Summary

About

Overview

The nonpartisan 501c3 nonprofit, onAir Networks oversees the management of the public onAir hubs and networks. onAir Networks has an exclusive license to use the onAir software platform from onAir Tech corporation.

onAir Tech corporation, in addition to the development of its Knowledge and Information Sharing System (KISS) for onAir Networks, also supports groups and organizations seeking to have a custom onAir hub. Particular emphasis is on custom hubs that share many of their posts with one or more public onAir hubs.

Cyber Network leaders

The Cyber onAir network of hubs is coordinated by Connor Wadlin and his team of aircasters led by Simeon Omorodion and curators led by Zeinab Shariff. Connor, Simeon, and Zeinab oversee onAir members who can curate topical posts, add news items, moderate discussions in posts and in aircasts.

Cybersecurity @GMU

George Mason University faculty, students, alumni, and staff have been instrumental in developing the onAir software as well as our initial networks. The most significant initial contributor to this hub was Shuaib Ahmed, one of the first GMU cybersecurity masters students. In acknowledgement of Mason people and organizations and the presence of numerous alumni and students currently participating in the Cyber onAir network, we have given the CYSE department the first option to be the lead university on the Cyber Network Advisory Board.

Supporting Cyber onAir

Individuals and organizations can support a specific Cyber onAir hub in many ways including:

Donating to onAir Networks;
Sponsoring a post, category, or entire Hub;
Purchasing an Advocate membership where you will receive for yourself and/or for your organization a profile post;
Purchasing a custom onAir hub sharing your hub’s content with any onAir Cyber onAir hub

Select the Information icon in each hub’s site header to find out how to support a hub.

Videos

Short video overview of Cyber onAir top hub

onAir Platform

onAir is a dynamic, web-based platform for Knowledge & Information Sharing (KISS). The onAir platform supports the development of public and custom onAir HUB websites that display posts curated by onAir members. All onAir public hubs are overseen by our 501c3 nonprofit onAir Networks and the nonprofits and universities we work with on each hub.

The onAir platform supports the development of onAir hub websites and onAir hub networks that aggregate and display posts curated by onAir members.
All onAir hubs are hosted on the “onair.cc” domain .
OnAir hubs aggregate and promote the best, publicly available knowledge about a topic and its related news, events, resources, people, and organizations. OnAir hubs also provide a variety of tools for hub member engagement, including forums in each post and aircasts (livestreamed Zoom discussions).
OnAir posts, by default, are under the CC-NC (Creative Commons-Non Commercial) license and can be shared with any other onAir hub as well as automatically updated from the original post
OnAir Networks provides its hub organizers and managers with the support and guidance to make their hub the go-to place for their topic. OnAir hubs can be customized by their administrators. OnAir also provides whatever design, development, and content support that is required.
OnAir also develops and monitors the curation and moderation guidelines for the hubs as well as manages the finances for each state hub. OnAir will share sponsor and other revenues with its hub administration and curation partners.
Multiple onAir hubs on a similar topic can be organized as a Network of hubs.

Data Ownership

OnAir was founded by people and for people, so we built the platform from the ground up to give users agency over how their data is stored.

Our entire platform utilizes cryptographically-secure protocols to minimize data leaks and allow users to only share what they feel comfortable with sharing.

We stand by keeping our communities safe from paywalls, abusive algorithms, and intrusive ads to ensure people are free to communicate within the bounds of our guidelines uninterrupted.

onAir Posts

The onAir POST is the key element of the onAir platform. Posts can have content about a topic, person, or organization.  Posts are stored and displayed within a public or custom HUB, aggregating the best content on a topic. Public hubs are overseen by the nonprofit onAir Networks and other nonprofits.

Posts are organized in categories and sub-categories in a hub’s site header and can appear in multiple categories within a hub as well as shared with other hubs;
Posts can have, in addition to having text and images, all types of media such as YouTube videos, Google Docs, PDFs, and Wikipedia entries;
Posts can also have news items embedded within them such as videos, articles, livestreams, and press releases;
Every post author can also have a comment section for Q&A, feedback, and forum discussion.
Posts can be shared via social media and email.

onAir Hubs

OnAir hubs are portals that organize the most comprehensive and publicly available content on issues, projects, people, and organizations. OnAir hubs on any topic can be easily created, administered, and curated without any programming knowledge.

