A Geeks Campus

What is a "Geeks Campus?"

First and foremost it is a concept that expresses a community's commitment to the future of the digital era of apps, robotics, and content, and the jobs these fields offer for its residents.

Creating a Geeks Campus is creating the infrastructure and installing the programs required to support the committed community's evolution into that future.

The infrastructure is the high speed and broad bandwidth communication link provided by a Free Space Optics (FSO) Campus Area Network (CAN) connecting state of the art computers. This will provide the incentive of cutting edge technology to attract geeks from the many excellent colleges and universities in our area, which in turn will create the mentoring synergy for the area's underemployed youth to get involved with the program. This is not conjecture. We now have two interns from Essex County College working in the coding apps program currently underway who have given positive feedback to the program. (Note: Karen Sullivan—see list below—is conducting a coding workshop that has been well received, and Nadia Lvov—see list below—is providing the interns through a program she administers—a strong indication of the value of Geeks Campus concept.)

Let's be blunt. Without the cutting-edge tools—computers and communications—of the digital world and the knowledge-base to use them, a community will be left behind and its gifted youth will migrate. With these tools it can retain its talent and create the wealth necessary to thrive in today's world.

This will cost you time and energy and some money, but mostly time and energy.

First we will form a nonprofit corporation with a Board of Trustees made up of New Jersey residents using credible and local attorney and CPA firms. (Note: Luis Grados—see list below—has agreed to act as Chairman of the Board of Trustees during its organization. Hilding Lindquist—yours truly—will work with Luis to provide a selection of attorney and CPA firms for consideration by the potential future members of the Board of Trustees.)

Next we have a proven fundraising strategy to raise the approximately $25,000 necessary to mount the testbed FSO CAN. It's simple. We will create a donor brick walk or wall used by countless organizations and which spreads the cost into manageable individual amounts. Besides, the donations will go into a restricted account and not be used until the minimum goal is reached. If the minimum goal is not reached, the funds will be returned to their donors. The only extraneous costs covered by the purchase of a brick are for the brick itself and for it being added to the walk or wall. The work of building the walk or wall will be done by a New Jersey—preferably a local County—company.

The Geeks Campus concept has a strong group of supporters who believe in its basic mission of economic development for our area. As it matures it will also provide the infrastructure framework for an Earth Systems & Environmental Science Urban Laboratory. (See http://es2ul.org/) This follows from our commitment to sustainable development which we will discuss in the next post. (Note: Jeff Lee—see list below—has agreed to assume the role as Principal Investigator (PI) for pursuing funding in response to sustainable development Requests for Proposals (RFP).)

We will also be using the infrastructure of the Geeks Campus to form an entrepreneurial incubator, starting with fantasy sports gaming. (Note: Elle Barnett—see list below—is coordinating this sector.)

We have a strong group of experts who have indicated their support of this program. All we need now is for a group of approximately five to ten residents of a given Essex County Township or Municipality to step forward to help form the nonprofit Geeks Campus corporation for their community. If you are interested, please contact Hilding Lindquist—yours truly—at the email address provided at the end of this post.

A partial listing:

1. Elle Barnett, Community outreach coordinator, Managing director for coordinating for-profit enterprises
2. Professor Milan Begliarbekov, PhD, Technical Cleanroom Manager (CUNY ASRC), Adjunct Assistant Professor (John Jay College)
3. Ashley Diaz, Intern, Essex County College (through Professor Lvov)
4. Community activist, Plainfield, NJ, Community Activist [Note: I have not confirmed whether she wants to be listed by name. She is bcc'd on this email.]
5. Luis Grados, NJIT computer science graduate, and currently employed at a NYC software development company
6. Professor Jeff Lee, PhD, Biology Professor, Essex County College,
7. Hilding "Gus" Lindquist, Program advisor, Startup coordinator (pro bono)
8. Professor Nadia Lvov, Physics, Assistant Professor/ECC LSAMP Project Director, Division of Mathematics and Physics, Essex County College
9. Professor David Robinson PhD, NJ State Climatologist, Professor, Department of Geography at Rutger
10. Dr. Barnet Schmidt, PhD, SM, IEEE, Managing Partner, Kaplan/Schmidt Associates, LLC, Consulting Communication Engineers, West Orange, NJ
11. Professor Knut Stamnes, PhD, Director, Light and Life Laboratory, Department of Physics and Engineering Physics, Stevens Institute of Technology
12. Karen Sullivan, MA Math, Independent coding instructor
13. Josh Vega, Intern, Essex County College (through Professor Lvov)
14. Clarence Williams, III, Springfield Avenue business owner/operator, (where the ongoing intial testbed is set up)

-Hilding "Gus" Lindquist
hilding.lindquist@gmail.com