Why this blog?
Several years ago, I decided go digital. My dream looked something like this: Every letter/email I write, every lesson I plan, every resource I need for teaching or any of my many pet projects would be locked away on my laptop's hard drive. These files would be organized in such a manner that they could be located and recalled nearly instantaneously. Files would be cross-referenced by category (using aliases/shortcuts, etc.) and possible usage. Papers I had on-hand that were not yet on the computer would be scanned in and stored as either an image or OCRed and converted to RTF files. This data could then be accessed for use at home, the office, or in my classroom.
Over time, I've realized this is an impossibility in our society as it currently exists for a multitude of reasons. First of all, we are not even close to the paperless society that was promised us years ago—at work last year, for example, our faculty printed more than 2.5 million pages using our three copy machines. (Management was none too pleased when reporting that this is more than the local Kinko's does in a year on ten self-serve copiers.) I am flooded with paper at work, and so the dream of the paperless office is much more the vision than the reality. So, I've modified my original goal and am working to be As Paperless As Possible (APAP). More on this to come.
Add to this the inherent technology problems associated with my visions. Storage space, for one. Although hard drive sizes are increasing rapidly, I was naive to believe even for a moment that storing all this info would be possible on any factory-issued drive. My laptop is now essentially pinned at its 40GB limit, and I have but a fraction of the information I would like to store on the drive. It's all the digital media that clogs thing, of course. My iTunes music library alone accounts for something like 14GB of this used space, and I don't have anywhere close to my entire CD library stored digitally. As above, more on my plans for overcoming this little obstacle soon.
Another issue is the organizational structure itself. How was the data to be stored? As individual files in category folders, indexed for searching? In one of the many storage database apps (that followed my own effort, the packrat, I might add) on the market? (I have purchased more than one, only to have them essentially unused.) In some other manner? Honestly, sorting all those files, cross-referencing them, adding keywords, etc. is a much larger undertaking than I had originally imagined. Hell, I routinely save downloaded files to the desktop until it is practically covered, then "organize" the problem by creating a new folder ("Untitled Folder 17") and dragging them all into it. I still don't have it figured out, and this is one point of the blog: "talking" out loud and sorting through things as I go.
I added a wiki to my website this weekend. Why not post and organize these thoughts there? I considered it. However, I decided that the blog is a more appropriate forum. The wiki is locked to public access, and this seems like a project that at least might be of interest to others. Additionally, I would love to hear comment from others who have taken on similar challenges, with success or no. The only way to get such feedback is to offer my story up to the public for review. Thanks for stopping by.
