Marks Briggs & the World Wide Web

Mark Briggs, recently resigned editor of thenewstribune.com, author of Journalism 2.0, speaker and consultant, visited my Living and Working in a Virtual World class earlier this week. Mark is a well known blogger in the south sound for the Tacoma News Tribune, but as of yesterday he is officially resigned from his position there and moving on to some hopefully bigger and better things. Very inspiring, he shared with us his plans to continue on to a less constrained path, traveling, speaking, training, teaching and consulting. He is also working on a start up business in Seattle's Capital Hill area, working on a new technology, hyper local news, that will ideally be licensed and used by local newspapers. I won't get too into the details of that, but nonetheless, he seems to have quite a bit of momentum built up in his career and a wealth of opportunities knocking at his door. The News Tribune will miss him, I'm sure, but he did assure us that his position, though not his well known blog, would be taken over and left in good hands.

What I found interesting is his point and emphasis on how much the evolution of the digital age is creating opportunities! It really is just a matter of who's more willing to change, and as Mark said, who has less inertia? The need to "change" or be in constant evolvement, hasn't always been there. If we think back 20+ years, businesses were able to find their niche, make it work and stick with it! The news papers are a great example, as Mark pointed out. They did so great for decades, bringing in profit margins between 20% & 40%! They were good at what they did, in fact they monopolized the news and information industry and people liked the product. Now a days, a businesses flow always has to be being analyzed, someone at the top has to stay ahead of the pack, ahead of the curve, and keep things moving forward or the business is certain to get left in the dust of the fast passed protocols we now have.

A side note, but on the topic of this idea of a new and growing need for change, this is something that Universities are realizing may be just as useful or maybe more useful of a skill to teach. Students of the present need not only learn their trait or profession, but they need to have the skills of evolving. Knowing how to be resourceful, stay current, be innovative and creative! With out that, our education will be of little value as little as 2 to 5 years after being completed! What an expensive waist!

This class definitely has me thinking about how the web will affect my life and career in the future. Will I be a leader, will I have the ability to be one of the minds behind the next revolution, will be innovative enough, will I have the ideas and timing? As "change" and technology change faster and faster hand in hand it is becoming harder and harder to keep up with the changes taking place around us every day. This is a new playground and a more dynamic playground, unlike any roamed by previous gernerations. We are living in a time of accelerated motion. Momentum is everywhere..... & the web is what's feeding it.

I wish Mark Briggs good luck on his new ventures, I thank him for his time spent with my class and will continue to ponder the thoughts he spurred.

Back in the clouds.... WHAT IS CLOUD COMPUTING??? (Conversation Cont'd)

Amazon, a giant in its industry, is introducing Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). Obviously a very anticipated launch, EC2 seems to be the next big swing in computer science and promises to be "a true virtual computing environment".

Ok, now I'm by no stretch at all a genius, but I do credit myself with an adequate ability to figure things out and comprehend information. Unfortunately, I have been racking my brain trying to figure out exactly what this abstract idea called cloud computing is. Since about a week ago when I first read Andrew Fry's blog on the subject, I have been following feeds from Amazon and Microsoft about EC2, and still, I don't get it.

My jist is that it will at first be distributed for businesses. The convertion to the use of products like EC2 is at least partly motivated by the potential savings in overhead for IT departments. It will allow for a sort of pay as you go, or use rather, for network server availability (if that's the right way of saying it) rather than paying an upfront capital. Also, working in the cloud is suppose to up the any on reliability, speed and overall intelligence level and ability by a substantially large amount. Keep in mind, I'm still not completely sure of all this.

Anyway, trust me, if I could explain it all to you I would but it just hasn't sunk in for me yet. If anyone has read up on this at all and can shed some light I would love it! And trust me, as soon as I figure this out I'm sure you'll hear me talk more about it....

To Buy or Not to Buy, That is the Question

So many Americans are exercising the fast lane in life, and not just on the freeway. Instant satisfaction, it's the American way... so what a big surprise it is that the ease and speed computers have added to our daily lives has lead us to grow so increasingly dependant on them. Purchasing online, which as recently as only a few years ago was extremely risky and uncomfortable to do, is now done by many, many Americans of all demographics. The fact is, people demand convenience, and though online purchasing had many challenges to overcome in it's early stages, it is now a heavily accepted part of our everyday way of living.

So the question for each of us to ask ourselves is, "what are we comfortable and NOT comfortable buying online, and why"? For me, while I don't necessarily make many purchases online, I do handle most of my bill paying and transferring of funds between accounts online. For purchases, I tend to be a little more on the uncomfortable side.

A number of key factors are generally part of my case by case decision making, but the top four question I ask myself are:

1. How mandatory is this purchase? Do I really need to do it online?
2. What source of validation do I have for the site? (domain, referral, prior use, etc.)
3. What type of payments are accepted?
4. Do I trust that I will receive my product?

