Ragy Thomas

Tech:NYC is an engaged network of tech leaders working to foster a dynamic, diverse, and creative New York. We bring together New Yorkers to support a successful technology ecosystem, attract and retain top-tier talent, and celebrate New York and the companies that call it home. Tech:NYC mobilizes the expertise and resources of the tech sector to work with city and state government on policies that ensure New York’s innovation economy thrives.

From 2008–2011, the original Playpower team (directed by Derek Lomas, Daniel Rehn, Jeremy Douglass, and Don Miller) was focused on creating free educational computer software for low income families in India and other developing countries. The games were designed to run on 8-bit systems, using a processor that is in the public domain, which allows the games to be run on very low cost computers. This work earned and was supported by a MacArthur Digital Media and Learning Grant ($180,000) from 2009–2010. Playpower now lives on as Playpower Labs, a Carnegie Mellon educational research initiative, is developing an online platform of web and mobile applications for students in grades K-8. Our tools are built on the principle that students who develop strong foundations in math and literacy will be prepared for a lifetime of learning.

UnifyApps is the Horizontal AI Operating System — the Fourth Platform. It does the 80% of Enterprise AI that has nothing to do with the model: unifying knowledge, governance, and actionability across every system into one Enterprise Brain (an enterprise context graph), then letting teams assemble reusable workflows, agents, and apps — human + AI — on top. Open and model-agnostic, additive to the existing stack with 950+ connectors, UnifyApps takes enterprises from pilot to production up to 10x faster, 10x cheaper, and 10x easier to maintain — without rip-and-replace or lock-in to any model, vendor, or roadmap.

Tech:NYC is an engaged network of tech leaders working to foster a dynamic, diverse, and creative New York. We bring together New Yorkers to support a successful technology ecosystem, attract and retain top-tier talent, and celebrate New York and the companies that call it home. Tech:NYC mobilizes the expertise and resources of the tech sector to work with city and state government on policies that ensure New York’s innovation economy thrives.

We want to empower everyone to teach better and learn better, with the technology that educate and upscale their lives.

From 2008–2011, the original Playpower team (directed by Derek Lomas, Daniel Rehn, Jeremy Douglass, and Don Miller) was focused on creating free educational computer software for low income families in India and other developing countries. The games were designed to run on 8-bit systems, using a processor that is in the public domain, which allows the games to be run on very low cost computers. This work earned and was supported by a MacArthur Digital Media and Learning Grant ($180,000) from 2009–2010. Playpower now lives on as Playpower Labs, a Carnegie Mellon educational research initiative, is developing an online platform of web and mobile applications for students in grades K-8. Our tools are built on the principle that students who develop strong foundations in math and literacy will be prepared for a lifetime of learning.