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I've decided to officially put this blog on hiatus for the duration of my campaign for public school trustee in Cambridge.
If you've come here looking for information about me or about the campaign, please visit my campaign website at www.CambridgePublicSchools.ca
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The Revolutionary Aspect of Technology is its Ownership
This morning, I heard a conference keynoter say the following:
The biggest difference between the youth of the 80s and 90s and the youth of today is the introduction of technology.
This is a pretty common characterization of today's technology as something new. I've argued with myself before about whether or not we are in an era of technological revolution as it relates specifically to the internet. In the moments that followed the delivery of the above statement, however, I had an epiphany. Here it is.
The biggest difference between the youth of today and the previous generations of youth is not the introduction of technology. New technologies have been introduced during every generation's youth. What is different now is the ownership of the technology. The emergence of personal computing is the first technological advancement that is owned by the younger generation. That ownership is literal and figurative - the youth not only own the physical devices, they own, almost exclusively, the knowledge to operate them. Even further, the younger generations, for the first time, own the attention of the manufacturers and marketers of the technology.
The television, the radio, the telephone were all household technologies own by the middle generation - the power generation. They were introduced to homes by the owners of those homes - the parents. The children and youth were exposed to these technologies not on their own terms, but on the terms of their parents. The technologies were owned not by the youth, but by the adults.
So let me say it again succinctly for you.
ShareThe revolutionary aspect of today's technology is not the technology itself. What is revolutionary is that the newest technologies are owned, both literally and figuratively, by the youngest generations.
Cambridge Reporter Revisited
It seems that my foray into community publishing in 2008 has garnered some interest on the Twitter... There is some confusion, understandably, about who was doing what when and under what when.
I may do an in-depth post sometime on the whole experience, but for now I'll offer a simple timeline to clear the air:
(I'm doing this from memory, so I may revise these a bit after publishing)
June 2008: I launch CambridgeReporter.ca. it's a community-driven site where anyone can submit stories and opinion. It's intended to be more news than opinion - similar to NowPublic.com but on a smaller scale.
October 2008: TorStar sends me a friendly email about how they still own the Reporter name and they'd appreciate it if I could stop using it. Important to note that in Sept 2008 TorStar did not own any of the relevant URLs, but in October, CambridgeReporter.com suddenly appeared with syndicated content from the K-W Record. Update: Rabble.ca did a story about this here: http://www.rabble.ca/news/cease-and-desist-i-dont-think-so
Later in October 2008: CambridgeReporter.ca becomes CambridgeVoice.ca.
Spring 2009: The Cambridge Voice becomes The Cambridge Advocate under new ownership. (I'm totally drawing a blank on the timing here, so I'll update after a little research)
There it is - my best recollection of the events surrounding my involvement with the Cambridge Reporter.
On the Twitter, there's already talk about trying again to create a community-driven local news & opinion website. Stay tuned.
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I'm a
Pranav Mistry on SixthSense Technology (TED Tuesday)
This absolutely blew my mind. The video pretty much speaks for itself, so I'll shut up now and let you watch.
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