Cindy’s Take on Tech

Since Steve Jobs presentation a couple weeks ago, anyone with a pulse has chimed in on the iPad. As always, the factions are split, with some touting it as the next big thing, while the haters have derided it with much vitriol, the most juvenile of which have focused on the name itself. I am saving my final thoughts until I actually see one in person, but I do have a few initial observations. Yes, I am an Apple fangirl and a card carrying member of the cult of Mac, so keep that in mind as you read my comments. I want this to be a success for the company because I admire Apple’s place in the industry and basically worship Steve Jobs. Below is an episode of Charlie Rose, featuring Walt Mossberg of All Things Digital and Wall Street Journal, Michael Arrington of TechCrunch and David Carr of The New York Times, speaking about the iPad. These are all people I respect and admire, and each has a favorable impression of the future of this device. Granted, there are criticisms. Arrington is disappointed about the lack of Flash. That doesn’t bother me so much. I’m in the camp that thinks plug-ins will soon be a thing of the past. Most feel that a camera will be included in the near future. Some think the price will go down. But they all seem to be of the belief that this has the potential to be a game-changer. I agree. The key, as identified in the video, is creating this new market, between phones and laptops. As an e-book reader, I think it will be, hands down, a much better experience than anything else on the market, including the Kindle, which has already sold “millions” according to CEO Jeff Bezos. But I have been hesitant to purchase a dedicated reader, because it seems like a waste to have only one function for a product. I have the Kindle app on my phone, but have rarely used it to read a book. I think the iPad will come closest to simulating a traditional book reading experience, but will offer additional features that will be attractive to the average user, like the productivity suite (at $9.99 per app), the ability to listen to music, watch movies, and all the iPhone apps and the new ones to be developed to maximize the iPad interface.

There were some interesting observations about the lack of multi-tasking on the unit. Carr felt that it would allow a more focused reading experience, without the need to have your Twitter feed and email open at the same time as you are reading a book. Is Steve Jobs forcing us to focus, or is this just something to optimize performance?

My biggest concern is in owning another device. I love that so many things have converged on my iPhone. I really hate to travel with a laptop. They are so heavy and difficult to deal with during airport screening. The whole experience is stressful. But the phone is too small for a great reading/viewing experience and most productivity applications that I often need while traveling. So will the iPad fill this space for me?

I’m also  concerned about portability. I don’t want to pay $500+ for something that is going to get nicked and damaged from basic usage when I transport it. Will there be lovely, elegant cases developed for it (the one in the pres looked pretty basic)? Will the screen get dirty easily? Will I need to put some plastic film over it, like I do on my phone? Will it break if I drop it in a soft landing situation (like falling a foot onto carpet or clunking into something in my bag)?

One of the things I noticed in looking at the screenshots of Jobs’ presentation was that it looked like the Pages app allowed you to work in a book interface. Will this be like GarageBand, allowing amateur authors to make their own books and upload to the bookstore, completely eliminating the publisher from the distribution channel?

It certainly looks like it will be a beautiful device with a pleasing interface. I don’t really have a problem with the touch-screen keyboard, because I think we’ll all get used to it, and the tech will just get better.

We’ll have to wait and see. In a perfect world, I’d like to be able to press a button and have my iPhone expand to a larger format. But it would have to be in a way that was beautiful and elegant, consistent with Apple’s design aesthetic. And, short of hocus-pocus, I don’t see that happening (although if anyone can do it…). So, the decision will be, does this device do enough to warrant yet another electronic in my toolkit?

What do you think?

One of the things I love about academia is the breaks we get between semesters. After a busy semester, that builds to a frenzied finish, it’s great to take a few weeks to refresh and recharge. It’s time you can dedicate to learning new things, doing research or working on new courses. Or sleeping. I always have bigger plans for my breaks than I actually accomplish. I had high hopes for this winter break, did about half of them. There’s always the weekends, right?

I did go through the Lynda.com Ruby on Rails training, and I will attend a RoR class next week. I definitely needed to do the pre-work, because I don’t want to be the one non-programmer in the room holding everyone up with important questions like “I’m lost.” Which is not a question at all. I didn’t get to work on making iPhone apps nor did I get much done with research. But, hey… there are still a few days left. Right?

Anyway, one of the things I’ve been working on is this new course Social Media at Work. Take a look at cindyroyal.com/social. Looks like I’m going to have a lot of non-Mass Comm majors. It’s a reasonably large lecture class, will have about 50 students. I’m used to my tiny lab classes. But, I’m excited about the topic. And the fact that the classroom has windows. I don’t think I’ve EVER taught in a classroom with windows.

