This project started out in 1988 as a distance learning application to the US Dept of Education for a $5 million competition. There were 56 entries and only 5 were funded. We came in 7th. All the funded projects were existing programs. After losing I organized the participants into a consortium for interactive TV called Public Telcom Systems. Each member put up $10,000 of a $50,000 commitment. They were the City of Denver, CU, Porter Hospital, Colorado Housing and Finance Authority, and Metro State. CHAFA decided to pull out after initial studies.

After the pull out, I funded the project myself and renamed it Denver Media Labs. I hired a computer genus named Dan Conklin and he built my design for a $50,000 model. We starting marketing it in 1992. But other interest had a stronger pull for my limited resources and I had to shelve the project for a while. Unfortunately the Internet came along and the rest is history. I often wonder what would have happened if I had raised that $500,000 three years ahead of the Internet in 1989. Interactive TV has never caught on but this system still works for almost any topic. Here are some examples of two digit key entries that can navigate easily thru menus. We had 15 industries on the home page that covered just about everything that could be sold. AOL is today the closest comparison.

Any topic can transact business the same way they do today. One of my favorites is the Retail illustration where your selection drops into the grocery basket and a database records the purchase and tells you the pricing. I spent almost a year once working on a Joint venture with a government sky satellite company wanting civilian applications. We worked up a detailed model for an International real estate database of property to be accessible worldwide thru low orbit satellites that transfer their data from one to the other quickly and in huge amounts. We thought this could lead to a real time bidding marketplace and in 1998 presented such a proposal for $1,000,000 to built it. The company's board of directors finally approved it and we were notified. The next day the president was playing tennis with his attorney who talked him out of it.