Initial Posting - Sunday Morning, October 23, 2005.

I thought I should provide a few thoughts on my initial entry and why I have decided an attempt to create a weblog of important and not so important experiences of my life.

• First. I believe writing is good for the soul; it allows us to express, refine, solidify, change and express through our eyes one's view of events, experiences and life itself.
• Second. I believe I am at a point in life where I would like to capture my thoughts and experiences for others to view; primarily my family and children.
• Third. I believe if used properly and responsibly, the digital tools we have available provide superior archival and accessibility of information. I do not want to write in a journal and worry about leaving it somewhere or getting damaged.

It is important on my initial post to recognize an important person who introduced me to the electronic frontier and encouraged me to explore the many applications for communication. Perry Nelson, a colleague and friend provided me a copy of "Being Digital", by Nicholas Negroponte, Vintage (January 3, 1996), 272 pages, ISBN: 0679762906. As I read the book, and Perry demonstrated the "possibilities" for endless applications in learning, communication, commerce and information gathering, I became intrigued. This was over a decade ago.

Being Digital - Nicholas Negroponte, Editorial Review: Amazon.com

As the founder of MIT's Media Lab and a popular columnist for Wired, Nicholas Negroponte has amassed a following of dedicated readers. Negroponte's fans will want to get a copy of Being Digital, which is an edited version of the 18 articles he wrote for Wired about "being digital."
Negroponte's text is mostly a history of media technology rather than a set of predictions for future technologies. In the beginning, he describes the evolution of CD-ROMs, multimedia, hypermedia, HDTV (high-definition television), and more. The section on interfaces is informative, offering an up-to-date history on visual interfaces, graphics, virtual reality (VR), holograms, teleconferencing hardware, the mouse and touch-sensitive interfaces, and speech recognition.

In the last chapter and the epilogue, Negroponte offers visionary insight on what "being digital" means for our future. Negroponte praises computers for their educational value but recognizes certain dangers of technological advances, such as increased software and data piracy and huge shifts in our job market that will require workers to transfer their skills to the digital medium. Overall, Being Digital provides an informative history of the rise of technology and some interesting predictions for its future. -- This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

In closing, I must also thank my brother Rob who never fails to help me maintain curiosity about the world and unconditionally supports every new endevor I attempt.