OnAir hubs have multiple ways of bringing together experts with each other, students, and the public to discuss best practices, new ideas, and innovative solutions.

Aircasts, which are professionally produced, livestreamed Zoom interviews, panels, town halls, and other discussion formats
Forums at the bottom of each post, topical, personal, or news, where members can have ongoing discussions, ask questions, make suggestions, tell stories, and add endorsements

Cyber onAir Network

Our first two networks were focused on Artificial Intelligence (top hub at ai.onair.cc) and Government and Politics (top hub at us.onair.cc) with 50 onAir state hubs. Our current focus is building out the Cyber onAir network of hubs.  The top Cyber hub is cyber.onair.cc. Sub-hubs can be found under the onAir logo. If you and your university and/or nonprofit would like to sponsor and/or coordinate a cyber hub, contact Connor Wadlin at connor.wadlin@onair.cc.

Content

Any web user, on a laptop, desktop computer or smartphone connected to the internet, can easily access content on any onAir Network hub for free.

All Hub content is under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license which permits content sharing and adaptation by nonprofit organizations as long as proper attribution is given to its author(s) and is used for non-commercial purposes. Content and moderation guidelines reinforce our commitment to fact-based, comprehensive content and civil and honest discourse.

Guidelines

We are dedicated to maintaining respectful, engaging, and informative conversations. With the help of the Cyber hub’s lead university and lead association, the hub advisory board is working on establishing a cohesive set of moderation guidelines. These will protect members of our online community from harassment, abuse, and keep the conversations centered around exchanging knowledge, life experience, and collaboration.

In addition, all public content is under under the Creative Commons Noncommercial license, which permits content sharing and adaptation as long as proper attribution is given to its author(s) and is used for noncommercial purposes.

Privacy Policy

Simply visiting an onAir Hub does not expose your identity publicly. When you submit your email addresses and name for any purpose, that data will only be used by onAir Networks. OnAir Networks will not sell your information. You also can, at any time, request that your information be removed from the onAir system. Such requests will be honored within one business day.

Hub Cooperation

The Cyber network of hubs are committed to cooperation with other organizations in the pursuit of providing the best online platform for discussing cybersecurity.

To this end, we collaborate with universities, nonprofit organizations, and anyone committed to advancing the field for everyone.

Currently, we are looking for a lead university as well as a lead association to support this network of hubs.

Cyber onAir Membership

Becoming an Cyber onAir member is simple and free.  All that is required is your first and last name, as well as your email address. By default, we do NOT display a member’s email when they make their account, it is primarily used to ensure you are a legitimate user and not a bot.

Becoming a Cyber onAir member will enable you to:

Curate posts and moderate post forums provided to you;
Be a producer, host, or panel member for an aircast;
Comment on posts in any onAir Hub;
Qualify to be a Cyber onAir chapter member
Intern within the Cyber onAir network of hubs
Participate in special, in person events.

Interning with Cyber onAir

Over the past four years with the help of George Mason University faculty, staff, and alumni, onAir Networks has been working with over 60 interns majoring in government, global affairs, communications, and information science.

We encourage student interns to integrate their internship with their intern courses for credit, class projects, capstone projects, and research work. Many of our interns have taken 6 credit internship or capstone courses.  Most work is done online and unpaid.  Some of our recent interns have continued working with onAir Networks in management positions.

OnAir interns who commit 5 hours a week or more will receive a free profile post where they can include their resume, projects, video interviews, and other information about their interests, skills, and experience helpful to gaining employment and networking opportunities.

Curating Posts

Curating a post and administering a hub is simple and intuitive, requiring no programming experience. Any onAir member, with guidance from hub administrators, can curate an existing post on a hub.

In addition, onAir members can also start and curate new posts, moderate forums, and produce aircasts, as long as they adhere to a hub’s curation guidelines. To author your own post, contact your hub’s administrator (see address in Hub’s footer).

If your university organization would like to curate a Hub in an onAir network, contact the network (see address in central network hub’s footer). Post curators will be provided with a free @onair.cc email address, if requested.

In Person Events

Cyber onAir plans on running in-person events, particularly with universities and nonprofits already on the platform. If your organization is interested in having an event with Cyber onAir, please reach out to us and we would be happy to participate.