[A Life Beyond Traditional Media] is a place for me to lay out my ideas on communications, technology, interactive trends, and other digital thoughts that pass through my mind — many half baked and unproven. It's also a place for you — friends, colleagues, strangers, random travelers — to agree, contradict, challenge, argue, and respond. It's a place for thinking out loud about the ways people connect through and with technology — whether it's building brands or building friendships. It's founded on my belief that we're still at the beginning of this internet thing, and that discussions of where we've been, where we are, and where we might go are essential to the health of the medium.
[A Life Beyond Traditional Media] isn't a technology blog — well, not exactly — OK, it's sort of a technology blog but not in the true sense. Technology blogs often look at how technology is changing the way we live, play, and communicate. I prefer to look at how the ways people choose to live, play, and communicate are changing the ways we use technology.
Call me a semantic hair splitter if you will, but I'll stand by this difference, even if it's often only one of perspective. Brilliant people are creating technology without clearly defined utility, and users are deciding what they will do with it. Is Twitter a microblog, a group chat, or a marketing platform? I've seen people use it in all those ways. Is Flickr a photo-sharing service or an open content stream for third-party apps like Flickrvision? Thanks to open APIs, it's both and more. And when you post to Facebook, Twitter, or your blog, do you use a browser, desktop application, mobile app, or simply email (or email from your mobile phone)? Well, it's really your choice.
Of course, having laid out my thesis, I should probably confess that I'm unlikely to stick to it. There are just too many ideas to play with, and … well … more often than not, I really can't resist.
