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DrRon Suarez

A video history: 2007 | 2008 | 2011 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2019 | 2021 | 2023

2007 DrRon speaking before Congress: “Cities for Peace”

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2007 – Ron Suarez speaking before Congress: “Cities for Peace”
Ron Suarez, Ann Arbor City Councilman, was one of many City Council members and mayors who flew to DC from all over the US to speak before congress. “Cities for Peace” was organized by Karen Dolan, Director, Cities for Progress/Cities for Peace, Fellow, Institute for Policy Studies, 1112 16th St NW, Suite 600 Washington, DC 20036 | www.citiesforprogress.org | www.ips-dc.org

2008 DrRon speaking at Winter Music Conference, Miami

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WMC, Miami, March 27, 2008 – Dr. Ron Suarez was recorded at this music business conference after LoudFeed had created digital asset management tools for music that included metadata for stores like Amazon and iTunes. The goal was to create a new middle class of musicians, free them from Labels and help them to employ digital strategies to monetize their brand. In August, 2008 Tunecore (with $7M from Guitar Center) approached me with a proposal to either buy my company or purchase a minority interest in order to acquire software we had developed. Then in September 2008 you might remember what happened with Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers. The world economy crashed. Tunecore got taken over by a private equity firm previously run by Mitt Romney. My deal went south and by June 2009 I was back in my hometown of New York City. By September 2011 my wife and I became developers number one and two for the Occupy Wall Street website.

2011 DrRon was developer #1 for Occupy web site (BuddyPress)

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2011 registered 9,000 people in 100 working groups for Occupy Wall Street using WordPress and BuddyPress. This video was taken at a NYC WordPress meetup.

The beginning of cord cutter efforts

2013 Building antennas to turn teens into cable cord cutters

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We taught a class in how to build an HDTV OTA antenna with recycled coat hangers, scrap wood and $3 in electrical parts. Watch the interns at the Red Hook Initiative in Brooklyn. These are the same kids who the New America Foundation is teaching how to maintain a mesh network, that got used very effectively to support communications when the power went out in Red Hook during Hurricane Sandy. Plus, the software we built for Occupy, the year before, helped connect recovery efforts, in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. The Open Technology Institute (OTI) is the technology program of the New America Foundation.

2014

2014-15 built leadernet.org social network with online courseware, and community engagement with BuddyPress to train global healthcare leaders fighting HIV, TB, Malaria and Ebola in Africa and Asia

2015

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How the Internet of Things can help us create Climate Solutions. – Presented at the DCIA CES IoT webcast (Distributed Computing Industry Association at the International Consumer Electronics Show 2015).

2016

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This is a screen recording of how we used BuddyPress and WordPress tools in 2016 for event planning to promote participation in democracy.
assorted-color social media signage
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My wife, Margarete Koenen, made a dozen of these “your face here” Bernie selfie signs. We’ve used them during tabling, at rallies and more. People often lined up to take selfies, which they would then post online, spreading the message to show up and vote in the New York Presidential Primary on April 19, 2016.
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Bernie Sanders congratulating my wedding to Margarete.

2019

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2019 one year after my spinal cord injury, April 18, 2018

2021

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New business models during the pandemic interview:
Phyllis Engelbert, the owner of the Detroit Street filling Station restaurant has shown amazing creativity in adapting her business model, so that not only has she been able to survive, but she is contributing to others in need during the pandemic.

2023

Just before our beta was released this zoom call was recorded. We create and curate Creative Commons educational materials to end the Digital Divide by teaching community members to build and own local Broadband Internet infrastructure. Our Platform Cooperative offers democratic systemic change for workforce development.

A video history: 2007 | 2008 | 2011 | 2012 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2019 | 2021 | 2023