History of FMS

The adopted approach was first developed in 1994 by Joseph B. Delphonse, then a doctoral student in communication with an associated track in cognitive science at the State University of Buffalo in New York to study learning memory and cognition.

Putting theory into practice over a period of four years, from 1994 to 1998, Delphonse introduced his typing instructional system to students in several of the Buffalo’s post-secondary and vocational schools. To do so, he combined his ideas with an existing software application from Simon and Schuster Interactive, a division of Viacom, Inc. Through licensing agreements, Delphonse eventually made part of his method available to the general public through his company JoeBis Publishing and ultimately to Simon & Schuster. In 1999, the keyboarding instruction program was published as part of the Typing Tutor Platinum Edition, which was jointly published by Simon & Schuster and its affiliate Knowledge Adventure. By year 2004, due to licensing and development restrictions, the product was discontinued and no longer made available to the general public.

The principles of the adopted approach are determined to be therapeutically and educationally useful. On the basis of these determinations, Delphonse partnered in 2002 with Carlo Chrispin, MD, and Marie Chrispin, Ph.D., to form J B Delphonse and Associates. The mission of this partnership was to use the basic premise of the methodology to rehabilitate patients already afflicted with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, train keyboarding instructors how to effectively train their own students, and serve as consultant to educational institutions to assist with keyboarding curriculum planning. Not having the financing necessary to create the software needed to advance the mission of JB Delphonse and Associates, the partnership gave way to the formation of Knowledge 101 in January 5, 2006 with Mr. Richard Schreckengost, a highly successful businessman in Buffalo, New York, making it possible to finance the development of the Finger Mapping System.