Please Forgive Me, I'm a Digital Immigrant

I don't know why it took me so long. The signs were everywhere for many years... even my best friend studied new media back in the late '90s when it was just emerging as a field. She went on to work at Microsoft and Intel. But this print journalist (and supposed professional communicator) kept plugging away at her day job, and today I'm left playing catch up.

This blog is part of my education: 2009 is a year that will be devoted to learning about how to communicate effectively. In today's world, I don't think you can do that without digital technology, from blogging to Twitter, podcasting to texting. You can follow me on Twitter @marythebutler.

While I figure out the next career move (and how to get there), I'll be experimenting here with all that I'm learning in the classroom, in books, and at conferences. I attended the Thin Air Summit in October and took pages of notes while everyone around me surfed the Web on their laptops and iPhones. Yes, I'm a slow-to-adapt digital immigrant. Try not to hold it against me. I hope we can learn from each other.

I'll end this inaugural blog post with a book recommendation. Last night, I finished Taking on the System by Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos fame. I was deeply inspired by the book's many stories of how bloggers and the netroots movement have effected social change, from the Jena 6 to the election of Barack Obama. For me, Moulitsas shed new light on how the world's "gatekeepers" shape conventional wisdom and how those of us in the netroots movement can push for -- and bring about -- better transparency in government and politics and, in the end, fairness and justice.