My plan is to expose the students to some of the readings that have been influential to me: Chris Anderson, Jeff Jarvis, Lessig, Shirky, Jenkins. We’ll watch several videos, because I really feel that some of this is best coming directly from the source, those that did the work. Download: The True Story of the Internet has some great sections, and I plan to show Rip!: A Remix Manifesto, the documentary about the artist Girl Talk. I also saw Welcome to Macintosh on CNBC last week, and thought that might be a good intro to the Mac v. PC discussion. And, even though it is 10 years old now, I’ll show that History Channel video The Internet: Behind the Web, unless someone has a more current history video to recommend. I still think it is great, the history doesn’t necessarily change and I love that it shows the old computers. It’s always funny when students say things like “I thought the people who invented the Internet were dead.”

Another video I saw last week on CNBC was Planet of the Apps. If I can get my hands on it (or drag out my VCR to copy it – I retired it last year), I’ll show that too. While I was watching it, I probably downloaded 10 apps for my iPhone, as they talked about each one. Nice promo for the few they featured. What about the 80,000 others?

I really want to approach this class in a spirit of innovation. Give them some general things to think about in terms of the role of technology in communication and seek feedback as to how they would implement these tools in their professions. I don’t see a lot of recipes these days, but I do see people using social media tools in unique and innovative ways that work for them. I also just want students to gain a sense of curiosity and enthusiasm about the future of media.

Course development is always interesting. You start with nothing, a blank canvas. It can be pretty overwhelming. But then you start filling in the blanks, one topic leads to another, and so do the readings… and the projects… I know I spent more time procrastinating and stressing about the course, than actually working on it. I usually start with making the Web site. I fill in the blanks on the course outline page, and then eventually things start taking shape. Then I make a paper syllabus that will be outdated the minute I hand it out. But, we have to provide a paper syllabus…

So, I would love your feedback. Take a look at the site and let me know if you have any recommendations for topics or resources. I’m using the book Journalism Next, but just as a road map and supplement to other readings. We’ll blog, tweet, make videos… and take exams. Not exactly sure how I’ll handle those yet.

Here we go. Have a great spring semester!

The other day in my graduate class, I was quite surprised to detect a sentiment that I had not heard before. It seems that students may be growing tired of hearing people talking about “loving what you do” or being “passionate about your work.” They expressed that they felt it was becoming cliche. I’m surprised, because to me it’s been the most important, world-changing thing that has ever happened to me. And, because I wasn’t actively seeking it out, it took me a while to get here. But, it has made all the difference.

First let me start with a little on my background, then I’ll talk about some of the elements of the work-life situation that you should be seeking, no less, demanding, in my opinion. For the past 10 years, I have been blissfully happy with the career decision I made to return to academia, get a Ph.D. and become a professor. Huge sacrifice, major payoff. Prior, I was toiling away in corporate America. I worked for many years at NCR Corporation, mostly in Dayton, OH. I was in a variety of fields including sales, marketing, finance, management, project management… you name it, I tried it. I was seeking satisfaction and challenge, and while those elements were present from time to time in certain positions, my roles lacked autonomy and the ability to learn and innovate. I moved to Compaq Computer in Houston in 1995, hoping that a change of venue would provide the boost I needed. It didn’t. It was just more of the same, and I was beginning to feel that I was just one of those people who’d never like their work. I was unfocused and directionless.

My educational background at that point: business. Undergrad at North Carolina and an MBA from Univ. of Richmond. It’s what we did in the ’80s.

So, in 1999, I chucked it all, security (?), salary (I had just reached the 6 figure range), sold my house and moved to Austin to go to UT for a Ph.D. in Journalism and Mass Communication. Some called it a mid-life crisis, others less tactful just called me crazy. But, it was the result of a year or more of soul searching, trying to figure out exactly what my next step needed to be. I knew I had to do something drastic, different, and I had no idea how it’d all turn out. I was inspired by a few things. First, while still at NCR, a colleague showed me a few lines of HTML code and that led to the creation of my own Web site. It eventually morphed into the concert-review site I still maintain, onthatnote.com. Second, I attended my sister’s graduation at the University of North Carolina. She was a journalism major. I noticed the people walking across the stage in special doctoral regalia, the hoods and tassels. “A Ph.D. in journalism,” I thought. “Wonder if this Internet stuff is going to have any effect?”

