I will demystify the internet in 2009...

I’m in sentimental mood today. It’s probably just that time of the year. I’m snowed in working from home. My mind is wandering. I catch myself thinking of holidays past, bygone family,friends, kids’ grownup, lost loves, and through my window watch the snow falling. It’s year end. I get to decompress for a couple of weeks.

Back in Grad School, I studied Chaos Theory for a time as a premise for a computer music composition. As I reflect over this past year it strikes my funny bone, “Talk about chaos! What an amazing epic marathon of unforeseen change we all shared this year!” As the company tech evangelist, I had no idea where this years adventure might take me. In hindsight, I’m fortunate. It was awesome. I have never had a single year of growth like this one. We were all tested.

I traveled around a lot this year and had the opportunity to talk with many of you about adopting internet technologies and strategies into your way of doing business. I am thankful for all of those conversations. I learned a lot from you and it changed my life. I’m officially in the beginning of a new age.

In a philosophical mood I don’t have many answers today, or questions for that matter. More like random thoughts just passing through. They kind of stop by and say, “There’s really nothing to do with me right now, but don’t forget me, okay.”

I think about the myths the internet often comes wrapped in and wonder why some embrace and others flee. I ask myself, “Why do we play and work with it, in it and on it most every day?” Because of it we spend time together or alone. Sometimes we stress over it fearing we know nothing or little about it. Sometimes we seem to run towards it and away from it at the same time. Yet, as a society we appear to embrace it like, “Oh boy, a new toy!” Or was that the media speaking? Wait a minute, we are the media.

Who would have thought?

The internet in technical terms is now over a bazillion electronic thing-a-ma-jiggies connected to at least as many wired or wireless which-a-ma-call-its woven together in such a way that we are now one great big interconnected global community. Like it or not, that’s our world.

Okay, with that explained…

Once upon a long time ago, predating the dawn of the www, back in 62, the internet timeline was just beginning. The U.S. government was busy working on Arpanet (precursor to the internet) and even back then the Computer History Museum states big corporations like AT&T were vying to dominate its future.

I was at Century 21 in 1962, the Seattle Worlds Fair. One really cool thing I remember, beside spending all my change on Space Needles and such from coin operated vacuum molded plastic vending machines, was having my horoscope created on a UNIVAC computer that kicked out a sorted stack of punch cards to illuminate the meaning of my life. “Now that’s technology!” I still have the punch cards.

What was awesome about the fair was the very premise itself. Century 21, the future through science and technology… “What 12 year old boy wouldn’t love that?”

Sleek modern buildings like the Space Needle, cool science, hover cars, a bubbleator, and the monorail. We looked and dreamed of technologies to come including space travel. We had four years to go before the first episode of Star Trek. (That’s another story.)

Did you know that President Kennedy pressed a telegraph key while on Easter Holiday in Florida to start a radio telescope in Maine that captured impulses from a star 10,000 light years away and directed them to Seattle, WA, April 21, 1962 at 11:00 AM to officially open Century 21?

“The future was here!”

The most significant technology created in 1962 (as it turns out) was probably Steve Russell’s “SpaceWar!” One of the very first games intended for computers. Who could have known back then that video games in North America would generate $18.5 billion in 2007?

Meanwhile, back in Renton we were busy being The Jet Capital of the World building Boeing 707’s.

We were watching shows like the Beverly Hillbillies, Lucy, The Ed Sullivan Show, Gunsmoke, and The Twilight Zone on black & white television. We were listening to Elvis, Doing the Twist at the Peppermint Lounge, and Surfin’ with a new band called the Beach Boys.

The Northwest also had a host of great local bands getting air time and playing the dancehall circuit. We went to the movies to see Spartacus, West Side Story, Hatari, and The Flower Drum Song.

The Beatles and the British Invasion were still two years away. The Beatles played Seattle on August 21, 1964. I saw them at there second Coliseum concert when they returned on August 25, 1966. I say ‘saw’ because the screaming girls were so loud we never heard the music. My ticket for the 3:00 PM show was $6.00. It was another life changer event.

I digress…

Anyway, all these years later a better life through science and technology is still a little elusive it seems. It grows and redefines itself exponentially. It needs continuous examination I think. Today however, I find myself with no big need to know how the innards of the internet work. Yet, I am evermore fascinated about the possibilities. Like Lego’s, if you snap the right parts together in a certain way you can make some really cool stuff happen and instantly share it with the world.

Oh great tech spirit in cyberspace…

May we embrace technology from where we are and grow.

May we remain the 12 year old and play.

Like light bulbs, cars, and indoor plumbing;

Like cell phones, iPods, email, and the big screen TV.

Bless the internet, our indispensable thing-a-ma-jiggy which-a-ma-call-it appliance.

Wishing you... Happy Holidays, and a Merry Christmas…

I have ‘demystifying’ on the calendar for 2009!

René

PS… Did I tell you I just got a 500 gigabyte hard drive for $63.00?

Note: Some scholars have argued that the access to massive amounts of information, together with the widespread ability to communicate, has altered the way that human beings perceive reality.