Editors note: This is one of several columns that I wrote for the Columbia Missourian. They were originally called Your Digital World
Let me take my first week with you to explain why this column is called “Your Digital World.”
It’s because I hope to cover everything about this distinct realm that we all exist in and interact with.
I hope this will not just be a question and answer forum, though we will do that, but a guide to your entire digital world.
In the “real” world we work, we get sick, we have fun, we meet new people, we learn, we fall in love.
Everything you can do in the “real” world you can also do in your digital world. Here’s how I hope to help you explore and understand that alternate universe composed of ones and zeros:
Work: I want to show you how to use digital devices such as computers and Personal Digital Assistants, (i.e. Palm Pilots and Pocket PCs), to get your work done efficiently and with the least amount of hassle.
Health: This is the bread and butter of most technology columns, and it’s something I don’t want to overlook. How can I help you make your digital world better? Are you having problems with your operating system, do you want to know how to organize your data better, how to avoid viruses? I really want to hear your questions about everything digital. I’m here to help.
Fun: The digital world is not just for corporate pencil pushers and Excel-users. I hope to show you how to have fun. This means letting you know about Web sites, games and devices that let you have fun in the digital world.
Education: I know some of you don’t have much experience with computers, that’s great. I hope that I can use some of this space each week to provide you with information about how computers and other digital devices work. I want to help computer novices become beginners, and beginners become intermediates, and so on.
Community: Just like the real world, our digital world has communities. I’m hoping to create one with this column. I’ve created a Yahoo group for readers of this column. A group lets you send an e-mail to a single address and have it distributed to everyone on a list, (you can also choose to read the messages on a Web site, so you don’t flood your e-mail inbox). I’m hoping you, the readers, will use this as a forum to discuss everything I talk about in the column, and more.
For now, you can e-mail yourdigiworld-subscribe@yahoogroups.com to join our community or you can also visit the fledging Web page I’ve created for this column at www.heisel.org/yourdigiworld. Right now it has information about me, and a box where you can type in your e-mail address to join the group. (I hope to use input you give me to make the site provide the information you want.)
Now that I’ve told you what I hope to do here each week, tell me what you want me to do. Send me an e-mail to join our group. Let’s start exploring your digital world.
