 

Democracy onAir, a nonpartisan nonprofit is the lead manager and supporter for the US onAir Network of hubs. See this section below for more information on Democracy onAir.

About

The US onAir Network will have a soft launch on July 4th of 50 onAir state hubs and this national US onAir hub.

The US onAir Network has its goal to become the People’s Platform for Democracy. US onAir gives current and future US voters a faster, easier, more effective, and engaged way to:

• LEARN about their US state representatives, government, organizations, key issues, and elections;
• DISCUSS their views with politicians, committees, government agencies, and each other;
• COLLABORATE with these people and groups to improve/make a difference in our democracy.

To find in depth information on an onAir Hub, you can:

1. Search this content and use our Who Represents Me app to find your representatives;
2. Follow the people, groups, and issues you are interested in and get the latest news and events on your phone;
3. Browse this content on your laptop or desktop in a number of ways include via slideshows. For example, here are slide shows on US House Committees and Florida onAir featured posts.

Sharing content

The US onAir network will be collaborating with academic organizations focused on politics, policy, and/or gov’t to engage their students to use the onAir platform for democracy-related service learning and for community-based research. Similarly, we will be working with members of nonprofit organizations promoting democracy.

All 50 state hubs have posts on their current Governor, US senators, and US House members as well as posts on their legislative, executive, and branches. Many of these posts are shared with the national US onAir Hub. For example, here are 50 posts on state legislatures.

The US Government network is part of onAir Networks using the onAir Knowledge Network software platform. To learn more about onAir networks, the onAir platform, and the nonprofit supporting the US Government network and the Democracy onAir movement, go to this post.

Over the next few years, Democracy onAir will extend its onAir networks to other democratic countries such as this nascent  networks:  India onAir Network.

Managing Director Remarks

When I speak with young voters about voter apathy, something that comes up in every discussion is this lingering feeling that one’s participation in the political process is inconsequential and as such they feel no need to participate. What is needed is a platform that heightens young people’s  as well as other voters voice and allows for a direct interface with the people they care about, whether that be their representative or other government officials or their peers at university so that they can feel like what they believe is being heard.

Our US onAir network team believes that we can become a significant contributor to addressing voter apathy. By establishing onAir hubs and Student onAir chapters in universities across the United States, we can facilitate direct student involvement not only in the political process through the curation of news and aggregation of information surrounding government, but we can also provide the platform and resources that make bringing students and their representatives face to face possible.

People love to talk and be heard, this is particularly true of university students who are at a prime stage of discovering their self-identity and it’s my belief that the best way of doing so is being introduced to as many ideas or people as possible to start figuring out what you like and dislike.

We believe in our mission deeply and think this is a unique opportunity to get students and voters involved by showing them that their participation matters and that there is a way to have their voices heard.

Ben Murphy, Managing Director

Benefits for Politicians

Twitter, Facebook, and other social media and online platforms provide an interface between candidates/representatives and voters/residents, though often those interactions are polarized and do little to promote quality communication. Voters and residents are not interest groups, are rarely concerned only about a single issue, and are not well represented by the brief and often detached interactions of social media. Politicians rarely have an opportunity to fully engage outside of in person events that tend to draw only the most engaged individuals.

USA onAir hubs will encourage and enable a wider range of participation and offer politicians an opportunity to listen to those constituents and talk about how their proposals and votes relate to their principles and needs of constituents. These interactions are mediated by curated forums and moderated aircasts – livestreamed, student-led online discussions and events.

This will clearly benefit politicians with limited resources and/or limited knowledge regarding social media, but it also benefits politicians and constituents who already have social media presence but are looking for a higher quality of discourse and engagement with their student constituents

onAir Membership

Becoming an onAir member will enable you to:

• Curate posts and moderate post forums;
• Be a producer, host, or discussant for an aircast;
• Comment on posts in any onAir Hub;
• Qualify to be an onAir Chapter member e.g. Students on Air @GMU;
• Intern with onAir Networks
• Participate in special events like Meet the Changemakers Day.

Becoming an onAir member is simple and free.  All that is required is your first and last name, your email address and your zipcode. You can also identify the issues you would like a hub’s curators and authors to address. When you submit your email address to become a Hub member, it is your option to have your address displayed.

University onAir chapters

The GMU onAir Chapter is the first chapter established to bring together faculty, students, staff, alumni, and friends of the university focusing onAir networks.

