Poet Ponders the Digital

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley June 2, 2014 Deadline July 2014 Issue Owning is So Yesterday: Streams and Clouds Conquer Discs Almost eight years ago, I sat on the living room floor of our apartment and imported music from our massive compact disc collection into iTunes. The year was 2006, and I had purchased an iPod for my wife. We still use this ancient white iPod in our car, and it works fine. During my graduate studies at the University of Minnesota, I discovered Cheapo Records. There were two massive Cheapo outlets, one in each of the Twin Cities. The Uptown Minneapolis location offered the best selection of CDs I have ever seen. It reminded me of the glory days of Tower Records and the Virgin Megastores. The St. Paul location, conveniently located near my campus office, was smaller, but still impressive. I bought a lot of music, and imported the discs into iTunes. Our music library includes 1785 artists and groups. As an example of my compulsive need to own complete sets...

This complaint is aimed squarely at Apple. It needs to evolve as a company or risk losing its most loyal base: creative professionals. Apple must realize that power users, that small number of us willing to pay for any creative edge, cannot be surprised by the "Next Big Thing" at the end of the annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). We need a clear roadmap. No, we're not why Apple earns billions of dollars, but we influence other users. Our decisions lead others to embrace or reject technologies. I teach in the School of Communications and Information Systems at a university. Our school includes everything from "Media Arts" to "Computer Forensics" — it is an eclectic school, with a strong emphasis on rhetoric, communications, and technology. We train graphic designers, computer programmers, and English teachers. It's that eclectic. Our students will learn specific programs on a mix of Apple and Dell systems. Then, they will go off and...

Those of us specializing in new media, digital composition, writing technology or whatever we might call our courses and research projects sometimes fall into the same idealistic fad-think as tech prognosticators. Remember interactive fiction? Our students don't. SecondLife? Not a single one of my university students has seen it or cares to see it. The list of gone and forgotten technologies seems endless. This week I made a reference to MySpace, something wildly popular only seven years ago among my composition students. Turns out, the MySpace of today is unpopular and doesn't even resemble the old version I knew. LiveJournal? Yahoo Groups? Don't even try to explain Usenet newsgroups or Internet Relay Chat. Remember AltaVista? GeoCities? Tripod? My students don't. In 1992, I operated a Fidonet BBS, first with WildCat and then RoboBoard. Boardwatch was a thick magazine. Internet meant dial-up at 2400 or 9600 baud. Does anyone say "baud rate" today? ...

One of the questions facing colleges and universities is "Can Anything Be Taught Online?" The simple answer is, no. But some of almost every topic can be taught online. I ask the question, "How Much of Topic X Can Be Online?" When an institution wants to take a topic online, it should ask the following: How much of the course content will work online, in the time allotted?  How will that content be delivered?  How will knowledge and skills be evaluated? What technologies will be required? Do potential students have access to the needed technology? While a school cannot have a veterinary surgery practicum online, they can provide simulations and much of the background material leading up to the physical practicum. Someday in my lifetime I imagine "robot-assisted" surgeries will be common. (They exist now, but are limited to a few procedures and there are physicians present.) Still, I'd want a surgeon to have performed "real" surger...

A display of old televisions, VCRs and radios in Amberley Working Museum, England. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley December 6, 2010 Deadline January 2011 Issue Virtual Valley Predictions for 2011 Prognostication is a year-round sport in the technology industry, with everyone trying to anticipate the “Next Big Thing.” Few analysts guess the trends, but since it is the start of a new year, time to offer some predictions from the Virtual Valley crystal ball. The five predictions I offer share a common theme: with media going digital, traditional broadcasters and retailers are going to struggle. As newspapers and magazines have fallen to Web surfing, the next earthquakes will strike the film and television industries. Prediction 1: Cable and satellite television subscribers will reduce or terminate their monthly services. When the Fresno State Football Bulldogs beat Illinois 25-23 on December 3, I wasn’t near a television, but I was still watching ...