Jeff Gerhardt
Encyclopedia
Jeff Gerhardt is an American teacher
, inventor, and entrepreneur
. His work includes the development of a CAD system, one of the first PC
-based point-of-purchase systems, the Tandy
Color Computer, and the award-winning “KidCam” Internet Video Security System.
, studying marine biology
, and later changed to computer science
. While at ISU, Gerhardt joined the Sigma Phi Epsilon
fraternity.
From the mid-1970s to mid-1980s, he was employed in graphic arts
, but continued working on developing software. He focused on developing programs for Tandy computers, spending several years as part of the software-development community that grew up around the Tandy products.
Eventually, Gerhardt took a job with Tandy, customizing software for midwest business users and concentrating on Tandy's Radio Shack
Color Computer, known to its fans as the COCO. Originally designed as a cartridge-game system and 64K home computer, the COCO was a great success, having sold over six million units in its first few years. Gerhardt created a vast amount of software for the Color Computer, and, as consumer demand grew for peripherals, the COCO was used more as a computer and less as a game-player.
Early in 1983, Gerhardt started his own software-development company in Chicago, primarily for developing COCO applications. However, because he was acquainted with the Motorola
68 family of processors (the COCO used the 6809E), Gerhardt saw an opportunity to develop software on the low cost COCO that could then be ported for use on other 68-type CPUs.
By 1984 Gerhardt had focused this effort on developing portable code for CAD/CAM system, many of which used the Motorola 68000 CPUs. Gerhardt and his team joined with a group of developers working out of San Jose California with similar CAD/CAM interests working on the CASCADE project. This group, and the companies with whom they were affiliated, released a series of successful CAD technologies. However, in late 1985, with the release of the IBM PC-based “Auto CAD”, Gerhardt's group began to slowly lose market share; the group dispersed during 1986 and the code base was sold to Computervision
.
was assistant Sysop
at the Tandy COCO SIG (special interest group
) at Compuserve
. He never lost interest in this on-line business, and though he left Tandy, he stayed active in the SIGs that serviced the users of Tandy computers. After the CAD code base was sold, he redirected his company toward the BBS
and telecommunications markets.
BBSs, scaled-down versions of on-line services covering a very narrow niche, were the predecessors of the ISP community and the BBS magazine Boardwatch
is credited with motivating the development of ISPs. Gerhardt concurrently operated three successful BBSs from his home office in Bloomingdale
, Illinois
. The COCO-Nuts, BBS was Gerhardt's most ambitious and successful BBS.
Active in the early stages of the commercial
Internet era
, Gerhardt was involved with the creation or management of three different ISPs of recognition. He was on the board of WWA — WorldWide Access (now Verio
), one of the first ISPs in the U.S. While Director of Business Development at WWA, he spearheaded such innovations as 5ESS-VDS (Virtual Dial System), DSL deployment and KidCam.
Gerhardt was also executive vice-president and founder for Pinnacle Communications, one of the first pure DSL ISPs, up until 2000.
Gerhardt's original software development company having gone through a number of changes and name changes over the years, was closed in 2005 after 22 years due to a divorce.
as a bimonthly segment on ABC radio and TV affiliates in the USA. Gerhardt was also a frequent guest on “Ken Rutkowski
's Week Ender TechTalk Show”, also broadcast on WLS. He continued as a technical-information resource on such issues as UNIX
/Linux
, Y2K, Internet telephony
and video, and Broadband
applications, and followed Rutkowski when he moved his show from broadcast to webcast.
Late in 1997, Kevin Hill and Gerhardt decided to take the Linux
segments they had been doing for Rutkowski's show and create a stand-alone entity. The Linux Show was soon in testing as a daughter program of Rutkowski's TTalk webcast. By mid-1998, the show appeared regularly on Tuesday nights. Prompted by TechTalk's sponsorship affiliation with Microsoft
, he and Hill left the TTalk network in 1999 for greater autonomy.
world. Officially, TLS is presently on hiatus while developing an NPO
network from which to broadcast. However, there has been no news as to the current state of the shows revival since late 2005, except for a few promises made by Jeff that something would happen "soon" in 2006. Legal issues have delayed the return.
