For the last two months, I’ve been heads down researching a book
Last week I left my home in rural San Diego, jumped on Virgin America’s commuter run up to San Francisco, rented a car and headed out to Sacramento, for some interviews and field research.
a fresh supply of new pens, four notebooks, my digital camera and my Sony “S” series portable computer.
Any good book involves a lot of research and detailed reporting. I had scheduled four interviews for this trip and set aside time to get into the field to meet people involved in the subject I want to write about.
I planned four interviews but ended up doing 18 by the banks of the several rivers that feed California’s mother vein, the Sacramento.
My interviews reminded me how much fun news reporting is, and how different the craft of news gathering is today than it was some 40 years ago when I was a cub.
The contents of my back pack attest to how reporting has changed dramatically. When I was young, my basic load was two reporters’ notebooks, two pens, a microcassette tape recorder, a 35 mm single lens reflex camera and a couple of rolls of film (one each Tri-X and Kodachrome). My back pack today is loaded with a digital tape recorder, notebook and cell phone power supplies, digital camera my portable computer, and a headset I use on my notebook for Skype phone calls.
Although the accouterments of reporting today are bulky, they’re not particularly heavy and as I unpacked my notebook for the first of several interviews with the apex historian of the phenomenon I want to write about, I had an “Aha!” Moment. The precise location the light bulb illuminated was in a library conference room in the SF Bay area. While waiting for my portable to attach to a public WiFi network, I glanced around and noticed numerous students reading content and taking notes on Apple iPads.
As long as I have access to web-based applications like Google Docs and Spreadsheets, and a keyboard, a slate computer should work just as well as the four pound notebook I carry now.
Furthermore, my interviewing style has changed dramatically— it’s become more structured-- over the last decade. I prepare for interviews by writing my questions out beforehand and entering responses to queries as well as recording interviews.
All of which is content related. And content is at the heart of slate computing.
So, my next computer will be a slate portable; with a long battery life, a comfortable USB keyboard, a 4G WLAN and WiFi connectivity. SO next Spring, if you’re up in Northern CA and see some dude, sitting on a river-worn rock, intently looking at a slate computer’s screen, say “Hi!”
18 interviews down, and about 132 to go. I had forgotten how much fun it is to be a reporter, uncovering placer-like jewels and chaining connections together to make golden points..
Oh and notice how I haven’t telegraphed the subject-yet? Jim Forbes on 10/22/2010.
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