Hello world!

Hello, world! Sure, I’ll keep that introduction. It’s as trite as an initial salutation can be, but still obligatory for a first post. In this blog, I’ll be talking about tech. It’s an area I’m comfortable covering, totally within my realm—especially having covered it my entire reporting life. But instead of writing news about the emergence of product after product—as is the coverage style in many news outlets—I will be focusing on the big tech trends and issues, and how they affect real people. So: tech developments that are increasingly affecting a wide swath of people (voice recognition and augmented reality, for instance), as well as innovations, startups and tech culture.

There are already many sources who get tech right. Buzzfeed Tech is excellent, for one. (Their mantra, “tech for humans,” is quite aligned with my interest.) Gizmodo‘s got their head screwed on right, too. TechCrunch is great for learning about new startups and innovations, and Wired is amazing for tech culture. If you’re interested in someone to follow on Twitter, Mat Honan and Matt Buchanan are active tweeters and amazing writers. John Gruber and Robert Scoble are both well-established figures to follow in the tech world.

People are still pretty skeptical about tech impacting their lives. They call themselves old and tired and say they can’t adapt to new platforms anymore, can’t get past regular pen and paper. But I would argue that when we harness the power of tech, we can get so much more accomplished than we would have before our networked world. For example: In the time I’ve put this blog up, I’ve gotten stranded in North Carolina with three other girls during a Science Writers Conference. My classmates and I were dumbfounded when we found out there would be a 44-hour wait time on the American Airlines customer service line before we would be connected to a real person on the other end. So I fired up FastCustomer app, and had it wait on the phone for me. My phone rang when there was an actual human being to talk to.

Meanwhile, I’ve been tracking Sandy on Google’s Crisis Response Center—which looked at the hurricane’s progress along its path via webcams, as well as emergency resources nearby. My classmates and I hit up a bar yesterday night, and watched NYC get razed to the ground on CNN on mute. But I was following a faster source: Twitter, which showed me a video of the exploding transformer on the Lower East Side before it was broadcast on television. If I hadn’t had the TV up in front of me at all, I could still find out what was going on.

My classmates and I have been itching to get back to New York. (I think it’s inherent in journalists to yearn to be part of the action.) But it’s all right—we’ll be back soon. Upon waking this morning, my TripIt app alerted me that my flight was still on track and that I should check in. We chose the window seat online so we could get an aerial view of the city flying in. I’ll see you soon, NY.