Never Fail to Communicate

“Conversation, Community, Connections, and Collaboration: Practical, New Technologies for User-Centered Services" was a workshop presented in Darien last week by Michael Stephens of TametheWeb.com and Dominican University and Jenny Levine of ALA, both of the generation who never sat home alone by the telephone, who never waited a week to get their photos developed, and who will never have to ask a librarian for a reference book. They are people who will never have a failure to communicate.
Blogs, RSS, wikis, instant messaging, FLICR, webinars, gaming--these are all two way streets. (Except for my blog, which is so one-way because it really is a column that I post to my friends.) With RSS, you can set up a feed from all your friends' blogs, or from your library's catalog, to have one place to check to be apprised when something new comes along. And how about those wikis? Forget the abomination of students using Wikipedia as the source of all knowledge. Think about what a great way a wiki is to work collaboratively with colleagues across the hall or across the country. And IM isn't just the communication of choice for the teenagers who tie up all of the library's computers chatting with the people sitting next to them. IM is minimized on everybody's desktop at Deloite & Touche. (You don't think those accountants trust their tax tips to email, do you?) Could FLICR, etc. mean that you will never again have to flip through a wedding album emitting the requisite oohs and aahs? At the least, it is a great way to live vicariously, flipping through your friends' vacation pictures while you're sitting at your desk listening to your voice mail. And I love those webinars--not that we all don't love meetings, but sometimes when you just can't get away, a webinar will do. At CLC we love using them for database demos and for those "long tail" workshops that are of interest to just a few people. With a webinar, those few people, or one person, can have a two-way with the presenters without ever leaving their desk, (and we at CLC don't have to set up a workshop for fifty that only five will attend.) Finally, maybe it's just Xbox to you, but I listened when Jenny said that people who game know how to try something, and then if it doesn't work, to try something else. Not that this would ever be a problem for some of us, but the message is that we don't have to know it all before we get started.
So start. Go to bloglines and set up a feed. Hey, it's summer, go to FLICR and post your own vacation pictures!

My Night with Abdul

I've been itching to replace my clunky Samsung pocket PC phone. It has neither voice recognition nor Bluetooth, both of which are really handy on the Merritt Parkway, and I really want to text message (to whom, besides my daughter Kate, and Al Gore, I don't know, but I want to.) I want an external keyboard and live Internet and emails like everyone with a Blackberry has. I really wanted to get a Treo, but not for $600. Then I saw it--in David Pogue's column one Thursday--the Motorola Q--$199 and it does all of the above, and is as sleek as a Razr phone. It was only a matter of time, and my time came last week in NH. The battery on my Samsung finally gave way. To replace it would have cost $130, and what better place to buy a new phone for just an additional $70, but the land of "Live Free or Die?" The "Q" was mine, and with no sales tax. I could talk with Connecticut and New Orleans while in NH. The only thing missing was the sync, but I knew that when I got back to the office I'd be able to get the contacts, calendar, and notes on my desktop synced into my beautiful new Q.

Hence my night with Abdul Aziz. After arriving in the office following a two and a half week hiatus, I became obsessed with syncing. I installed the Active Sync 4.1 software that came with the Q, but nothing happened. You know the thing about pushing and, when that doesn't work, instead of pulling, pushing harder? I was starting to realize why David Pogue, although he couldn't say enough good things about the Q's hardware, couldn't say enough bad things about its Windows pocket PC software. It was now almost 6:00 pm, and I had been pushing harder all day with no sync in sight. Who you gonna' call? I dialed Microsoft (after a good half hour spent trying to find a phone number.) I got connected to a live person who offered me a deal--for no money, he would lead me to a website where I could work through my problem step by step, (which I had been doing all day) or, for $35, (which won’t even buy a decent pair of shoes) I could talk to a person.

