About Joshua Fouts

Joshua Fouts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joshua S. Fouts is Executive Director of Science House Foundation, a 501(c)3 not-for-profit dedicated to igniting the imagination and bringing the excitement of science to students around the world. Fouts is a writer, journalist, gamer and technologist. He has worked at the forefront of exploring and chronicling the evolving use of emergent technology for journalism, government, academia and the private sector. He is a senior fellow for Digital Media and Public Policy at the Center for the Study of the Presidency & Congress, a Next Generation Fellow at The American Assembly, and Executive Producer at Dancing Ink Productions.

Since 2007 he has been collaborating with Rita J. King the founder of Dancing Ink Productions on a groundbreaking series of projects that explore the development of a new global culture and economy. Their 2011 project, “IMAGINATION: Creating the Future of Education & Work,” explored the intersection between K-12 science education, technology evolution and 21st Century workforce preparedness.

Fouts has an extensive career on the cutting-edge of journalism, online media, games, culture and foreign policy and a history exploring the impact of new technology tools for media years before they are adopted mainstream. He began his career at the Voice of America at the US State Department in 1992 where he was part of the team that developed what became voanews.com. In 1993 he was part of the team that streamed VOA audio in 52 languages using what became REAL Audio, then in 1994 installing video cameras in radio booths years before Talk Radio adopted it.

In 1998 he launched and was editor of OJR, The Online Journalism Review, the first online-only journalism review chronicling how the Internet was changing the face of journalism before the journalism industry took serious notice. During his tenure, he grew OJR into an internationally recognized suite of publications, including the first “blog” (before the term was coined) covering the development of online journalism worldwide.

In 2003 he launched and directed the first foreign policy think-tank dedicated to exploring public diplomacy, growing it into a worldwide resource center for ideas and innovation. In 2005 he was the first person to propose and direct a project illuminating how virtual worlds could be used for cultural relations. He went on to embark on a groundbreaking journey with Rita J. King to explore the value of virtual worlds, which culminated in their 2009 report published by the Carnegie Council “Digital Diplomacy: “Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds,” and , “Virtual Journalism: The Virtual Newsroom at the American University in Cairo,”

His work has been featured in or on BoingBoing, The BBC, El Pais, La Repubblica, The Guardian, Press TV, The New York Times, UgoTrade, The Russian Journal, New World Notes, the Washington Post, Wired and NPR.

He speaks Brazilian Portuguese.

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