A Promising Start to the New Year for Followers of Technology

I took a break from blogging over the holidays and now plan to go quiet for another few days while on vacation.  But one recent news item bears mention here -- a Boston Globe report on the nearly $1 billion in venture capital Massachusetts received in 2013.  As a communications professional who stumbled into the technology world many years ago, this is welcome news as we look ahead to 2014.  I feel fortunate to live and work in a region where so much of the technology that impacts our lives today is created -- technology that designs the products we use, enables us to better communicate with one another, entertains us when we're bored, informs us when we're curious, aids us when we're sick.  Now its true we're not alone as a technology hub, but no other region has the history and the resilience that our state can claim.  I look forward to continuing to tell those stories of those companies that make up the Massachusetts tech community.  And there will be many stories -- as this Globe story reports, while this level of investment made for a positive 2013, technology companies have a lot to look forward to in the year ahead.

Even on Vacation, There's No Escaping the Media....and That's A Good Thing

I'm just a few hours away from the first vacation in years that'll take us outside the US (assuming Key West and the Conch Republic don't qualify as foreign lands...some might disagree).  And for the first time, I'm not packing my laptop (I'm even leaving the tablet behind).  Nonetheless, I feel as connected as ever -- thanks to a smartphone with access to the Internet.  With email, Facebook, Twitter, chat groups, and my favorite blogs, websites and newsfeeds, I'll be as connected to my family, friends and colleagues as  if I were in my living room.  And through those family, friends and colleagues, I'm far more connected to happenings around the world than the days when we were solely dependent on traditional media.  I'll learn of breaking news via Twitter and Facebook.  I'll see insights and opinions on these developments from those I follow.  And I'll still be able to turn to the traditional media's websites to learn even more about what's happening -- in my hometown, with my sports team, with the businesses I'm interested in.  It's another example -- one we're all very familiar with -- of how media has evolved.  There are those who view vacation as an opportunity to step away from work, from day-to-day life back home.  That's not so easy today...and I'm not unhappy about this.  Now, I enjoy a vacation with the best of them, but I welcome the fact that  I have this connection to work and home.  Instead of  sitting in my hotel room searching for CNN or looking for a day-old USA Today at an airport newsstand, all the media I want and need will be in the palm of my hand.