October/November 2005

Volume 46, Number 2

Ride the Wave, Pick Your Fave: How to Keep Up with Emerging Technologies

by Deb Lockwood

I've seen it on our chapter's listserv. I've heard it from protégées I was mentoring. I've heard it from co-workers, from fellow church attendees, and from my relatives: "How does anybody stay on top of technology these days?" That is a great question. And the rate at which new technology is being pushed out to the market seems to be accelerating with every passing day.

From previous experience, I do have a few suggestions. If you have other suggestions that I haven't mentioned here, please contact me at vice_president@stcrmc.org, and I'll publish your suggestions in a follow-up article next month.

The following steps will help you to stay on top of technology:

• Read the technology news at a high level to get a feel for what is out there and what is being touted as the next great thing.
• Make a list of topics in which you are interested.
• Research those topics in more detail.
• Search for educational opportunities.

Reading Technology News

My first suggestion is to read up on technology news online. As I've often said to my co-workers, there are times when I just don't know what I don't know. Reading technology news will help you to understand the types of technologies that are currently out there and what is on the horizon.

Start with the following resources and browse the technology news.

• Read the STC's magazine, Intercom, looking for articles that discuss technology.
• Go to the STC's Web site and search for proceedings from past conferences. (Go to www.stc.org, click Publications, Search Pubs. On the Publications Search page, check the Annual Conference Proceedings option, type keywords, and click Search. Hint: Look at Neil Perlin's "Beyond the Bleeding Edge" articles.)
• CNET - http://www.cnet.com/ (includes product reviews)
• New York Times Technology pages - http://www.nytimes.com/pages/technology/
• TechWeb http://www.techweb.com/
• Network World - http://www.networkworld.com/
• Google's Sci/Tech pages - http://news.google.com/news?ned=us&topic=t
• Wired News - http://www.wired.com/

Making a List

After you have read through some technology news, the second step is to make a list of the technologies that are of interest to you. Your list could include things that affect your clients, or things that just spark your imagination. For me, Wi-Fi technology and all of its younger cousins (e.g., WiMAX) are interesting to me because my employer supports telecommunications providers. Therefore, I tend to gravitate to articles about wireless and telecommunications technologies.

I will caution you that since there is a great deal of software, hardware, and communications technology information to be had, you might want to be selective in what you read. Read broadly in your area of interest, and note four or five things that interest you. Then concentrate on getting more information about those four or five things.

Researching Topics

After you have your list of topics, it's time to do some more research, and the STC is a great starting place. The Rocky Mountain Chapter of STC has monthly meetings, and this year we have a particularly dynamic slate of speakers. In fact, during the October 2005 meeting, Dave Taylor covered all sides of blogging: the what, the why, the how, and the when. It was a terrific presentation, and it gave me everything I needed to know to determine that I really needed to create my own blog.

If you attend the annual STC international conference, you will find many sessions about new technologies. While at the sessions, it is very likely that you will meet people who already know about that technology and would be willing to talk to you about it in more detail. (The 2006 conference is in Las Vegas, which is a quick and easy trip from Colorado!)

You can also go to the www.stc.org site and search for past articles and conference topics on your topic. Go to the Publications link, select Search Pubs, and enter the search criteria key words.

Searching for Educational Opportunities

There may be one or two of your topics that you want to know more intimately. In that case, you may want to take an introductory class or tutorial on that subject. Several of the community colleges and most technical schools offer night classes for returning students. Or you might be able to find a class online. In some cases, you might even find enough information online free of charge!

Do you know which company created or is using the technology, or do you know the entity that is responsible for its upkeep? If yes, then go to its Web site and look for training materials or tutorials. For example, to learn more about Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), you could go to the www.w3.org site, click Site Index, and click the CSS link. The Cascading Style Sheets Home Page contains a Learning CSS link that, when you follow it, will lead you to an incredible wealth of information on CSS, including free tutorials.

Staying on Top

In this article I've discussed a few steps you can take to stay on top of the technology buzz. There are ample ways for you to become exposed to what is happening with the technology around you.

It is the nature of emerging technologies that we will just get interested in or exposed to one technology when the next great thing will appear on the horizon. Don't get discouraged. Remember that you don't have to be an expert in all of these fields (or at least, we should hope not). Just stay engaged by reading technology news, making a list of topics that are of interest to you, and researching those top