I was sorry to miss the recent Webstock Mini event in Wellington a couple of weeks back.
But, the good news is that the presentations are now all available online:
http://www.webstock.org.nz/recordings.php
If you didn’t get along, make sure you check out the 10×2 sessions.
This is the quote that grabbed my attention:
“The internet didn’t change my life at all.
I can’t remember life without the internet”.
– Josephine Hall
Ouch! That would have stung for some of the older people in the audience.
She is now 18 and talked about using the internet in 1996, while still at school, to research a science project.
I graduated in 1996. It was also around then that I read an excellent book called Growing Up Digital by Don Tapscott, about “N-Gen”, or the net generation. They (we, although I only just qualify!) are the echo of the baby boom, who have grown up surrounded by interactive technology.
From the book:
Technology is only technology to people born before it was invented
– Alan Kay
That’s why we don’t argue anymore about whether the piano is corrupting music with technology
– Seymore Papert
So, if you’re the sort of person who still marvels at the promise of the internet, take a look over your shoulder and see people, like Josephine, who are already taking it for granted and asking what they can actually do with it.
Hey, greetings from Palmy.
When I saw your post I thought of the ‘MindSet’ release one of the folks here does every year…
http://masseynews.massey.ac.nz/2007/Press_Releases/02-22-07.html
Nice that you are blogging, by the way :O)
Yes. As opposed to someone like me who didn’t send my first email until something like 33!
My first email would have been around 15 years ago, when you could dial in (at 2400 bits per second) to Wellington City Council Citynet. You would log (very patiently) into a remote server and send an email using a very cryptic command line mail program. It was really just a game though; I could email myself and, I think, someone else from my grandma’s work. It took a long time for it serve a useful purpose for me…
Early on though, I had a lot more fun on IRC, where I talked with people in Scandinavia and the states, who back then had “T1″ connections, which I understand would still be quicker than a Telecom “Broadband” connection, despite that being early 1990s …