New Media Development

One thing I have struggled with throughout my life is a definition of whom I am. Job Titles and awards have rarely helped in this matter. You see, I am the voice of the large majority of mediocre. I love video games but don’t excel at them to be on leader boards. I have tried my hand at a variety of sports but never seem to get above a novice level of accomplishment. I can program complex systems but am nowhere near the level of true system programmers. I can develop full web applications but they pale in comparison to the Diggs of the world. I can make flowers grow but can never seem to tend full gardens. I can fix most issues in my house but I don’t have the patience to finish my office or add that addition it badly needs.

I have figured out one thing I am rather good at and this will make marketers very happy. I can consume media. I don’t mean read a paper here, look at a website there, search for someone here. Oh no. I can consume vast amounts of media in a relatively short amount of time from a variety of sources. This really shouldn’t come as a shock to most people. In January 2008 Deloitte LLP’s Technology, Media and Telecommunications reported that there is a large shift in the way and types of media are consumed. Also the rise of the “personal publisher” would have a profound effect on traditional media outlets like TV, radio, and film. Follow that with a report in 2007 where Deloitte discovered that general media consumption has gone up but traditional media outlets have either stayed stead in readers/viewers or has gone down. We as a society consume more and more media which is probably why we are driving to information overload capacities.

My media consumption leads to what I think is not a unique problem. Too many choices and too little expertise in any one of them to focus. Do I fall into the trap of programming and watch TV? Is a film a constructive use of an hour and a half of my life. Do I lack enough distractions to produce that podcast or do work? Should I relax and read a novel? Is that even relaxing? I have a world of knowledge in from of me with the internet but I am not sure where to start. The options are dizzying for me and can often lead to overload and decision paralysis.

If you suffer from this as well, think about the following things.

1. Not all media HAS to be consumed. Figure out what works for you and how to use it. I personally hate terrestrial radio so I have swapped it for online shows and podcasts.
2. Treat media as either data or information. Data is any piece of knowledge that is out there in any format. Information is the right piece of knowledge or media in the right place at the right time. Going to the Drive-in for me is Information because it is a constructive use of 4 hours time which forces me to shut my brain down and relax. If I feel I should be working, I can bring out my laptop and abuse the WiFi there.
3. Choose to either be the expert or a jack-of-all-trades. Experts usually focus on one or two thinsg and try to achieve “perfection”. Jack-of-all-trades have general knowledge of a lot of things with some expertise in some thing. Neither one is better than the other. Michael Phelps may be an expert at swimming but we all found out on SNL he is not so great at comedy.
4. Pruning or ignoring media sources is ok. Not all media sources will work for you. Ones you used to rely on may suddenly grow tired or your needs change. In order to grow you need to prune away things that don’t work or may be driving you in the wrong direction. Don’t be afraid to do that.

I am going to try to reduce some of my consumption and get a bit more focused on what I want to do. I won’t be getting a high score on Rock Band 2 anytime soon or writing the next killer web application. But hopefully I will be driving towards new accomplishments that will make me personally proud to have done them.

Many many moons ago when I was in college in high school I got my first exposure to Macintosh. Our school was lucky enough to get a grant from New York State and our school picked Apple as the provider of choice for all our computer labs. The Macintosh Classic confused me at first and the lab teacher thought I may break it for not being “trained” how to use it. A thought that amuses me to no end even to this day seeing how my school let me take a TRS-80 II home when i was in Junior High.

I won’t say that I fell in love with the Mac at that point because it wasn’t until my mom helped me buy a Classic II for college that I grew to just enjoy it. Easy to use, portable for moves, powerful, and connected with ease. My love grew with my understanding of the system so much that when I went to work for Computing Services at the university my areas of expertise for support were the CMS Based Mainframes and Macintosh systems. Many would say they are polar opposites in the computing work but I knew better than to classify any computing system to people.

As I left college my Macs came with me. Classic giving away to an LC II, LC II giving away to a Power Macintosh. Then something happened. I took a good long look at my Mac and came to a hard decision. While I still loved the system, I couldn’t find software for it. That’s not to say it wasn’t there but I hated the feeling that I couldn’t walk into the local computer store, pick up software, and just install it on my Mac. Remember, this is pre-1998. No Apple Store, no deal to put Mac products in CompUSA, no Steve Jobs. I wanted to game more and work more and the Mac was just not where it was at.

I made the shift, turned in my Apple stickers, got my tatoo removed and bought my first PC. It was fun, crazy, and a bit of a relief. I bought software galore. Fell in love with PC gaming (specifically Grim Fandango) and enjoyed being able to just pick up software and go. A couple of years later I built my first desktop PC and have upgraded it to the current machine I use. But something about Mac has always lingered for me.

That something is the hardware. It has always just worked. Plugin a camera, Mac recognizes it. No drivers, software, or fuss. Need to sample video? Plug and play without needing to do massive configuration. Wanna make a radio show? Plug in a mic and start recording. That is something the PC side of me has never been able to fully achieve. I have produced full radio shows on the PC but to get it to the point of quality production is always a pain. Then if I author a DVD, I have to reconfigure all my audio hardware to shift back to radio production. Not so on the Mac side.

Recently through the shifts that Jobs has implemented, the Mac has one again become the powerhouse of a machine it always should have been. Software is more prevalent and true windows/Mac OS compatibility has been achieved. While still pricey, the Mac is worth every dollar and has a high resale value even after five years. Cross machine folks like myself can choose where they want to be at any time (BSD, Mac, Windows, etc). Acceptance in the mainstream has also resurfaced and developers are adopting the open mentality that is driving Apple.

So last night I bit the $2K bullet and bought a MacBook Pro to rejoin the cult. The PC desktop isn’t going anywhere but the PC notebook and I will be parting ways. It won’t be a sad goodbye because all the PC goodness will be transfered to the Mac and will live on. This kind of full circle is good for me to reassess what places computers hold in my life. Maybe I will go back to serious video production. Maybe programming in open source realms will happen more. Maybe I will just pet the 17″ inch monitor and coo “pretty”.

In any case, it’s nice to feel like I am coming home to Mac and Apple. We both seem to have tread down the path of growing up into what we should have always been. Hopefully my old friend and I will meet and create some more while sharing the things we have learned along the way.

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I have worked in dynamic and creative teams most of my life. I firmly believe they are the best way to get new ideas, challenge your skills, and just have fun at work. I have played the part of worker, programmer, manager, developer, designer, and many more. The one thing I have discovered over the years is a very simple concept to keep people motivated.

Believe in your employees.

When I was the Technology Manager at Digital City - Hampton Roads I was lucky enough to be hired by a man who always believed in the people he worked with. His open door policy was very open and concerns were listened to and addressed. But beyond that, he believed in the people he worked with and let you know that. That support was something that I appreciate to this day twelve years later. The problems we were faced with on a day to day basis could be incredibly difficult and complex but he always made me feel like i could achieve anything with a little perseverance and an honest attempt to solve the problem. As a result,  we all felt as a team we could reach new personal and professional heights because at least one person felt that we could attain it.

Managing in this new tech era is difficult especially when you work with diverse groups of people sometimes spread across the globe. But having a basic belief that someone you manage can achieve a task is more valuable than any motivating speech you can give. You may not personally believe that the employee is up to the task being handed to them but that doesn’t matter. As long as you let them know they can do it and support them, you will be amazed at what can be accomplished while helping someone discover something about themselves.

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