proA client, Warner Communications, for whom I did the research to create MTV, also had me working with their cable TV firm in Ohio, and when they purchased video game and PC manufacturer Atari, we researched possible ways of using PCs with cable TV services in the future.

That inspired me to create the landmark 1984 research project, “The National Electronic Home Services Test”,  which gathered information from 16,000 people in 16 cities who watched my half-hour TV show I created that demonstrated what life could be like if someday the Internet existed, enabling instant news, online banking, email, home shopping, etc. This research was funded by over 50 computer firms, phone companies, banks, newspapers, broadcasters, and retailers. The research showed tremendous consumer interest and willingness to pay monthly fees. I was a speaker at many national conventions, and specifically recall speaker at the National Retailers Association Convention being booed by the crowd when I told them that the research indicated most folks wanted to order things online at home and have them delivered to their homes.

In 1985, two purchasers of that research, AT&T and Knight-Ridder, launched Viewtron, the first interactive “internet like” service in America in Miami, Florida, and hired me as their marketing consultant.

In 1985 another research  purchaser launched Quantum Computer Services which was renamed  in 1991 as America Online. In 1988, three other research purchasers, IBM, CBS, and Sears, created their Prodigy service, and offered me to head marketing for this firm, but I had recently taken another job.

Prodigy decided to launch their test trial of 100 users in Atlanta where I lived, so my family was included. My young sons were adept at telling Prodigy how to refine their software, and so we were thereafter photographed for the front-page of the IBM Annual Report as the “Prodigy Family” and invited to New York  to talk to reporters at the press launch. It was funny watching my kids trying to explain what email was to the reporters, and how we were ordering groceries online and having them delivered to our home.

At that time I was corporate Vice President of Marketing for one of the top 5 media companies. My job involved creating a multi-media show shown to Wall Street investors about the future of media, and it included the ideas of launching a nationwide newspaper, USA Today, and nationwide internet services. When the company started consolidating headquarters in Washington D.C., my family decided to remain in our home in Atlanta so I went back into individual consulting with media firms.

In the 1990s, I became a city councilman, and my political involvement evolved into becoming a marketing consultant creating voter research and TV ads for candidates for the U.S. Senate and Congress, and state governors, senators and representatives. To aid my research, my son and I  created the first statewide database of voters, which at the time were kept individually by 154 counties, and discovered many dead people were voting, so I created a TV ad for a candidate who ran on the platform to require voters to show ID. I have experienced first-hand the corruption that can occur with elected officials due to fund-raising from special interests.

In 1993 when the first web browser was released, I began creating websites and became a web developer. I’ve created hundreds of projects, but I’m planning to retire soon so it’s up to the government to create USApp.

I owe so much to my dad, who was an inventor, who taught me to think about what could and should be.

Gone are the days when journalists presented the news in a fair and balanced way, so Americans saw opposing points of view to decide for themselves what was right and wrong.  When our founders created America they wanted Freedom Of The Press to keep Americans informed of the truth but today the press is providing fake news. The internet is flooded with misleading social media reporting, some of which may be coming from overseas countries who wish to disrupt harmony among our citizens. It’s time for USApp to allow politicians and voters to speak  directly with each other.