Glenn R. Jones: cable pioneer envisions worldwide university. (Executive Edge).

IN THE 1970s, GLENN R. JONES STRUNG CABLE OVER A PICKET fence, through lilac bushes and into an abandoned mineshaft where he paid off a hermit with a bottle of whiskey for the easement.

He borrowed $400 against his white Volkswagen Beetle to purchase his first cable television system

He set up his office in the Silver Queen pub and restaurant in Georgetown bought a sleeping bag as his first piece of company equipment and would bed down in his Volkswagen.

Ultimately, he would build Jones Intercable Inc. one of the 10 biggest cable operators in the U.S. and the springboard for enterprises such as Jones Entertainment Group, Mind Extension University, Jones Media Networks, Jones Cyber Solutions, Jones Knowledge Inc. and his marquee Jones International University.

"I saw cable as a business at first, knew a lot of people in the business and could see that it was headed into becoming a major industry," said Jones. "But I also saw it for its educational value and as a futurist was interested from that standpoint.

Before he bought his company, as a young lawyer in 1961 Jones learned of the promise cable held at the heels of cable pioneers Bill Daniels and Carl Williams, when he traded legal services for office space in their new company, Daniels & Associates. That was a leap up from operating out of a doughnut shop in east Denver where fresh out of the University of Colorado Law School he set up shop and met with clients.

"I ate a lot of doughnuts and drank a lot of coffee to keep the owner happy, recalls Jones.

By 1969, he had become the first cable operator to organize public limited partnerships, raising $1 billion in equity for acquisitions. In 1973, he took the company public.

All along he was educating financiers and customers alike in the brave new world of information technology.

"I am a fan of Alvin Toffler's Future Shock, and over the year would read a lot about the future of society elating to technology and where the world was headed, said Jones." I believed then as I do now (at age 72) that technology can democratize education.

In 1987 Jones founded Mind Extension University, offering college classes via cable, and in 1999 he founded Jones International University offering college courses via the internet. He wrote Cyberschools An Education Renaissance, which Toffle calls "an exciting vision" for education and solving crucial social problems.

"Cable is a business for elephants," said Jones. "Our knowledge culture will now come over electronic pipelines--the Internet and segments of it."

Jones personally underwrites his Internet learning system, even donating his baseline Jones e-education software to schools and students around the world, opening doors to online learning.

"At this point in my life I want to do something not just for the money," said Jones. I want to lift barriers. To be the university of the world.

PERSONAL FILE

Glenn Jones, chairman and CEO of Jones International; looks out his office window at the Denver Tech Center and sees a forest rather than an urban industrial/office park. And he tries to make it a thicker forest at that. "I don't like that parking lot there," said Jones. So I'm having them plant evergreen and aspen so I don't have to look at the cars.