So, I ended up at UT, a wonderful learning opportunity that allowed me to craft a program from the world-class departments and schools across the university with my hub in Mass Communication. I learned from legends in the field, the most notable being my mentor and friend, Dr. James Tankard, who sadly passed in 2005. Dr. Tankard taught me more about myself, gave me confidence in my ideas and showed me the power of persistence. I think about him every day and I hope that I can carry on his legacy in some small way with my own students.

During my experiences at UT, I was given the opportunity to teach a course, very similar to one I teach now in Web Design. It expanded my skills and fueled an intellectual and creative curiosity that I didn’t know I had. I remember heading out to school one day and thinking, I really love what I’m doing. It was an odd feeling, one that I’d never known before. And, honestly, I’ve felt that way consistently ever since.

Finally, the move to Austin, while coupled with the selection of UT as my grad program of choice, was quite possibly the most important thing of all. I didn’t come to Austin for the rock ‘n’ roll dream, like lots of people, but it ended up finding me. I’m not a musician, wish I was, but I have the most avid fascination with people who create music. It’s like going to a magic show. I don’t understand at all how they do what they do, and am blown away when spontaneous collaborations happen, which are commonplace in our fair city. As luck would have it, I saw an email during my 1st semester at UT, requesting interns for a new music magazine. I responded, and started my tenure at Texas Music, and got to meet many of the local musicians who I now consider my friends. It was another important, yet random, occurrence. And, in the past few years, I have grown my onthatnote.com site to include an online talk show. It’s the perfect meshing of my love of music and technology, keeps my skills current and allows me to serve more as a role model for students by doing in conjunction with teaching.

So, when I look back at all the things that secured my delirious happiness, I can identify some critical elements that have made all the difference for me.

1. Professional and personal life become one. I don’t have any real boundaries between personal and professional. I am thinking about professional things like online media and gaining new skills all the time because I love to do that. If it weren’t my job, I’d be thinking about and doing these things anyway. What are the productive things you think about? Can you integrate them with your career? Can you practice them on the side and improve them?
2. Surround yourself with supportive, interesting and different people and exorcise the toxic ones from your life. One of my problems back in my corporate days was that I was surrounded by people who were all the same. They worked their 55-hour/ week jobs, paid their mortgages and car payments and complained about their bosses, coworkers, responsibilities… In another post, I’ll detail how I busted that wall, and found inspiration by finding new friends, in more creative circles. It was just a launching pad for my own personal changes. If you find you are surrounded by people who are negative or constraining, get rid of them. Don’t let them squelch the voice in your head that is encouraging you to be fierce.
3. Put yourself in uncomfortable situations. This is probably the hardest to achieve. No one really wants to be uncomfortable. We work hard to develop a level of comfort and structure in our lives. But I have found that the most interesting things happen when you’re out of your comfort zone. Seek out networking opportunities with interesting people, and don’t be afraid to say something stupid (you will) or feel out of place (you will). But, so what? Just do it. You’ll learn, you’ll find your place and if it’s right, you’ll ultimately fit in. If it is a situation you desire, you’ll eventually learn the lingo, the key players and someday, before you know it, you might find yourself in that key-player role; the one that people turn to for advice or consider to be a veteran or (eek!) an expert.
4. Share. You learned it in kindergarten. But, honestly, you do get back what you put out there. In spades. Share your ideas, share your time, share your skills. If we’ve learned one thing from social media, it’s that sharing is better than being proprietary any day. Secrets are boring. More interesting things come out of efforts in which people are collaborating than not.
5. Do it. There’s no reason not to. You like food, blog about it. You like music, go to shows and talk about it, interview musicians, read music blogs. You like wine, become the next Gary Vaynerchuk. You like sports… toys… cars… travel… There is nothing stopping you from exploring your favorite things and communicating that to the world. You are thinking interesting things all day long, and you have something to contribute. Who cares if only 2 people are listening and both of them are related to you. You never know where that kind of thing can take you, and it may take you places you could never imagine.
6. Filter out the negativity. Those people are lame. I know I mentioned this above, but it bears repeating. There’s as much opportunity for them to be snarky as for you to be positive. Just stay true to yourself and surround yourself with happy, positive people. People gravitate to positive energy. Think about the people you most admire. Are they really the negative, mean-sprited, do-nothing types? I doubt it.
7. Learn. Put yourself in a position in which learning is natural and expected, keeping up with trends, gaining new skills. Decide that you want to learn something and go do it. Use Google, take a class, watch a video about it on YouTube. Figure it out. The ability to adapt and troubleshoot is a most valuable skill.
8. Change. Prepare yourself for it. I always say to students that the Web didn’t exist when I was their age. I couldn’t have predicted I’d be doing what I’m doing. Bet that even more dramatic changes are in store for us in the next few generations.

