Longtime residents of Trenton’s Cadwalader Heights, Ray Ingram and his wife Kelly are very active in the community and philanthropists at heart. They support numerous efforts in the City both financially and especially collaboratively from TDI Connect (TDIConnect.org) and the Trenton Literacy Movement (TrentonLiteracyMovement.org) to I Am Trenton Community Foundation (IAmTrenton.org) and beyond.
With a background in computer science, Ray has been working in the information management and knowledge resource side of technology since 1974. Through his own first startup, The Productivity Works, Ray worked to make the web accessible to those differently abled and to interface voice command and voice output directly into web-based systems.
As the internet bubble of 2000 depleted the company’s venture capital, Ray ventured over to Mercer County Community College to head up a $4 million workforce development initiative between Mercer and Middlesex County Colleges focused on web development, networking and related programming. The program trained nearly 900 people over his four-year tenure and continued until it reached its funding limit.
Today, Ingram runs Dathil, a growing software and services company providing hosted solutions design and development including business process eLearning platforms, knowledge capture/encapsulation and delivery, digital records retention and hosted business process solutions.
“In Trenton we are located so strategically and so conveniently both from a marketplace and geographic perspective. I spent 15 years travelling internationally and nationally – and Trenton, with its easy access to the northeast corridor, Washington to Boston, along with multiple airports, is an ideal place both geographically and technologically to be based.”
In an effort to support and encourage synergies among the many good works happening in Trenton, Ray utilized Dathil’s commercial knowledge software and created an open knowledge base platform to house non-profit, community organizations and community projects based in the Trenton area. CollaborationTrenton.com, an instance of Dathil’s commercial platform, is donated and supported by the company as an active and ongoing community resource. It allows public users to input and update resources in the knowledge base, a little like Wikipedia – but specifically geared for the Trenton community.
Kelly, a decorative artist and past President of I Am Trenton Community Foundation, who provides significant input to the CollaborationTrenton.com knowledge base through her involvement with many community projects, people and groups around the City, has an immense soft spot for New Jersey’s endearing Capital City. “We love Trenton and we’re here for the long haul,” said Kelly. “We’re very realistic about what needs to happen here – but, looking at a glass half full, our goal is to collectively work on the areas that need improving to make that glass even fuller.”
The hope is to empower organizations and individuals with information about what others are doing so that they may establish partnerships and collaborations that will result in sustainable positive efforts across the city.