I started in public media as a radio guy, and logged about 8000 hours as producer and on-air host. I did a bunch of other public broadcasting stuff, like television and that was fun! Then the Internet came beckoning as a way to extend the reach and impact radio, television, and everything else public broadcasting set out to do. I was hooked from Gopher on.
The Mosaic browser was developed about three blocks from my office at the University of Illinois. That got me pretty fired up. I started building websites and never looked back. But I think my history with the world of analog media (and the first versions of the Radio Shack TRS-80 but that's another story) set me up for the digital media age with a superpower: Macrovision
Macrovision is simply the ability to see patiently instead of jumping at the latest shiny object. I think this is important when technology keeps changing and every day there are a dozen new shiny objects. I love learning things (programming, tools, musical instruments) but now there's too much for any one person (me anyway) to learn completely. I use my macrovision to try and see where things came from, where they're going, and then to zoom in on the pieces we can truly leverage.
Leverage in service of what? To what ends? I can't say this any better, so I'll quote Bill Siemering's public media mission statement from the early days of NPR:
The total service should be trustworthy, enhance intellectual development, expand knowledge, deepen aural esthetic enjoyment, increase the pleasure of living in a pluralistic society and result in a service to listeners which makes them more responsive, informed human beings and intelligent responsible citizens of their communities and the world.
And have some fun...
If you want to get in touch, message me on Twitter and I'll respond soon as I can.
Also check out my photo blog for more pictures of my hiking expeditions.
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