I am extremely lucky that the right career found me. It took a long time, and I don’t think I ever imagined being this happy. The 1999 Cindy would probably hate the positive, happy 2009 Cindy, because she would think she was full of it. But the 2009 Cindy wouldn’t have time for the 1999 Cindy, and it’d be 1999’s loss. For me, being a college professor of online media is the perfect career. I’m in a learning environment, surrounded by intelligent colleagues and enthusiastic students. I get a lot of support of my ideas, and I am extremely proud of the accomplishments of graduates of my classes. Keeping in touch with former students may be the most gratifying thing of all, the fact that any of them care to contact their old teacher, get together for coffee or stop and chat when they see me around town. I am blessed and touched.

So, this is getting long, and I’ll have more to say on this topic. But, I guess what I am trying to convey is that I hope that when you read this, you don’t think “how cliche.” I hope it inspires someone… anyone… to seek out their perfect scenario. Don’t give up, keep challenging yourself and keep surrounding yourself with interesting, positive people. Seek out beauty and creativity and inspiration. It does makes all the difference.

Here’s the first 20 minutes of the panel on Career Development at the National College Media conference in Austin. On the panel are Jorge Sanhueza-Lyon of the Austin American-Statesman, Jon Zmikly, an adjunct instructor at Texas State University and myself, Cindy Royal, an assistant professor at TX State.

Sorry the framing wasn’t better. I was working with a basic tripod and used velcro to attach the  iPhone. And, the iPhone ran out of battery charge in 20 minutes. Video is resource intensive!

Presentation in Dr. Bruce Smith’s Intro to Advertising Class. Thanks for your attention and participation. I enjoyed it!!!

Choose HD for video

Bob Taylor, one of the original innovators of the Internet, spoke at The University of Texas LBJ Auditorium on Sept. 17, 2009. He was honored by the UT Graduate College with the Graduate Student Outstanding Alumnus award, as Taylor received a master’s degree in psychology from UT. In 1968, Taylor, along with JCR Licklider, wrote the paper “The Computer as a Communication Device,” definitely a concept that was well ahead of its time, with few people owning computers – large and expensive in that era.  This was considered quite a radical view. But, that vision drove the development of the ARPANet and later what has come to be known as the public Internet.

Introductions were made by Gary Chapman (LBJ professor) and authors Mitch Waldrop and Michael Hiltzik, before Taylor was interviewed by NY Times writer John Markoff. During his talk, Taylor discussed not only his time at the Department of Defense working on the ARPANet, but also his time at Xerox, where the Alto personal computer was first developed. He said that Xerox, as a copier company, was not focused on the potential of computers, stating that one exec told him the computer would never be more important than the copier. It was this limited insight that prevented Xerox from becoming a computing powerhouse. A young Steve Jobs came to a demo at Xerox and witnessed several features of the computer that eventually made their way into early Apple models, mainly the graphic interface and mouse. Taylor said he was traveling during that visit, or he would not have let Steve Jobs enter the building.

Another interesting story Taylor told had to do with a demo of the Alto at Xerox in which execs and their wives were in attendance (execs were men in those days). The execs had no interest in the technology, wouldn’t even sit in front of it. But the women loved it. Basically, the men didn’t type, so they didn’t perceive the value. This is definitely related to the gender/diversity implications associated with the early stages of technology development.

Taylor also discussed how other large companies were not interested in the Internet, with IBM focused on batch processing and AT&T on voice.

Taylor also talked about free Internet and the challenge of irresponsibility and malicious behavior, as well as the myth that Al Gore said he “invented the Internet.” Taylor confirmed that Gore never said that, and he was misquoted in a NY Times article. Taylor also had some interesting ideas on using architecture and spatial layouts to improve collaboration in the workplace.

This was a fascinating and inspiring talk that highlighted the traits of a true innovator. View the event recap, along with Twitter feed and eventually full video archive of the talk. The Statesman also covered the event.

