Finding my focus

Would you believe Johnny Appleseed?

I've had a few recent experiences that have been quite helpful in the process of clarifying the mission, so to speak, of the Wandering Dave Road Trip.

One of these is a real pain in the rear: I've been starting the transition from my desktop computer to a laptop. The desktop is set up with two big monitors and has been wired not only to some useful peripherals like a printer and scanner but also to the wall and a high-speed cable that transferred data at lightening speed.

I got used to lightening speed, believe me.

My new laptop is more powerful that the desktop and has much more memory. But I'm now experimenting with a wireless connection to the internet and it's reminding me of the bad old days when computer hobbyists sat for hours watching their screens fill with data -- one pixel at a time.

My calls to the Internet service provider (a cell phone company) and to the computer manufacturer have revealed that I am pretty close to the cutting edge as far as going mobile is concerned. It has been interesting (albeit frustrating) to listen in as the technical support people huddle in their call centers and brainstorm about how to make my machine work with the hardware and software that's available today.

The focus coming out of all of this fuzzy systems management has clarified in stages. I've realized from the start that using several media channels (blog, newspaper column, podcasts, radio spots, maps and photos) is unusual. But I'm only now beginning to see how far out on the new wave I'll be riding -- "hanging ten" in the surfing vernacular.

I hope that what I'm doing with technology will attract attention and that I may leave a trail that's populated by folks who've become more aware of and perhaps even used to new media channels.

Another exciting development resulted from my notifying correspondents of changed email addresses. One of these was a favorite professor from grad school. His enthusiasm for my project has been very encouraging. This is the man who introduced me to the history of the mass media and who made it possible for me to recognize the significance of technology changes over the past few decades that have transformed the media in magnitudes we couldn't have contemplated.

While on the road, I'll be demonstrating the most amazing features of this new media -- it's portability, ease of use and availability to people of ordinary means. 25 years ago, one had to be rich enough to buy a radio or TV station, printing presses or recording studios. Today, we can create output of amazing quality with a laptop computer -- while on the road -- and we can theoretically reach billions of people instantaneously.

A brave new world, indeed.