But there has been activity in late 2008 with the acquisition of new studio space by an NPO that is organizing the effort to have TLS return to broadcast.
This professional redirection toward teaching put Gerhardt into the world of Non-profit Organizations (NPO's). Gerhardt taught the Youth Community Technology Program (YCTP) with Rayshawn Nowlin, in Chicago, teaching inner-city youth about computer technology from 2004 through the end of 2006. The YCTP program was a project of the Community Education Department of the Chicago based Non Profit organization KACS.
Many of the people at KACS Community Education Department were very uncomfortable with the management change at KACS in mid 2006. In July 2006 a new executive director came into office and so a new policy on the methodology of grant management. This new policy was not well accepted by the staff and most of the programs moved.
Nowlin has since moved on and is trying to rebuild the YCTP program at the Albany Park Community Center in Chicago.
Gerhardt targeted his efforts on his own Focus On NASA set of programs and partnered with the Neighborhood Boys and Girls Clubs.
One Program Track was a program called Senior Seminars. This was a mentoring program at Devry University, that was a Capstone project where Seniors at Devry would participate in real world projects. Gerhardt felt that this program would benefit high school youth.
The other program track was called College Excel and was a series of programs where high school youth could earn college credits.or
Gerhardt and these programs were recognized in 2006 by the BP Education Foundation (formerly Leader Foundation) with one of the five LEADER Awards for 2006. The Focus On NASA programs have gone on to win support or funding from a number of organizations including: After School Matters, the Chicago Public School system, Motorola and the Motorola Foundation, Chicago Mayor Richard M Daley & the Village of Wonder Lake. Gerhardt has presently designed over 9 STEM programs from storm chasing to rocketry to the FIRST Robotics Competition
robotics team TEAM CHALLENGER.
The results of these programs speak for themselves.
The UGLC or Underground Gamers league of Chicago, is a youth drop-in center program that has given a group of youth in Chicago the opportunity to relate to like-minded "geek kids" in a safe space. The motto of "gaming superiority through mastery of technology" has taken a group of over 100 youth in Chicago and allowed them to reconnect to the education process in a way that makes sense in their life view.
The B2B or Birds to Bots space science program boasts 10 of its 16 2007 graduating seniors as having been accepted to major college engineering programs.
The Flagship program TEAM CHALLENGER, a robotics engineering program for high school age youth, qualified and competed for the International Championships of the US FIRST FIRST Robotics Competition
. In its first year of competition TEAM CHALLENGER won the Xerox Creative Engineering Award for the design and creation of their robot MOTOLOLA
, the Rookie All-star Award at the Midwest FRC Regional and was ranked 15th of over 2000 teams.
The team was given a special award by the City Council of Chicago and Mayor Daley for representing Chicago in such a stellar fashion during the 2006/2007 FRC season.
Gerhardt self labels as a geek and father, and considers his daughter as the best thing he has ever done.
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...
, inventor, and entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
. His work includes the development of a CAD system, one of the first PC
IBM PC compatible
IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Such computers used to be referred to as PC clones, or IBM clones since they almost exactly duplicated all the significant features of the PC architecture, facilitated by various manufacturers' ability to...
-based point-of-purchase systems, the Tandy
Tandy
Tandy is the title of a short story by Sherwood Anderson.Tandy is also a name which can refer to:-Tandy Corporation:* Tandy Corporation - a leather supply company which subsequently became the RadioShack Corporation...
Color Computer, and the award-winning “KidCam” Internet Video Security System.
Education & early career
Gerhardt attended Illinois State UniversityIllinois State University
Illinois State University , founded in 1857, is the oldest public university in Illinois; it is located in the town of Normal. ISU is considered a "national university" that grants a variety of doctoral degrees and strongly emphasizes research; it is also recognized as one of the top ten largest...
, studying marine biology
Marine biology
Marine biology is the scientific study of organisms in the ocean or other marine or brackish bodies of water. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies species based on the environment rather...
, and later changed to computer science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
. While at ISU, Gerhardt joined the Sigma Phi Epsilon
Sigma Phi Epsilon
Sigma Phi Epsilon , commonly nicknamed SigEp or SPE, is a social college fraternity for male college students in the United States. It was founded on November 1, 1901, at Richmond College , and its national headquarters remains in Richmond, Virginia. It was founded on three principles: Virtue,...
fraternity.
