It’s amazing how we tend to reflect on the past during the beginning of a new year. In my case, when we moved to Petaluma in the mid-90s, the ” Computer Information Age” was just starting to take off with the rapid expansion of the Internet. WWW was recognized as the abbreviation for the World Wide Web, and the computer world was becoming known as ICT (Information and Communication Technology.) Our Information Highway was heavily traveled and the push was on for everyone to become computer literate.
Five years ago, 2006, this site was using blog categories such as Our Cyberspace and Our Cyberplace to report new applications and ICT trends. To my surprise, when I re-read my second Our Cyberplace-Petaluma blog that was titled, “Am I an Internet Addict?” I made the observation that, “the first thing I do each morning … even before I read the newspaper … is to turn on my computer and check the first batch of 50-100 e-mail messages for the day. ((In today’s world, I know that many readers would claim they do that on their cell phones or iPods.)
What I’m leading up to are the recent ads in both the Argus-Courier and The Press Democrat introducing their “eEditions” to both subscribers and non-print subscribers. Both of these New York Times owned newspaper describe their eEdition as ” an exact replica of the print edition that you can read on your home computer, laptop, or iPad. You can view and flip through each section and see everything that is in the print version, including ads, comics and puzzles.”
Their list of unique features include the ability to: search by keywords, print pages, e-mail stories, increase the print size, and view editions from the last 12 months. Print subscribers can add the eEdition for an introductory price of $3.00/month, and non=print subscribers can subscribe to the eEdition for $10.99/month.
Other readers might ask, “Where does the newly created Petaluma Patch Newsletter fit in this picture? What impact might it have on our Information Highway or Our Cyberplace. Stay tuned. Feel free to make your comments.