I'm basically checking to see if I believe the site to be legit, payment friendly (fees?) and overall instinctive comfort level about the purchase. In many cases, it strongly depends on the type of transaction. As an example, for a private party, I would be much, much more cautious than if dealing with a corporate entity.

In my opinion, while I am impressed with the growth of the online buying market and it's ability to overcome concerns of security, delivery, satisfaction, etc. over the past decade, I think many people still have some concerns when it comes to buying online. At the same time, I would agree that the comfort level is still growing rapidly as people gain more and more trust and understanding in the Internet.

Working in the Couds??

It's true, that may in fact be what my future holds if Cloud Computing is the next big thing in programming! Professor Andrew Fry of UWT's Institute of Technology has brought this to light in a recent blog he wrtoe as a possible huge shift in the face of technology that is in the works and already the topic rumbling around many of the big time companies, Google, HP, Yahoo!, etc., as they all try and jump on the band wagon!

For myself, it reminds me of how green I am to the industry! As a current computer sciense student, I'm ashaimed that I'm just now learning of this! Just confirms for me that I need to subscribe to some sort of industry feed... new paper, magazine, whatever. If something like cloud computing is the future of technology and computers then it's my future!

I'm not 100% clear on what Cloud Computing is yet, but if you're into technology and computer programming, check it out online, there's a vast amount of info on it. Also, Aaron Kimball, Founder of Spinnaker Labs, is giving a 30 minute presentation on cloud computing at the South Sound Technology Conference this November. It'll be another great oppertunity to be submerged into the current events of the industry! Should be good!

Dude, Where's My Car?

In class the other day, we discussed our vanity searches and were enlightened on how many ways these searches can be completed. Many people thought to search things related to themselves that others didn't. For instance, I thought to search the prefix of my email account and another person thought to search their address.

In class, most intriguing to me was a site called Zillow.com. It was completely new to me, though I've seen similar things before. Zillow.com is a real estate interested database that allows you to type in an address and using satellite images, obtain a birds eye view of a desired area/ location. The website, using a Microsoft program call Virtual Earth, amazingly allows you to zoom in to a ridiculous point, so close you can see the cars on the streets!

This entire class discussion prompted a cause for a second more refined vanity search. I decided to do an additional search on my address, other names my friends might call me and some public showings I've been a part of. A search of my address on google info, as well as a few other databases, came up with none other than the name and phone number with some pictures of the apartment complex I live in. And then, sure enough, a search on Zillow.com showed a nice and precise aerial view of the complex. My husband and I even speculated that a particular car in view was ours! On that note, we also found another site, very similar with satellite images and all, that got us an even clearer picture! I believe that one was on google! Gotta tell you, it was kinda freaky, for sure!! Lucky for me, at this point in time, I wasn't able to find any other additional instances of me "popping up" with these more refined key words. YAY!!

In the end, I feel good right now about the fact that there isn't wayyy to much info about me on the web, none that's very easy to find anyway. But it's scary knowing that as I get older and start to have more to my name and deal with more accounts, agreements, purchases, etc., that mixed with exponentially growing abilities of technology is a recipe for great risk!

I think as we continue to befriend technology and it's abilities more and more, we'll have to continue to learn and protect ourselves from it just as much if not more!!

I'm on Google!

For most of us, everyday we encounter the world wide web, we pay bills, check our email, read the news, and maybe search for information. Others who use it even more have various accounts with online sites and publish pictures and papers and video to the web on a regular basis.

As a class assignment, I was asked to attempt a vanity search. An online search on myself that is. The idea seemed interesting and definitely struck my curiosity cord, but the fear of what I would find had me anxious to complete it!

Just before leaving that class, my professor was able to do a quick vanity search on himself and pull up not only his blog web page but public records showing his full name, age, city and even a couple relatives! For myself, not really knowing what someone could do with this information doesn't suit me so I'd just rather them not have it. That being said, as I sat down to do my own vanity search my fingers were crossed! But sure enough, all my info... name, age, city, mom and dad, high school.... I was so bummed!

I continued searching various databases, google, yahoo, etc., and though I didn't find a ton on my name, probably because I'm young, a search of my overused email prefix, which I've used as a user name for many accounts, came up with more info on me! What annoyed me most was that most of the searches, all but one, were from accounts that I'd opened myself and then never used.... like reunion.com and classmatefinder.com, blah!! I quickly deleted the accounts, trying to rid the web of my personal info!

On a better note, now a days, while I can't keep my info completely off of the web, I've learned some ways of limiting it. I never input a real name into accounts I have online and in general, I limit the concrete stuff I put on the web voluntarily. Even this blog, for instance, has little of me besides a picture and my email address.

So, how much is too much, what can be done with what is there, what rights DO I have and what rights do I NOT have? I don't know the answers to these questions yet, but I'm sure as heck gonna find out!