From the mid-1970s to mid-1980s, he was employed in graphic arts
Graphic arts
A type of fine art, graphic art covers a broad range of art forms. Graphic art is typically two-dimensional and includes calligraphy, photography, drawing, painting, printmaking, lithography, typography, serigraphy , and bindery. Graphic art also consists of drawn plans and layouts for interior...
, but continued working on developing software. He focused on developing programs for Tandy computers, spending several years as part of the software-development community that grew up around the Tandy products.
Eventually, Gerhardt took a job with Tandy, customizing software for midwest business users and concentrating on Tandy's Radio Shack
Radio shack
Radio shack is a slang term for a room or structure for housing radio equipment.-History:In the early days of radio, equipment was experimental and home-built. The first radio transmitters used a noisy spark to generate radio waves and were often housed in a garage or shed. When radio was first...
Color Computer, known to its fans as the COCO. Originally designed as a cartridge-game system and 64K home computer, the COCO was a great success, having sold over six million units in its first few years. Gerhardt created a vast amount of software for the Color Computer, and, as consumer demand grew for peripherals, the COCO was used more as a computer and less as a game-player.
Early in 1983, Gerhardt started his own software-development company in Chicago, primarily for developing COCO applications. However, because he was acquainted with the Motorola
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...
68 family of processors (the COCO used the 6809E), Gerhardt saw an opportunity to develop software on the low cost COCO that could then be ported for use on other 68-type CPUs.
By 1984 Gerhardt had focused this effort on developing portable code for CAD/CAM system, many of which used the Motorola 68000 CPUs. Gerhardt and his team joined with a group of developers working out of San Jose California with similar CAD/CAM interests working on the CASCADE project. This group, and the companies with whom they were affiliated, released a series of successful CAD technologies. However, in late 1985, with the release of the IBM PC-based “Auto CAD”, Gerhardt's group began to slowly lose market share; the group dispersed during 1986 and the code base was sold to Computervision
Computervision
Computervision, Inc. was an early pioneer in turnkey Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing . Computervision was founded in 1969 by Marty Allen and Philippe Villers, and headquartered in Bedford, Massachusetts, USA. Its early products were built on a Data General Nova platform...
.
BBSs & ISPs
One of Gerhardt's jobs at TandyTandy
Tandy is the title of a short story by Sherwood Anderson.Tandy is also a name which can refer to:-Tandy Corporation:* Tandy Corporation - a leather supply company which subsequently became the RadioShack Corporation...
was assistant Sysop
SysOp
A sysop is an administrator of a multi-user computer system, such as a bulletin board system or an online service virtual community. It may also be used to refer to administrators of other Internet-based network services....
at the Tandy COCO SIG (special interest group
Special Interest Group
A Special Interest Group is a community with an interest in advancing a specific area of knowledge, learning or technology where members cooperate to effect or to produce solutions within their particular field, and may communicate, meet, and organize conferences...
) at Compuserve
CompuServe
CompuServe was the first major commercial online service in the United States. It dominated the field during the 1980s and remained a major player through the mid-1990s, when it was sidelined by the rise of services such as AOL with monthly subscriptions rather than hourly rates...
. He never lost interest in this on-line business, and though he left Tandy, he stayed active in the SIGs that serviced the users of Tandy computers. After the CAD code base was sold, he redirected his company toward the BBS
Bulletin board system
A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and log in to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, a user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging...
and telecommunications markets.
BBSs, scaled-down versions of on-line services covering a very narrow niche, were the predecessors of the ISP community and the BBS magazine Boardwatch
Boardwatch
Boardwatch, published and edited by Jack Rickard, began as an important publication for the online Bulletin Board Systems of the 1980s and 1990s and ultimately evolved into the primary trade magazine of the ISP industry in the late 1990s. Late in the magazine's run, it was renamed to ISPWatch when...
is credited with motivating the development of ISPs. Gerhardt concurrently operated three successful BBSs from his home office in Bloomingdale
Bloomingdale, Illinois
Bloomingdale is a village in DuPage County, Illinois, United States, approximately 25 miles west of Chicago. The population was 21,675 at the 2000 census.-History:...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. The COCO-Nuts, BBS was Gerhardt's most ambitious and successful BBS.
