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Raw Bytes Computer News KPBX FM 91.1 Radio National Public Radio Network Frank Delaney Producer Broadcast on Thursday Morning 7:35 AM During Morning Edition Support Public Radio ! The Theater Of the Mind |
In computer news this week –
06-28-2006 |
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Appreciating
the World Wide Web’s impact on communications The world
wide web only started around 1991, but has quickly grown to become a primary
communications tool. As with many
things in the computer industry, the creators of the WEB had no idea how it
would impact non-computer related communications. Today when you go to
google.com. you see they have over 8 billion web
pages indexed, and no one knows for sure exactly how many people use the web
for communications. Today
email has become my primary means of communications in both my business and
personal life. My friends and business clients know that the best way to get
me is via email. There are so many advantages of email. You don’t have
to play phone tag with someone – you can send them an email and tell
them specifically what you want to talk to them about – instead of
saying “Hey I need to talk to you – can you call me back?”
and you can send it at any time. If I
actually get a call on my phone, I figure its
usually either someone who doesn’t know me, or a phone solicitor. It’s
estimated by IDC Research that by 2006 the number of daily emails on the
internet will exceed 60 billion, and that half of them will be person to person
non-business related. I
recently realized my appreciation of the web as a communication tool. Way
back in 1985 I produced a blues show for KPBX called the Backwater Blues
show, and I was interested in doing some shows on the great Bluesman Mississippi
John Hurt. Someone
had told me that the Library of Congress had recorded him when he was
rediscovered in 1963, and I was interested in obtaining some specific folk
tales he supposedly had recorded.
I had to go to the Spokane library to even find the address of the
Library of Congress Folk Archives Library, and then I sent them a letter. Several
weeks later I received a letter, and the letter detailed the recordings and I
saw that indeed there were some folk tales about Mississippi he had recorded in
addition to his song repertoire. I then sent them another letter asking how I
could acquire these, but then I didn’t receive a reply for over a year,
apologizing for misplacing my letter, and there were further complications
and miscommunications, and I would have to get permission from a family
member to get the recordings, which I never did, and the project fell by the
wayside. It’s
now 20 years later, and I have been in email contact with Mississippi John
Hurt’s granddaughter who established a blues foundation in his honor. I
donated a website for the foundation, www.msjohnhurtmuseum.com and I
will be traveling to Mississippi next week to play at his festival and to do
research for a music special I will be producing for KPBX and a book I will
be writing. I have
met via email people from all over the world who appreciate his music.
60’s musician John
Sebastian who named his group “The Lovin’ Spoonfull
“ after Mississippi John Hurt’s song Coffee blues, a professor in Ontario who is helping
to transcribe his guitar music, an artist in England wanting to add his
unique computer graphics touch to photographs, a grand-nephew who was
personally taught how to play guitar by John himself. and
the Mississippi John Hurt Blues Foundation gets daily hits from all over the
world. MJH Museum
Website Visitors Without the
web it was impossible. Now all communications happens instantly and
internationally. Ah, the world wide web .. For Raw Bytes This is Frank Delaney (C) 2005 MTA Micro
Technology Associates http://www.mtamicro.com/kpbx.html (509)624-7230 |
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