Posted by Jennifer | Sep 29th, 2008 3:33pm
This post is in response to the MIMA Blog Carnival. The Summit is happening Wednesday, October 1st. EatonGolden will be there, say hi.
Will email be marginalized? This is an intriguing question. I happen to think that when a tool outlives its usage, it becomes marginalized. So, if email becomes less useful than other forms of communications, people will use it less, after all it’s really about the humans. 
I hope that Facebook and MySpace don’t own the entire landscape. Both of these sites are walled gardens.
SMS is another matter. SMS costs money. So if you have an unlimited plan, SMS may in fact be your main mechanism of communication, but if you don’t have a plan it’s very very expensive and probably not an effective main channel of communication.
People will connect to people however it works best for them. I believe email will be around for awhile. It’s still a killer app. It’s also reliable in a way that some of these other things are not. And it’s definitely important for late adopters. I can’t imagine my mom on Twitter. I’m just saying….
Posted in Conferences
Posted by John | Sep 10th, 2008 4:09pm
We wanted to let our clients know that as of October 1, 2008 the vendor (37 Signals) that provides our ProjectPath online application (Basecamp) will no longer support Internet Explorer 6.0. If you are using this browser the site will display an alert to upgrade to a newer browser. You can read their blog post about it here.
What does this mean for IE 6 users?
- You can still access the site, but you may not be able to use some of the new features they add.
- It is unlikley that this change will impact you in the near future, but future upgrades might not work with IE6
- It’s a good excuse to contact your IT department and see if they can help you upgrade.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Please let us know if you have any questions or difficulty accessing the site.
Posted in Clients, EatonGolden, Internet
Posted by Mollie | Sep 8th, 2008 9:44am
I recently made a post in my personal blog that I think is also relevant to this forum:
The Way Words Were
I stumbled upon the “Campus News” page of Lake Superior State University website, where a story discusses the university’s annual list of words and phrases that should be banished. I paused on the following posted comment:
Back in the day, we used “back-in-the-day” to mean something really historical. Now you hear ridiculous statements such as “Back in the day, people used Blackberries without Blue Tooth.”
While I understand the commentator’s point, I began to wonder: What is an acceptable time frame for something to be considered “really historical”? Is it the amount of time that has elapsed, or is it the degree of change in society? How do we pin down proper word usage when the context is constantly changing?
If new technology represents a historic change, then things will now become “historical” much more quickly. I’m sure those who have acquired an iPhone are marveling at their pre-iPhone life, and wonder how they managed. Every instance of “back in the day” that I’ve heard used in the manner mentioned by the commentator has had a tongue-in-cheek quality, an understanding that the phrase is being used in a new way. It’s an acknowledgment of how quickly we are making history with new technology every day. I’m sure the tongue-in-cheek manner of usage will drop away eventually as it is used more and more to refer to something from the recent past, and the phrase will truly change in meaning.
Such is the evolution of language, and technology will continue to quicken its transformation, especially now, in this interactive age. People can publish and spread anything to a vast interactive audience. Language aficionados and purists can continue to thrash madly against it, but as long as a word or phrase used in a particular way still has utility, and the meaning is understood by its contemporaries, it will continue to be used.
I sympathize though. At times, I seem to be possessed by a crotchety old man with a shuffling step and a brown corduroy blazer with elbow pads, who wishes language would just stay put. I have passionate singing sessions with the choir (the choir being other English majors), in which we scoff with exasperation over this or that affront to proper English as we know it.
Each generation has its own misgivings regarding changes to language, while its members have already acquired a previous set of changes and accept them as correct. I had a seventy-year old humanities professor, who lamented, “’Awesome’ used to mean that something was jaw-dropping amazing, worthy of awe. Now people use it to describe the Snickers they just ate!” I have committed this offense. In fact, I’ve also used “awesome” to indicate my pleasure with dinner plans being confirmed. I don’t associate the word with jaw-dropping awe because I’ve heard it used too many times to describe things that are not awe-worthy.
There is a line to toe, and because I have purist sympathies, I will always strive to correct my own blunders. I still look to a dictionary to confirm the meanings of words, and I usually have a writing handbook nearby, as does every writer I know. I care about language and want others to care as well. I want the evolution to happen in a sane and mindful way. But, as my cousin the doctor said, “Evolution is messy and disordered, and it always lurches forward without our control.”
Posted in Uncategorized