As a side note, a few days after the talk, I read this article on Harvard’s Nieman Reports “A Reporter’s Toolbag, Reduced to Two – a Flip Camera and an iPhone.” I was struck by it, because that is exactly the configuration I used at this event. I shot the video with the Flip and Twittering on my iPhone. Had I been a little closer, I could have used the Qik app (beta) on my iPhone to live stream and archive segments of it. And, as the article states, with the iPhone 3G S, with video on board, the number of tools becomes more like one.

Journalists are skeptical by trade. It’s in their nature to question the motives of sources or to check and recheck facts. They are taught to be objective, keep their feelings out of their stories, and sometimes, perhaps in an attempt to mask their feelings, they lean toward the negative. Even the slightest detectable enthusiasm for a subject can make them the target of harsh criticism/ridicule from their peers.

Technologists are inherently positive, I think. Innovation happens when people imagine the possibilities, not squelch the potential. That doesn’t mean jumping down the rabbit hole of every single widget that’s introduced, but it’s the initial inclination to the positive vs negative that makes all the difference. And, I think maybe that’s why journalism has been slow to adapt and adopt new technologies. That initial inclination to seek out the downside or to jump to criticism has squelched the enthusiasm necessary to seek out new opportunities and propose advantages.

Being critical is a great skill for a journalist, but have we pushed it too far into the realm of the negative to be able to innovate? I believe we are too early in the life of many of the online and social technologies that we are currently using to jump to a quick dismissal. Yes, some of them are released half-baked, not fully featured. But in technology, that’s called a beta. It’s something that can be improved upon with feedback, hopefully constructive and not contemptuous.

That’s not to say that journalists don’t have passion. They have passion for the truth and for the important role of the press in our democracy. They are passionate about the stories they tell. But there’s something about the process and the culture that makes that first question “Why won’t this work?” rather than “How could it succeed?”

I’m a writer, but don’t have the same journalistic background of some of my peers. I came to doctoral studies in journalism because I was excited about the potential for the average person to develop an online presence and communicate to an audience. This was way before blogs and social media, and I didn’t envision the current Web 2.0 environment. I just thought we’d all learn html and have Web sites.  But I suspected that this would create challenges and opportunities with traditional media. I feel that it is my position as an outsider that has allowed me to be (somewhat) immune to the pressures of the culture.

I write about music on my blog onthatnote.com and for Texas Music Magazine. I feel lucky to live in Austin and am very passionate about the music I experience. I tend to write passionately and describe, rather than tear apart. I have too much respect for musicians to do that, couldn’t if you made me. Some might think I’m too soft, and it’s a different approach from the snarky critics that seems to pervade music journalism. I love music, and I hope that people who also love music will enjoy my stuff.

Musicians, too, often jump to the negative. I think many of them have been worn down by the industry. They think it’s super uncool for someone to engage in self-promotion, that the music should speak for itself (or maybe that expensive manager/label should speak for ya). I talk about potential, using FREE tools to get the word out, grow your fan base and cultivate the community around your music. It’s cooler to be jaded and surly.

Musicians are passionate about what they do. They’re artists and they’re innovative with their music. It’s what they know. But, step outside that comfort zone, and it’s just easier to come out with the negative than risk the sneering of their peers. They trade in “cool.”

When I think about every missed opportunity in my life, it’s because my initial reaction was to find fault or do what I thought I was supposed to do – the attempt-to-be-cool route. It took me a while to realize that I was succumbing to peer pressure rather than trusting my intuition.

I’m uncool in both worlds, but that’s OK. Not all journalists and musicians are like this. You see examples of tech innovation everywhere. But not nearly enough. The culture’s holding them back. Break on through to the uncool side. Or make it cool to be positive…

Just not always on this blog. I have a few new ones on other blogs that I’d love for you to check out:

• One is on the AEJMC Hot Topics blog. http://bit.ly/UOk9c It has my observations about some of the critiques of the AEJMC conference and reviews of several books that have influenced my thinking about the digital economy.
• Next is on the Online Journalism Review site (OJR) about an experience I had in the lab last week and the broader ramifications. http://bit.ly/U8Wvi (thanks for the inspiration Ashley H.!)
• I also wrote one for OJR back in May titled Making Media Social: News as User Experience.
• And, in April I was asked by the educational site OrgSync to write a post about my students’ SXSW project: TX State Student Bloggers Cover SXSWi

Your comments on the posts would be greatly appreciated!  Thanks.