Active in the early stages of the commercial
Commerce
While business refers to the value-creating activities of an organization for profit, commerce means the whole system of an economy that constitutes an environment for business. The system includes legal, economic, political, social, cultural, and technological systems that are in operation in any...
Internet era
Information Age
The Information Age, also commonly known as the Computer Age or Digital Age, is an idea that the current age will be characterized by the ability of individuals to transfer information freely, and to have instant access to knowledge that would have been difficult or impossible to find previously...
, Gerhardt was involved with the creation or management of three different ISPs of recognition. He was on the board of WWA — WorldWide Access (now Verio
Verio
Verio is a global web hosting provider headquartered in the United States. Incorporated in 1996 in Denver, Colorado, it is currently a wholly owned subsidiary of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Communications, who acquired the company in 2000...
), one of the first ISPs in the U.S. While Director of Business Development at WWA, he spearheaded such innovations as 5ESS-VDS (Virtual Dial System), DSL deployment and KidCam.
Gerhardt was also executive vice-president and founder for Pinnacle Communications, one of the first pure DSL ISPs, up until 2000.
Gerhardt's original software development company having gone through a number of changes and name changes over the years, was closed in 2005 after 22 years due to a divorce.
Broadcasting
In the early and mid-1990s, Gerhardt was a regular guest on the Al and/or Ed Show (featuring Alan Lerner and Ed Curran) on WLS radio – “The Big 89” – in Chicago. Taking part in a weekly technology segment, he talked about anything from gadgets to trends. Later he worked with Ed Curran as a producer and on a web site called “technogadgets” which was syndicatedTelevision syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
as a bimonthly segment on ABC radio and TV affiliates in the USA. Gerhardt was also a frequent guest on “Ken Rutkowski
Ken Rutkowski
Ken Rutkowski is the Founder, President and Host of KenRadio Broadcasting which is syndicated on CBS Radio, the Founder of the Media, Entertainment and Technology Alliance known as METal and he is also the Local Partner of Founder Institute Chapter Los Angeles.- Career :In March 1990, Rutkowski...
's Week Ender TechTalk Show”, also broadcast on WLS. He continued as a technical-information resource on such issues as UNIX
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
/Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
, Y2K, Internet telephony
Voice over IP
Voice over Internet Protocol is a family of technologies, methodologies, communication protocols, and transmission techniques for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol networks, such as the Internet...
and video, and Broadband
Broadband
The term broadband refers to a telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device . Different criteria for "broad" have been applied in different contexts and at different times...
applications, and followed Rutkowski when he moved his show from broadcast to webcast.
Late in 1997, Kevin Hill and Gerhardt decided to take the Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
segments they had been doing for Rutkowski's show and create a stand-alone entity. The Linux Show was soon in testing as a daughter program of Rutkowski's TTalk webcast. By mid-1998, the show appeared regularly on Tuesday nights. Prompted by TechTalk's sponsorship affiliation with Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
, he and Hill left the TTalk network in 1999 for greater autonomy.
The Linux Show
Gerhardt was first exposed to Linux on Intel in 1995 as an alternative to Solaris for web hosting technology in the ISP industry. As a user and proponent of Linux ever since, Gerhardt has become an advocate for the world-wide Linux community. As an outlet for that advocacy Gerhardt, along with his partner Kevin Hill, created The Linux Show, an internet based radio talk show. The Linux Show, known as TLS to its listeners, attracted large audiences to the web-cast targeted primarily at hard-core users and employees of Linux companies. TLS was a long-running and successful web-cast in the Linux and Open SourceOpen source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
world. Officially, TLS is presently on hiatus while developing an NPO
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
network from which to broadcast. However, there has been no news as to the current state of the shows revival since late 2005, except for a few promises made by Jeff that something would happen "soon" in 2006. Legal issues have delayed the return.
But there has been activity in late 2008 with the acquisition of new studio space by an NPO that is organizing the effort to have TLS return to broadcast.
