Month: July 2015

All Apologies…

In our second week of our Intro to Digital Communication class for Communications@Syracuse, we read and discussed a rather pessimistic article from Newsweek circa 1995 by Clifford Paul “Cliff” Stoll an astronomer, author and teacher.

In the article, Dr. Stoll, in great detail, discounts the ability of the then-burgeoning Internet and e-commerce to make much difference in the world.

Turns out he was wrong–and he freely admitted that on BoingBoing in 2010: “Of my many mistakes, flubs, and howlers, few have been as public as my 1995 howler … Now, whenever I think I know what’s happening, I temper my thoughts: Might be wrong, Cliff …”

But you can’t blame him for his cynicism 20 years ago, the Internet was still growing and technology was far from what it is today. Maybe, however, you can cite him for a lack of vision, for the faith that once the market got a firmer hold on the growing technology, things would improve dramatically–as they did.

As much as six years after Dr. Stoll’s piece, I remember, on September 11, 2001, trying to get current video and reports and what was going on in New York while sitting at my desk at work, and not being able to because the strain on the web was too great and every site claiming to offer real-time news was crashing or so stalled that all you got was revolving circles.

“They’re going to need to fix this if this thing is going to work,” I thought. And they did soon after. Maybe that was a turning point.

Dr. Stoll points to a number of not-quite-there-yet technologies that he believed at the time would never pan out: telecommuting workers, interactive libraries, multimedia classrooms, virtual communities, e-commerce and electronic books, to name a few.  He also describes the Internet as a “wasteland of unfiltered data.” Right again–at the time.

My point is that the commercialization of digital media corrected all those shortcomings. Broadband solved my concern–streaming media is second nature now, it can be watched on a phone without a second thought. Amazon developed the Kindle and Apple came out with the iPad to make reading e-books better. Skype developed the technology making virtual meetings possible. Pay-Pal made shopping secure.

Anything is possible, and if enough people want it, someone out there will sell it. And in the end, that’s how technology advances. The digital convergence wouldn’t have been possible without the dissatisfaction expressed by Dr. Stoll–and a public willing to pay for the future.

Is the web Nirvana? No, it’s not–Dr. Stoll’s point about a lack of human contact was prophetic. But  it’s pretty darn close, closer at least than he gave it credit for.

What’s My Age Again?

When am I going to be done playing catch up? Never, I guess. I’m glad we have a range of ages in class, and that the idea that proficiency–or even just the use of–advancing media technologies, devices, social media platforms, etc.  being dependent on age or generation came up.

Someone asked me at a conference one time what the hardest part of my job was. Without thinking, I just responded “Feeling like a dinosaur!” Some days that’s true, others not so much. Does using social media come easier to a generation that grew up using it? I don’t know if that’s true, I’m pretty tech savvy and have had no problem learning to use social media. The difference, I guess, is just being accustomed to using it. There are times when I realize that I haven’t tweeted in months and my Facebook wall is pretty bare.

The same can be said for other forms of digital media and the convergence of media. While I think many people across different generations can become accustomed to advances in technology, reading digital stories and enjoying improved photo galleries and videos, and even acquiring content from social media and other platforms, there is still a core of people (decreasing every day) who prefer a print newspaper or magazine or their nightly news at 6 p.m. on their favorite local station.

And I guess the point is that the media still has to serve those people. My company still has to put out a print product, with all its limitations, for those who prefer their news/entertainment that way, but we also have to try to stay current and deliver our content on the web, in e-papers and on social media.

While you can’t please everyone, you certainly have to try. And that’s the hard part. Once we get used to one platform, another comes along right behind it and we have to adjust. I’ll always be playing catch up–especially at my age!.