I live Encinitas, northern San Diego county, California with my wife Cheryl, near our two daughters’ families and our 4 grandchildren. Some folks have called me a “grandfather on steroids.” I earned a BS in math from UC Riverside in 1971, but dropped out of graduate school in economics because I didn’t like the way that economists thought. I’ve been involved with computers and technology all of my life, initially as a means to support my growing family, and now, as a way of helping to make the world a better place

In my first career, I was one of the chief software architects of two of the largest hospital information systems in the world, the VA’s Decentralized Hospital Information Program (DHCP, now renamed VistA), and the Department of Defense’s Composite Health Care System (CHCS). I was a Computer Specialist with the VA from 1978-1986, one of the founders of the Hardhats and the Underground Railroad. I was later a Vice President and Chief Scientist at Science Applications International Corporation in La Jolla, Ca, which at the time was an employee-owned company, but went public in 2006. I was also involved with the early days of the World Wide Web consortium and was part of the corporate SAIC team that acquired Network Solutions and took it public. In my early career, I also worked as a systems analyst for the vote counting for Riverside (CA) County Elections Department.

I was active in the early days of microcomputers, freelance writing for Popular Mechanics and Byte magazines, as well as co-founding a short lived German computer magazine Elcomp. I wrote a book, Der Freundliche Computer, in German, and met Bill Gates just after he left Harvard, and Steve Jobs and Steve Wosniak the day the announced the Apple II in 1977.

Non-Profit/Volunteer Activities

About 2000, I began transitioning to an “encore career” (I didn’t “retire”) to look at ways of using technology to make the world a better place. I started a group called GivingSpace, which evolved to become the Uplift Academy, which has been supported by the Omidyar Network, The Philanthropic Enterprise, Donors Trust, the Compton Foundation, and others. During 2002-2003, I was a Fellow at Stanford’s Digital Vision Program, and since 2006 I have been a Sr. Fellow at Civic Ventures, which annually awards five $100,000 prizes to people over the age of 60 who have started new social ventures after the age of 50. I am also actively mentoring a number of younger people getting their start in the non-profit world.

I started the Cosmos Research Center, a children’s science center, the Galactic Headquarters of which happens to be in my back yard. We have a telescope, a microscope, and have science parties for young people to give presentations about science.  I enjoy putting on my lab coat and stocking my Flyer Off Road Wagon with experiments to give science talks at schools.

I support the San Diego Science Festival (I produced the video on the front page) and am a judge for the MIT IDEAS Competition.

Hobby Activities

I enjoy photography, film making, composing electronic music, and dabble with classical guitar and my Djembe in drum circles. I am represented by Getty Images for the commercial use of my images, but for non-profit use I release my work through a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. I also do Panoramic imaging and post to YouTube. My information is scattered all over the web, so here is a Google Search to find it.

Although I’ve lived in southern California most of my life, I’ve traveled to 70+ countries, and lived in London, Ontario for a year as a 7-year old, and Goettingen, Germany as a 15 year old. I enjoy sailing, and, in my college days, soaring (fixed wing gliders, not hang-gliders). I’ve also taken up scuba diving, amateur radio (KC6ZRW), composting, vermiculture (worm composting), bird watching/photography, and nature photography.

Business Activities

My first career was focused on the intersection of medical informatics, database technology, organizational change, and the Internet. I am still active in business activities,  I was one of the A-series investors of RealAge, recently acquired by Hearst Communications. In 1999, I was one of the first to write about the Personal Health Record. I co-authored the opening chapter to Person-Centered Health Records: Towards Health ePeople with Dr. Robert Kolodner, now head of the HHS National Health Information Network Initiative. I am interested in working with startups in the Personal Health Record space. Here is my interview as one of the Internet visionaries interviewed by the Pew Foundation.

Given all the interest in the National Health Information Network, the Stimulus bill, and the potential for making a huge difference (one way or the other), I’m probably going to get back into the health IT field.  As one of the architects of the two largest hospital information systems in the world, I’ve been around the block a few times, and figure I have a lot to contribute.

Philanthropic Activities

Cheryl and I categorically do not respond to requests for donations, and normally make anonymous donations to organizations we find outside of traditional fundraising requests. However, in the interest of drawing attention to organizations that we have vetted and decided to support, here are some of them are: Ilan Lael Foundation, Pacific Rim Parks Foundation (board member), San Elijo Lagoon Conservancy, Batiquitos Lagoon Conservancy, Escondido Creek Conservancy, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, Grassroot Soccer and Ashoka and Images and Voices of Hope.

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