OnAir chapters will be outreaching to other colleges and universities in their state to form additional onAir chapters.

To set up your university onAir chapter, contact usdemocracy@onair.cc.

Chapter members can contribute  in many ways including:

• Curate posts on issues, representatives, candidates, and committees;
• Aggregate content for a Hub’s top news articles, commentary, videos, and livestreams;
• Moderate a post’s forum comments;
• Be a producer, host, or discussant for an aircast;
• Submit a 1-minute Speak Up video and participate in an aircast with representatives;
• Help promote the chapter and its activities;
• Author an adovcate post
• Donate to Democracy onAir or your organization become a sponsor

Most of the above ways to to contribute require less than an hour per week depending on the nature and extent of engagement.

Democracy onAir

Democracy onAir is a nonpartisan, 501c3 nonprofit that brings together, via online knowledge networks, information, experts, organizations, and the public to better address grand challenges like strengthening global democracies. One of Democracy onAir’s first networks is the US onAir  Network of 50 state hubs strengthening US democracy through facilitating greater civic engagement and civil discussion.

Democracy onAir was chartered in Virginia in 2018. Todd Gillette, PhD 2016 neuroscience and Senior Software Engineer at Northrop Grumman is Chair.

The Challenge: Citizen apathy, disaffection, and lack of knowledge threaten our ability to self govern. Modern day politics is a big driver in those issues. What can be done to reverse these trends and address a political system that drives many Americans away?

Our Goal: Create an online space where students (and the general public) can find trusted and comprehensive information about their representatives, candidates, issues, and governance, and where they can engage directly with their representatives to find common ground on issues and legislation that are important to them. When citizens better understand how change happens, they feel more empowered to make change themselves.

Our Plan:  To develop our student-maanged state Hubs through inspiring and onboarding student leaders in Student onAir chapters at universities in all 50 states. In addition to curating news and other content, student leaders will organize and produce aircasts with students to amplify as many student voices as we can.

onAir Internships

Over the past four years with the help of George Mason University faculty, staff, and alumni, onAir Networks has been working with over 60 interns majoring in government, global affairs, communications, and the information science.  Former interns are now working on creating Hub networks for India, Taiwan, and South Korea to support democracy.

We encourage student interns to integrate their internship with their intern courses for credit, class projects, capstone projects, and research work. Many of our interns have taken 6 credit internship or capstone courses.  Most work is done online and unpaid.  Some of our recent interns have continued working withonAir Networks in management positions.

OnAir interns who commit 5 hours a week or more will receive a Profile post where they can include their resume, projects, video interviews, and other information about their interests, skills, and experience helpful to gaining employment and networking opportunities.

Supporting Democracy onAir

Individuals and organizations can support a US Government hub in many ways including:

• Donating to onAir Networks;
• Sponsoring a post, category, or entire Hub
• Purchasing an Advocate membership and curate your own posts

See the Supporting onAir networks post for more information.

Everyone Thriving ALAP

It is my belief that everyone on our planet is capable of thriving …leading a fulfilling, happy, joyous life  if certain conditions exist.  Below are some thoughts on those conditions:

1. Free to be able to control self at any time…do what want … follow passion(s) … as long as don’t physically and emotionally hurt another person
2. Be able to Breathe (Pause) ….. and Determine Goals (Purpose)
3. Have a personal space to rest/sleep/brainstorm/reflect (and hot tub) and work space and place for bio prep
4. All the healthy food want
5. Places (online) where can Learn, Discuss, and Collaborate/Co-operate … and (in Person) to meet with people
6. Nature all around

Controlling Self

Every person, including young people, need space and time to control their mind and actions.  My personal suggestion is that one of the keys to accomplish this is encompassed in the simple formula of “1-CB … P,F”.

The idea is for each person taking the time to be conscious of their feelings and thoughts partly through “Conscious Breathing” … through focusing on “1” goal at a time … and to reflect on and embody the “P” in one’s life … Be able to Pause, Be at Peace,  have Patience, Play, and aPpreciate … Have Purpose, Principles, Priorities, Process, Plan, and Prepare … and People, Projects, Positivity, Prosperity…

as well as the “F” … Flow, Focus, Fun, Feel, Fulfill, Float … and every letter/character of most languages has positive, thriving life supporting and affirming words.