Jon Eliot Ramer (born 1958) is an American entrepreneur, civic leader, inventor, and musician. He is co-founder of several technology companies including Ramer and Associates,
ELF Technologies, Inc.,(whose main solution, Serengeti, was purchased by
Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters Corporation ( ) is a Canadian multinational media conglomerate. The company was founded in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where it is headquartered at the Bay Adelaide Centre.
Thomson Reuters was created by the Thomson Corpora ...
)
and Smart Channels.
[Thriving Beyond Sustainability: Pathways to a Resilient Society by Andrés R. Edwards, New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, BC, 2010, p.58] The designer and co-founder of several Deep Social Networks,
he is the former Executive Director of the Interra Project,
and a co-founder of Ideal Network,
a group-buying social enterprise that donates a percentage of every purchase to a non-profit or school. Ideal Network is a certified B-Corp that was recognized as "Best in the World for Community" in 2012 by B-Labs.
He is also the designer and co-founder of Compassionate Action Network International,
a 501(c)(3) organization based in
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
, that led the effort to make the city the first in the world to affirm
Karen Armstrong
Karen Armstrong (born 14 November 1944) is a British author and commentator of Irish Catholic descent known for her books on comparative religion. A former Roman Catholic religious sister, she went from a conservative to a more liberal and m ...
's
Charter for Compassion ''Charter for Compassion'' is a document that urges the peoples and religions of the world to embrace the core value of compassion. The charter currently is available in more than 30 languages and has been endorsed by more than two million individu ...
. Most recently, Ramer conceived of and produced the "Compassion Games: Survival of the Kindest" in response to a challenge from the mayor of
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...
to other cities to outdo Louisville's compassionate action as measured by hours of community service. Ramer also serves as Director and Chief Technology Officer at Four Worlds International Institute, with a focus on the Campaign To Protect the Sacred.
[Archived copy](_blank)
The campaign birthed the International Treaty to Protect the Sacred from Tar Sands Projects, signed by over fifty different tribes throughout North America. Ramer is also the songwriter and lead guitarist in the band Once And For All.
Biography
Ramer was born in
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
,
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
and raised in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
,
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
. As a young man Ramer attended both the
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most el ...
and the
Manhattan School of Music
The Manhattan School of Music (MSM) is a private music conservatory in New York City. The school offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition, as well as a bachelor's in mu ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, where he founded Blue Pearl Music.
Ramer enjoyed a successful career as a musician and performer until in 1982 a chance meeting with Chilean statesman and businessman
Fernando Flores
Carlos Fernando Flores Labra (born January 9, 1943) is a Chilean engineer, entrepreneur and politician. He is a former cabinet minister of president Salvador Allende and was senator for the Arica and Parinacota and Tarapacá regions between 200 ...
led him to develop interests in technology, networks, and communications. Ramer subsequently co-founded Ramer and Associates, Inc. and partnered with Action Technologies Inc. to design and distribute a groupware software program called The Coordinator,
one of the first email system and wide area networking platform for personal computers. Ramer and Associates Inc. was subsequently acquired by Flores' Business Design Associates.
After the events of
September 11, 2001
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...
, Ramer entered into the world of non-profits and community organizing. Seeking to apply what he had learned in business to effect social change via communication technologies and community engagement, Ramer co-founded the Unity Project Seattle
[Wiser Earth](_blank)
—an organization dedicated to interfaith dialogue and action—often using his music to create bridges between different religious traditions. Ramer met Greg Steltenpohl, founder of
Odwalla
Odwalla Inc. () was an American food product company selling fruit juices, smoothies and food bars founded in Santa Cruz, California in 1980 and from 1995–2020 was headquartered in Half Moon Bay, California. Odwalla's products included juices, ...
and together with
Dee Hock
Dee Ward Hock (March 21, 1929 – July 16, 2022) was the founder and CEO of the Visa credit card association.
Career
Hock was born in North Ogden, Utah, in 1929 and attended Weber State University where he graduated in 1949. In 1968, Hock was ...
, founder of Visa, they started the Interra Project,
a social enterprise that sought to fund non-profits via purchases made by consumers from local merchants. In 2008, Ramer’s work with the interfaith community led him to be an organizational participant in Seeds of Compassion,
an event in Seattle coordinated around the
H.H. Dalai Lama’s visit. Following Seeds of Compassion, Ramer co-founded the Compassionate Action Network and in his initial role as Executive Director conceived and launched the Ten Year Campaign for Compassionate Cities, which has now spread to over two hundred and fifty cities worldwide.
In 2010 Ramer co-founded Ideal Network, a B-Corporation whose business model included donations to non-profits with every consumer purchase. In response to a slew of gun violence in the city of Seattle in summer of 2012, Ramer conceived of and produced the "Compassion Games: Survival of the Kindest" to encourage a culture of kindness, social justice, and compassion.
Companies and Organizations founded
* Ramer and Associates, Inc.
* ELF Technologies (ELF)
* Smart Channels
* The Interra Project
* Compassionate Action Network International
* Compassionate Seattle
* Compassion Games International
* Ideal Network
Two of these companies, ELF and Smart Channels, were based on
patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...
s Ramer filed.
Network design
Ramer has designed several online networks with sustainability, education, compassion or human rights as a focus:
* Young Partners in Development
[Child Rights in Practice](_blank)
* Wiser Earth
[WiserEarth]
/ref> the World Index of Social and Environmental Responsibility (WISER). WiserEarth is a project of the Natural Capital Institute.
* Four Worlds International Institute.
* The Change Makers Network for the Roots of Change (ROC) that promotes a sustainable food system
A sustainable food system is a type of food system that provides healthy food to people and creates sustainable environmental, economic and social systems that surround food. Sustainable food systems start with the development of sustainable agr ...
in California by 2030.
* The Community Learning Exchange is a network administered by the Center for Ethical Leadership and funded by the Kellogg Foundation
Awards and appointments
* Voted "Best in the World for Community" in 2012 by B-Labs.
* Bill Grace Legacy Award from the Center for Ethical Leadership
* Associate of the International Institute for Child Rights and Development at the International Institute of Child rights and Development, University of Victoria, B.C.
Publications
* Co-Author: “Weaving Our Strategies Together – Turning What We Have into What We Need”
* Co-Author: “Member Centric Networks of Community Alliances” published by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC)
* Contributor to: “Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace”.
* Co-Author with Chief Phil Lane Jr.: “Deep Social Networks and the Digital Fourth Way”
* Co-Author with Chief Phil Lane Jr.: "Utilizing the Digital 4th Way As A Platform for Building A People Centered ASEAN"
* Interview in Forbes and Financial Post: "Leading the Charge to a More Compassionate Future"
* Interview in The Seattle Times: "Seattle Takes Up 'Who's the Kindest?' Dare from Louisville"
* Interview in the Huffington Post: "A Timely Interview With Jon Ramer About Creating Collective Compassion (Part 1)"
Patents
ELF Technologies: “Interaction Network System with Electronic Organizational Actors”
Smart Channels : “Dynamic configuration of context- sensitive personal sites and membership channels”
Coined phrases
In his most recent work with Phil Lane Jr., Ramer coined the phrase “Deep Social Networks” which refers to online networks that “produce meaningful results and build deeper relationships that learn and grow in ways that sustain and enhance human life for all inhabitants of mother Earth.”
"Regenerative Commerce"["2007-2017 Map of Future Forces Affecting Sustainability" by Institute for the Future]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ramer, Jon
1958 births
Juilliard School alumni
Manhattan School of Music alumni
Living people
Musicians from Miami