Then came Abdul. For the next three hours he methodically and sanely eliminated each potential home wrecker in the syncing process. Finally he diagnosed Microsoft Outlook as the culprit. (For some reason this elimination process resulted in Al Green's "How Do You Mend a Broken Heart" being synced to my Q. "Have you ever heard Al Green?" I asked Abdul. "Oh yeah!" he replied. They have Al Green in India?) Then Abdul asked me if I knew David Pogue (because I had a note on my calendar to call David Pogue to speak at CLC's October Trendspotting symposium.) It turns out that Abdul also reads Pogue's column in the New York Times as well as his blog. (And I bet he gets a lot more out of it than I do!) So now it's 9:13 pm and we know the problem is Outlook. Abdul makes a copy of all of my 1113 contacts, etc. and starts to re-install MS Office. Then the computer asks us to insert the Microsoft Office CD. (I guess it’s not just Apple who gets proprietary about their software.) Do you think I can find the CD? "No problem," says Abdul, "I'll call you back tomorrow when you'll have the CD." And damned if he doesn't, and right on time. Except, I, of course, am not back in the office yet when he calls promptly at 2:00, so Jan Gluz tells him to give me 20 minutes. He did. He re-installed MS Office. My desktop computer and my Q synced. I once again have everyone's phone number with me at all times, and I know where I'm supposed to be going when. And it is all because of Abdul Aziz at Microsoft India, where it has been raining for the past two weeks, who has never been to Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington, and who likes to read murder mysteries. I'm glad it’s a small world!

Just Eight Weekends

And one of them has already gone by. It is hard not to get anxious when you live in New England and have such a long winter to plan for such a short summer. Below are some DOs and DON’Ts to help maximize the little time we have left.

DON’T buy a new bathing suit. By the time they go on sale, all the good ones are gone anyway, and besides, this is an activity that always takes way too much time because time only flies when you are having fun, and this activity is never (and was never, even when you were ten or forty pounds lighter) fun. So wear the old Speedo (unless you are a guy, and then please DON’T,) and DO invest in a nice roomy cover-up.

DO read, (or better yet, listen to, when you are stuck in beach traffic) all of Augusten Burroughs’ memoirs, starting with Running with Scissors. He is just so funny, in that inimitable way of irreverent, dysfunctional fifteen year old boys who swear a lot (and those who love them.)

Not that you would, but DON’T even think of reading James Frey’s memoirs. I don’t even care that they are not true; they are soo not well-written. (If you want a well-written, witty, and honest memoir of addiction and recovery, DO read Burroughs’ Dry.)

DO get one of these cool air cards if you plan to travel and are averse to sitting in the parking lots of public libraries (or Starbucks) to tap into their wireless connections. For $59.99 a month, you can access the Internet on your laptop wherever you can use your cell phone (which does eliminate Easton, Connecticut, but you probably weren’t planning to vacation there anyway.)

DO read Beloved. It is not overrated. It is one of the most remarkable experiences I have ever had. I still don’t know if I understand what it meant to be a slave in the USA, but it is the only time I felt like I did.

If you want to, DO read The Terrorist, and tell me what you think. Can a 74 year old Episcopalian from western Massachusetts know what it is like to be Ahmad Ashmawy Mulloy? Please DON’T, however, go to see Updike on his book tour, and definitely DON’T pay $15 for the privilege as I did. I’ve been ripped off enough for all of us.

DON’T try to visit all your out-of-town friends this summer. By the time you reach a certain age, you will have more friends than you do summer weekends. If you do plan to visit even some of your friends, DON’T even think about taking a two week vacation. That would use up almost 40% of your summer weekends. There is always next summer.

DO renew your acquaintance with the Beach Boys. Even if you didn’t like them their first time around, no other music is going to make you feel like “that” again, and it is even better belting out “God only knows what I’d be without you” when you really do know.

Summer weddings--just DO it. But DON’T fall for the fool headed idea that the cost of your gift must equal the cost of your plate of food.

DO or DON’T read War and Peace this summer. Am I the only one who thinks it’s like a Russian Gone with the Wind?

DO read last summer’s July July by Tim O’Brien. The critics hated it, but I think it is one of the few works of fiction about a Big Chill reunion that gives equal time to how both men and women feel about having a lot of life under and over their belts.

DON’T read Curtis Sittenfield. I finished Prep, but I wish I hadn’t, and her new one sounds even more self-indulgent and depressing without any good reason to be either.

DO just sit and read anything you damn well please this summer--by the pool, in a boat, on the beach, in a car, or on a plane. And when you do have to get some exercise, DO listen to a book while you are walking, running, or treading the mill. Just don't try to use your iPod to listen to a book unless you want to pay for the download rather than getting it for free from your public library. For that you will need to use another MP3 player. (And that is a subject for another blog.)

Finally, DO make time for the beach this summer, even if you live on a lake or a golf course. There is just nothing as sensuous and life affirming as the smell of the salt, (and the onion rings and the fries,) the sound of the surf, the crunch of the sand between your toes, and the feel of a breeze on a sunny day. I'm sorry my words come out sounding so trite, but the beach experience is like having a baby--such an ordinary, everyday occurrence, but the most extraordinary one that even the most accomplished among us will ever have!