Giving Back
Gerhardt became involved with teaching in the early 90's as a way of giving back to the community. He spent a number of years volunteering as a teacher and eventually began to teach professionally. By the mid 90's he was teaching at colleges and junior colleges in the Chicago area. Gerhardt's longest teaching job was with Northwestern College, formerly known as Northwestern Business College. While there Gerhardt was nominated multiple times and was the recipient of the Teacher of the Term Award.This professional redirection toward teaching put Gerhardt into the world of Non-profit Organizations (NPO's). Gerhardt taught the Youth Community Technology Program (YCTP) with Rayshawn Nowlin, in Chicago, teaching inner-city youth about computer technology from 2004 through the end of 2006. The YCTP program was a project of the Community Education Department of the Chicago based Non Profit organization KACS.
Many of the people at KACS Community Education Department were very uncomfortable with the management change at KACS in mid 2006. In July 2006 a new executive director came into office and so a new policy on the methodology of grant management. This new policy was not well accepted by the staff and most of the programs moved.
Nowlin has since moved on and is trying to rebuild the YCTP program at the Albany Park Community Center in Chicago.
Gerhardt targeted his efforts on his own Focus On NASA set of programs and partnered with the Neighborhood Boys and Girls Clubs.
Program Development Activities
Gerhardt began developing a series of STEM programs (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) in 2003 called Focus On NASA,(or FON). These programs had at their root several youth programs that Gerhardt was involved with as partnerships with the Chicago Public School System. The FON programs are an out-growth of those two Program Tracks in which Gerhardt had been involved.One Program Track was a program called Senior Seminars. This was a mentoring program at Devry University, that was a Capstone project where Seniors at Devry would participate in real world projects. Gerhardt felt that this program would benefit high school youth.
The other program track was called College Excel and was a series of programs where high school youth could earn college credits.or
Gerhardt and these programs were recognized in 2006 by the BP Education Foundation (formerly Leader Foundation) with one of the five LEADER Awards for 2006. The Focus On NASA programs have gone on to win support or funding from a number of organizations including: After School Matters, the Chicago Public School system, Motorola and the Motorola Foundation, Chicago Mayor Richard M Daley & the Village of Wonder Lake. Gerhardt has presently designed over 9 STEM programs from storm chasing to rocketry to the FIRST Robotics Competition
FIRST Robotics Competition
The FIRST Robotics Competition is an international high school robotics competition organized by FIRST. Each year, teams of high school students compete to build robots weighing up to , not including battery and bumpers, that can complete a task, which changes every year...
robotics team TEAM CHALLENGER.
The results of these programs speak for themselves.
The UGLC or Underground Gamers league of Chicago, is a youth drop-in center program that has given a group of youth in Chicago the opportunity to relate to like-minded "geek kids" in a safe space. The motto of "gaming superiority through mastery of technology" has taken a group of over 100 youth in Chicago and allowed them to reconnect to the education process in a way that makes sense in their life view.
The B2B or Birds to Bots space science program boasts 10 of its 16 2007 graduating seniors as having been accepted to major college engineering programs.
The Flagship program TEAM CHALLENGER, a robotics engineering program for high school age youth, qualified and competed for the International Championships of the US FIRST FIRST Robotics Competition
FIRST Robotics Competition
The FIRST Robotics Competition is an international high school robotics competition organized by FIRST. Each year, teams of high school students compete to build robots weighing up to , not including battery and bumpers, that can complete a task, which changes every year...
. In its first year of competition TEAM CHALLENGER won the Xerox Creative Engineering Award for the design and creation of their robot MOTOLOLA
, the Rookie All-star Award at the Midwest FRC Regional and was ranked 15th of over 2000 teams.
The team was given a special award by the City Council of Chicago and Mayor Daley for representing Chicago in such a stellar fashion during the 2006/2007 FRC season.
2007-2008
Gerhardt is still a regular speaker at Internet or Linux-related conferences. Gerhardt was on the board of CTCNet Chicago until June 2007. Gerhardt is a regular contributor to the brain trust's that advise Illinois Governor Pat Quinn on technology education and broadband deployment issues.Gerhardt self labels as a geek and father, and considers his daughter as the best thing he has ever done.