MEETING IN MY JAMMIES

Remember when you were a kid, and you'd dream that you went to school in your jammies and everybody laughed? Well, it appears that those juvenile dreams were prophetic. I've just signed up for an on-line meeting service, Webex, that makes it possible for me to convene and attend meetings while sitting at my computer in my bathrobe, slamming coffee.

For the record, there are other providers of on-line meeting services, so this is not intended as a commercial for Webex. I haven't really used the service yet, so it remains to be seen whether it works as well as advertised. But the demo I watched online surely impressed me.

I decided to scope out Webex after talking with one of my clients. We were commiserating over what we anticipate will be a low turnout at our midyear meeting. Between travel costs and staff cuts, many companies are sending fewer people to industry gatherings. I suggested that the Board of Directors hold its mid-year meeting online instead.

The Webex system enables you to convene a meeting with up to 25 people. Each participant receives an invitation email containing a link to your Webex meeting center. The email also contains a password so that you can be admitted to the meeting when you arrive at the site. If the host wishes to have a conference call while gathered at the site, a toll-free number is provided.

The amazing thing is that once you're at the Webex meeting site, everyone sees the same documents you see. As host, you control the cursor, but you can hand over control to another group member at any time just by pushing a button.

For example, you might review one part of a new business proposal, and then turn the cursor over to someone else responsible for another portion. The host can reclaim control at any time.

If your computer has a built-in camera, as mine does, you can activate it so group members can see each other during the meeting. I quickly confirmed that this particular feature is optional for each participant. Since the whole point is being able to meet while still in my jammies, I'd probably skip the video, although I suppose I could make an effort to look presentable from the neck up.

You can even take an audio recording of the call so that people who were unable to attend can listen later.

I can't wait to have an excuse to use this service. Talk about feeling like a kid with a new toy!

DID YOU HEAR A COUGH??

Tonight I watched the President answer questions about health care and other issues during his prime-time news conference. I've watched Presidential press conferences dozens of times in the past, but this time was different. I was listening for something in particular.

As I've mentioned in previous blogs, I've become quite active on Twitter. In the process, I've established chatting relationships with some exceedingly interesting people. There's Tanka_BarLinda, who is in charge of marketing food products produced on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation (buffalo bars with cranberries). There's Keewatinrose, an Iron Ranger whose path I crossed many years ago in Northern Minnesota. And there's WestWingReports, a journalist who Tweets regularly about what's happening in the President's house.

I first noticed WWR (that's how he refers to himself in Tweets) when he made a couple of comments faintly critical of Obama. Although I'm an Obama supporter, I thought his criticisms were fair. But what really impressed me was that he also took a swipe at Obama's critics when he thought they were off base. Hm. A fair, even-handed--dare we say OBJECTIVE--reporter. Imagine my delight.

When Walter Cronkite died, I posted a Tweet mourning the loss of "one of the last real journalists of our time." That caught WWR's attention, and we began Tweeting back and forth about our views of the current state of journalism. It was a thought-provoking and satisfying exchange. I was amazed that a White House reporter would a) care in the least about what I thought, and b) take the time to share his own views with me.

So yesterday, when I told WWR I'd be watching the President's press conference, he promised to cough loudly, precisely at 8:12 EDT (7:12 St. Paul time) just so I'd know he was really there.

At 7:00 tonight, when the President took the podium in the East Room, I was standing six inches away from my TV wearing my cheaters so I'd be able to make out individual faces in the White House press corps, just in case WWR was on camera when he coughed up our secret signal. My sister and brother were watching too.

And at precisely 7:12, we heard a resounding and enthusiastic cough from the press section. The three of us looked at each other and grinned. That must have been WWR! Can you believe that, he really coughed--just for me! We have a secret buddy in the White House press corps! How cool is that??

Keep in mind, please, that I still don't know WWR's real name or what he looks like. I don't know what news outlet he works for or how long he's been covering the White House. I could walk right by him on the street and never know it. And while I'd love to meet him in person, that's almost beside the point.

Twitter created a personal connection between this slightly jaded, just-a-tad disillusioned PR hack sitting in her living room in St. Paul, MN, and a White House reporter who still believes in and honors the standards of honesty, balance and fairness in the tradition of journalistic giants like Walter Cronkite. I wish I could explain how good that makes me feel.

THE MAN IN (ON) THE MOON

Forty years ago today, I sat on a lawn chair in the empty living room of my brand new house (new for me, that is) and watched Neil Armstrong take mankind's first step on the moon. In my arms was my newborn son, Patrick (about 3 months old at the time). I remember thinking as I looked from his rosy little face to the TV screen, "I can't even imagine the wonders this tiny boy will see in his lifetime..."

I was dazzled by the sophistication of the technology that made our moon landing possible. Science reporter Jay Barbree might as well have been speaking in tongues as he explained some of the technical aspects of the flight. I didn't understand a word of it, but I was filled with admiration for the geniuses who made it happen.

A few months later, I returned to college for my junior year. I managed to dodge science classes, while gobbling up courses in language, literature, history, speech/communications and music. The most complex technology in my life was a stick-shift Dodge Dart.

Fast forward forty years. Journalists covering the 40th anniversary of the moon landing are telling us that our cell phones are 200 times more powerful than the massive room-sized computers that powered the lunar lander. That completely blows my mind.

Every day, I work away at my Apple laptop, which weighs a little over two pounds and fits in my purse when I need to carry it with me. I climb into my computerized car, use my hands-free cell phone, get directions from a GPS unit, and go to dinner at a restaurant that I discovered online and e-mailed for reservations. I read my favorite mystery novels on an electronic reader that can store a thousand books at a time and is the size of one skinny paperback.

I support revolutionaries in far-off places, talk politics with journalists working in the White House, chat with Native groups in South Dakota and Montana about how to help American Indian kids, follow greyhound races at my favorite tracks, read recipes from up-and-coming chefs, encourage new entrepreneurs, get updates from distant family members and check the latest news, all on the internet. And, most amazing of all, it seems easy, natural--routine. What a difference forty years makes.

We've run a million miles since we walked on the moon. But I wonder. Will technology and human achievement ever dazzle us like that again? Now that we've run so far, will taking one little step ever again be so exciting?