The Future in the Present

I’m writing this now because I’ve been working on a project for the last 6 weeks that is a culmination of a lot of thinking I’ve done since finishing my master’s degree in 2011. So far, it has consisted of a weekly live video chat with some of my more technologically inclined friends, but I hope to expand this project more soon. I call it +Future Tech Chat, and in these discussions we delve into the world of the near technological future, or the recent present to share ideas and information about technology with the world.

I have a lot of strong ideas about technology, the internet, and the world we now live in. I’m eager to talk about these ideas and to share them with you, and I really hope you like what my friends and I have done so far. We’ve discussed cell phone carriers and data plans, social media, “the cloud” and many other little topics in between. The episode this week covers digital photography, a topic that has become very near and dear to my heart in the last year. The motivation for covering photos and video in the context of the internet stems from a conversation I had with my sister on the weekend. She is currently studying in Dijon, France for a semester, and she has been taking lots of pictures (as girls her age are wont to do when travelling). When we had a video chat last weekend, she wanted to share a collection of pictures she took with her phone with myself and my parents (who are in Calgary and were also on this video call).

As is so often the case, we had to give up this endeavour right away, because she had no system in place to keep her photos backed up online. She had been sharing small sets of photos on Facebook, but if she wanted to keep her family and close friends more updated on her life in France, she was unaware that there are valuable sets of tools to do just that on the internet. I intend to address that tomorrow at 12:30 PM on the next Future Tech Chat (viewable here directly!). These chats are scheduled as events on the Google+ page +Future Tech Chat and can be viewed directly from there, or on the YouTube channel.

Mostly, what I want to accomplish with this weekly (for now…*foreshadowing*) webcast is to be able to open the eyes of those around me to the possibilities that the internet and our current technologies present to us on a daily basis. For those people out there who wish to do more with technology, to solve problems and to bring people closer, this is the place for you.

For now, if you have any questions or suggestions for topics you’d like to see discussed (no tech topic is off-limits), there are a few ways to get in touch with me or to stay in the loop about the project (or to provide advice/constructive criticism).

Google+: +Future Tech Chat (follow the page and/or leave a comment)

Twitter: @FutureTechChat (follow the account or tweet @ me)

Facebook: Future Tech Chat (like the page and leave a comment)
*I do not like Facebook for this because it limits reach of posted content from people and pages to encourage paying to promote posts)

Email: [email protected]

And thanks to +Mike Attrell, +Carolyn Higman and +Nick Maddox for helping me out in getting this started! If you are interested in participating in a future chat, please let me know.