The Future of the Newspaper

I once worked for the local newspaper distribution center. I was always amazed by how dependant customers were on their paper! If I missed a house, you better bet they'd be calling first thing in the morning to complain and ask how could I have missed them!? They seemed dependant on the paper not just for their news, but for their morning! Like coffee, reading the paper sets a tone for the day for so many. As a matter of fact, the two often go hand in hand.... nothing like coffee and a paper, & not just in the morning but for any down time during the day.

As beloved as our traditional printed newspaper is, all around the world, there is fierce competition that has moved in and is giving our neighborly distribution centers a run for their money! By now, it's no secret to most that the internet has moved in and is posing a threat to many of our traditional methods of doing things, from the way we communicate and the way we shop to the way we stay in the loop with current events things are changing and at lightening bolt speed!

Blogs, for example, rather than being considered measly online diaries, are being given much more credit now a days! Bare with me, I'm new to the blogging world, but just a quick search on the web brings evidence of a strong relationship between online blogs being published and the publishing our newspapers are producing! Online blogs have been credited with leaks, gossip columns, debates, breaking news and I'm sure more! Point being that online publishing is getting easier and easier! And while reliability may be a matter now, speculation persists that it's only a matter of time before sites like blogger.com cast a shadow on the al mighty newspaper!

Now, while this all seems very interesting and fits right along with the rest of the dramatic changes taking place around the world, lets not get too carried away. Newspapers may have some competition and maybe even some catching up to do, but is the demise of the newspaper really creeping around the corner? As dreary as it may look at the present time, the internet is not only an enemy to the newspaper but also a friend! With the development of digital newspapers and digital editors, newspapers are finding ways to be more accessible, more portable, more up to date, cutting edge and reach more demographics! There is vast untouched potential there!

So, I may be being an optimist, but perhaps the fall of print only means the rise of digi news. So often after one cake crumbles we bake one ten times better! What if instead of a collapse, the newspaper industry is on the break of a boom... a good boom?! In my opinion, if they play their cards right, and in a timely matter, even with posed threats such as blogging, google, yahoo, etc., the newspapers still have a huge lead being extremely established and greatly respected within the information industry and our culture! If they can get hip to the game quick enough and use this push for change to their advantage, I strongly think they could pull out of this ahead of the pack and ahead of where they once were! Time will tell....

Email Vs. The Postal Service

I remember when I was a young child, everyday after school as we pulled into our apartment complex we would make a stop at this isolated little room, the mail room. To me as a child this room always seemed so peculiar! All of those little metal boxes on the walls! Oh and the special little key you needed to get into your "needle in a hay stack" box! And when we checked the mail, EVERYDAY there would be tons of stuff in there! Ads galour, bills, letters, calendars, samples and more!

Now a days, checking the mail for my children isn't quite as exciting. Some days our household receives NOTHING in the mail! Can you believe that!? With very few subscriptions and most of our accounts handled online now, at least half of what was delivered by mail is either available online or done by email.

Ten years ago, the pace at which business, marketing and personal communications moved at was much slower. Postal mail did and still does require a somewhat long process by which mail is picked up by a postal worker, sorted and distributed at a postal office, transported and delivered to another postal office and then again sorted and distributed at that postal office, all to be delivered to the recipient labeled on the envelope. It's all very physical and on going. By now of course, this process is perfected and aided with machines, technology and more efficient transportation to make it faster and more reliable. But still, it can be quite slow and costly by some means.

On the other hand, for my generation and generations to come, email has come along and changed communication protocols for us, all over the world. We deal with spam, instead of constant paper ads, and instead of making a stop at that peculiar little mail room everyday, we check our emails dozens of times a day and might check our physical mail every few days. As for the pace of communication, business, marketing, etc., it has sped up at an extremely fast exponential rate! Everyday, families share pictures and videos almost instantly with the click of a button and business matters are solved with in minutes or hours.

So which is better? Or, is one better? I'm sure we all pose different opinions, depending on our styles of living, but from my perspective, while they are both built somewhat around the same core ideas, they are executed with different mediums that result in distinct differences in speed and cost. To be frank, mailing something out via the postal service costs money for stamps and the price can get to be pretty big if you send larger packages, while email on the other hand is FREE! Regular mail also takes so much longer than email! While an email is sent with the ease of clicking a button, regular mail is known to take a day or two at least, often times longer! These days, the rest of the world is running circles around you if you're using the postal service! Another leg up on the postal service that email has is that it is "green" friendly! It's paperless! And with growing environmental concerns, saving on resources is a huge interest for many concerned citizens. So, clearly I tend to lean more towards email. It's efficient, fast, easy and free! But, the postal service is still around so there is good to be found in it too. The postal service continues to be comforting to the old soles around and those with the appreciation for having a "paper trail" as well as those who still get excited by a real hand written letter in the mail.... or a post card! You can't do post cards by email! Not with the same effect anyway.

For me, I wouldn't want to go with out our old school, traditional postal service, but mostly for the sake of ease and zero cost, I'm on the email band wagon all the way!!