How Time Flies! - by FCTV Executive Director Debra Rogers

In 1993, my first computer was a Mac Plus. You remember—it was the one with the 9-inch monochrome CRT display. When I first attempted to go “online” via the local tech school, it was slow and confusing. I wasn’t quite sure how this was going to make my life easier. My daughter Amanda was five and didn’t much care for the little time I spent trying to go online.

Then along came AOL. I remember the squawk of the dial-up tone like it was yesterday. It started to sink in that maybe the Internet was something I could really use. Attending Alliance for Community Media national conferences, I listened to Dirk Koning explain the 1’s and 0’s of the bit stream flowing through telecom networks and what this would mean to the future of local access centers. I listened, but hate to admit how many times my eyes glazed over.

My next computer had a color display and the dial-up had improved immeasurably. At ten years old, Amanda enjoyed playing Slingo on AOL and told everyone online when it was her birthday. Then, everyone in her Slingo game would wish her “Happy Birthday.”

Time passed and e-mail became part of our daily lives. How did we live without it? With no more dial-up, we were online constantly, communicating with staff and board members and asking questions of our Alliance peers from across the country. Telephone calls gave way to e-mail and online forums.

For Amanda, Slingo gave way to AOL Instant Messenger and chatting online with friends. She was 15 then, and I could have lived without all the time she was spending online.

Now, fast forward to 2010. My access center lives and breathes via the Internet. All of our programs are streamed live and many are available on demand. We have streamed programs from locations around town using a laptop and digital switcher. Our website is Drupal-based and interactive. We send out a weekly e-mail bulletin to our members publicizing our program schedule, show highlights, class listings, and weekly events. We use Facebook to promote ourselves and post videos. Alongside classes in field and studio production, we teach content management, posting your videos to the Internet, and digital editing. We have a computer center for seniors. My board of directors receives their meeting packets electronically. Our playback system also is web-based. We allow our snowbird residents to watch selectmen
meetings online all winter long from the comfort of their warm Florida condominiums.

Thankfully, they never have to miss their favorite access show. They write letters to the editor of our local paper about what they saw on our channel (via our website).

I could never have imagined how broadband networks would change my life personally and professionally. The Alliance LISTSERV is an amazing resource. Answers to queries come in the blink of an eye. Need to research equipment? No problem. Want to watch or share a video? Easy. Read the newspaper or a book, or Skype with a friend. How did we live without it?

Amanda is now 22. Her last paper was on cloud computing. She lives and breathes Facebook, has a laptop, and always carries a Blackberry and an iPod Touch with her. And so do I. We Blackberry message... a lot. My daughter graduated from college on May 15 and is moving to an apartment in Boston.
I read that engineers are developing technology to transmit sensation of touch over the Internet.

I sure hope so, because I miss her already.

Congratulations, Amanda.

(Originally published in Community Media Review, Summer 2010 edition.)