Digital Gravitas

Hey everyone.  Let’s call this the mother of all housekeeping posts as I address all of you who wonder where the hell I went these past few months.  All 20 or so of you.  It’s no secret that my content that dropped off the face of the earth, which is sad given the website reboot last year that I was so happy about.  With that drop in content came the expected plunge in readership.  And it wasn’t for lack of things happening in the world or creativity.  I had things to share, I promise!  Still, here’s the skinny on the past semester: it was the hardest in a long time, but also the most rewarding.

Two things were important to my education this year: one was taking actual classes in the School of Media and Public Affairs (SMPA) at George Washington, where I am majoring in journalism.  This was my first semester of taking actual classes that were relative to the program (gotta hate totally irrelevant prerequisite classes, right?) and it was eye-opening.  SMPA prides itself on preparing journalism and political communication majors for the modern world (read: without newspapers), and much of my course work involved the inherent problems in the newspaper industry and its impact on our political system as a whole.  I won’t drone on about that, mostly because I hate politics and the fact that any reminder of the dire situation faced by the news media is rather depressing.  Suffice to say that things aren’t good.

It was in this atmosphere that the future of the blog has come into serious question.  As much as I love writing about technology, as much as I want to do this as a long as I can as a career, is Digital Gravitas sustainable?  My political communications professor Matthew Hindman, who specializes in internet politics and the future of political media, paints a pretty poor picture.  The fact is that the internet is not this big democratic machine that we all thought it was.  The big guys of internet news get bigger and the pool of bottom feeders scrounging for scraps only gets larger.  The blogosphere is not a gentle place and my chances of emerging from the bottom are next to none.  Worse yet, my chances of someone stumbling upon this site and lifting me out of this purgatory are equally slim.

So that’s one side of the equation: realizing that, as with all things, Digital Gravitas probably can’t last forever.  And that would be the end of the story, I’d close up shop and rededicate myself to my studies in the vain attempt for gainful employment.  But things are never that simple.  This semester also saw me in my very first professional internship.  I worked for the Telecommunications Industry Association, aka TIA.  Specifically in their media division called TIA NOW. I slightly hesitate at talking about my work, but rest assured TIA, I have only positive things to talk about.  TIA is one of the largest trade groups in the world for the telecommunication industry.  Every heavy hitter you can think of is a member: Apple, Intel, Microsoft, AT&T, Verizon, Alcatel-Lucent, etc.  If you know me at all, you can tell this was a dream come true.  I began working with people directly in the industry, people who would interview the CEO of GENBAND about their developments in wireless technology one day and then talk to Microsoft about broadband rollouts in rural areas the next.  My job as their digital media intern was a beautiful intersection of practical skills and the opportunity to learn more about the industry.  One hour I’d edit an interview with a panel of experts on green technology, while the next hour I would blog about a piece of policy that could have far-reaching impacts in the industry.

With this work, I remembered how passionate I could become about technology, and how important having intricate knowledge about technology can be.  In the end, I have no one to thank but myself and the work I have done with Digital Gravitas.  Having this blog has kept my nose to the ground on all things happening in the tech world.  It has made me analytical, objective, introspective, and most of all, craving for understanding.  I can’t leave that behind.

So, rest assured, this is not the end of Digital Gravitas.  Far from it.  As I sit here in my sleeping corner of Metro Atlanta, sipping a beer and blasting The Beatles, I’m also going through my Google Reader for the day’s news.  There are so many incredible things happening in the world of gadgets and tech that I just can’t stay away.  I know I can never report on all of it, and I can never promise that I’ll be able to keep updates as constant as they used to be.  Still, I hope that some of you, at least a few of you, will stick with me.

Here’s to the Future. Because it’s Already Here.