Emerging technology and me!

Here's a sentence I would never imagine I could write: last week I found myself addressing an audience* of cutting-edge tech types at a conference on emerging technology at MIT.

Huh? Me? The woman who still hasn't quite figured out how to switch her cellphone to vibrate? It isn't just emerging technology I have trouble with - hell, I just bought my first car in May. I'm still working out issues with technology that's a century old.

But, nonetheless, there I was. Di-Ann Eisnor, of Platial, the online interactive mapping site she calls the People's Atlas, asked me to come with her for a panel presentation on new media. I was her representative Platial user. Platial has allowed me to make maps for NewEnglandGrown, like this one of New England sources for exotic meat and game. Platial is a fun toy to play with - people make their vacations, their favorite coffee shops and so on - and it has potential to be a great community-building tool. I highly recommend you check it out, maybe build your own map. Great sources for cheese, the best places to pick apples, where to find wild mushrooms: the food-related possibilities are endless. You can add pictures and video, too.

And if you have an idea for a good map for NewEnglandGrown, let me know!



*If you read the piece at this link, I want to add that I did include a caveat that MOST farmers are even more low tech than I am, with some notable exceptions. Don't want to offend Walter Jeffries.