Joe Firmage
Joe Firmage is the CEO and founder of ManyOne Networks, and founder of the Digital Universe Foundation.
Professional History
A visionary at the cusp of 21st century science and technology and responsible for companies that were pioneers in both object oriented programming tools and the commercial adoption of the World Wide Web, Joseph brings a lifetime of passion for science and more than a decade of business experience to his leadership of ManyOne Networks.
Beginning his professional career in 1989, Joseph was Founder and CEO of Serius Corporation, an early pioneer of object-oriented visual programming tools for personal computers. Serius was acquired by Novell in 1993 in a transaction valued at $20 million.
From 1993 through 1995, Joseph was Vice President of strategy for Novell’s Network Systems Group. He was responsible for helping to plan the convergence of the company’s NetWare network services and UNIX operating systems, and left Novell in 1995 to co-found USWeb following Novell’s decision to sell its interests in the UNIX operating system.
From 1995 through 1998, Joseph was Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO of USWeb Corporation, which, under his leadership, became the world’s largest Internet consulting firm, serving half of the Fortune 100, and a publicly traded company with thousands of employees in North America and Europe, with a market capitalization of $3 billion. Joseph received Silicon Valley's Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award from Ernst & Young in 1998. Deeply concerned about the health of economics, society’s over-investment in militarization and the suppression of important paths of scientific inquiry, Firmage left USWeb in late 1998 to focus his life on public education, physics, and other philanthropic priorities.
From 1998 through 2000, Joseph was Chairman of Intend Change, a venture construction firm that assembled a small number of significant information technology companies including Electron Economy and Invesmart, organizing $250 million in capital. Intend Change culminated in an alliance with Carl Sagan Productions for the formation of Cosmos Studios. Organized and funded through the efforts of Firmage, and co-founded and operating today under the leadership of Ann Druyan, Carl Sagan’s wife and creative partner, Cosmos Studios has since released the Millennium Edition of the historic 13-hour COSMOS television series on DVD. Cosmos Studios has also funded and filmed for release on cable networks in 2003 and 2004 expeditions discovering new species of dinosaurs in Egypt, and the launch of COSMOS ONE, the world’s first solar sail spacecraft, in partnership with the Planetary Society. During 2000, in partnership with the Carl Sagan Productions, Joseph commenced the research phase of the world’s first prototype of a 21st century “Encyclopedia Galactica”, an Internet-based visual navigation system for scientific knowledge, experience, and exploration, built upon a rich-media collaborative publishing system. This vision is now being realized through The ManyOne Network.
Mr. Firmage’s writings have appeared in Forbes ASAP, Business 2.0, and other magazines and journals, and he has been interviewed on television by BBC, CNN, CNBC, MSNBC and others.
Philanthropic Activities
Since 1999, Mr. Firmage has also been sponsoring advanced physics research from both theoretical and experimental perspectives with the intention of developing technologies for nonpolluting energy generation and breakthrough land, sea, air, and space transportation systems.
Mr. Firmage is a founding sponsor of the Carl Sagan Foundation, whose present mission is to transform the sterile environment of children’s hospitals into Cosmic Discovery Centers, where the healing facilities’ walls, walkways, ceilings, and rooms create an immersive experience of the wonders of the Universe.
Joseph is a member of the Board of Directors of Cosmos Studios. He is the founding sponsor of the Integral Institute, founded, organized and led by world-renowned evolutionary consciousness scholar Ken Wilber. He regularly sponsors conferences and discussions on issues of 21st century life, including economics, environmental action, science, spirituality, and future studies in general.