Welcome to the re-designed "Digital Future" blog. I've re-located to Blogger to simplify some of the headaches that I was getting using WordPress.com to try and include simple things like Javascript and to match the many other JRC staff sites out there in the blogosphere.

A lot has happened since the last time I blogged on the old site, so let me take a minute to catch you up.

Here at The Record, we've had great success in our crowdsourced community project to bring the San Francisco Giants' World Series Trophy to Troy, where the team's original roots began more than 100 years ago.

The trophy is scheduled to make a stop here in early May and we're very excited to learn more of the details from the Giants as soon as we can. Photo-ops in our office/Community Media Lab would sure be cool.
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You make have heard of JRC newspaper The Register Citizen make some major headlines lately (Such as NY TIMES: "Walk In, Grab a Muffin and Watch a Newspaper Reinvent Itself"), and for good reason.

All the commotion is about the opening of the paper's new building, dubbed "The Register Citizen Newsroom Cafe." The new layout has no walls between the newsroom and community areas designed to welcome the public in and become a part of every part of the news gathering/planning process. They even hold live-streamed news meetings each day at 4 p.m., which the public is encourage to participate in - both in person and online.

Reporters, editors and members of the public participate in an "open"
daily story meeting at The Register Citizen Newsroom Cafe Dec. 13.

It's a revolutionary model for what can be done to revitalize the news industry, but it's also particularly interesting to myself and others here at The Record, as we recently learned that we will soon experiment with a similar model in our existing building at 501 Broadway in downtown Troy, NY. The major changes are tentatively scheduled to begin in early 2011, so stay tuned for more info on that as I get it!

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It truly has been a year of big changes here at The Record and throughout Journal Register Company.

To summarize, I'll let our CEO John Paton do the talking in the video below, as well on his latest blog post.



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Finally, let me fill you in on the new approach I'm aiming for as far as equipment around our office.

This is a picture of my new computer setup at office - my ideaLab netbook hooked into a desktop monitor with USB peripherals when in the office, completely mobile in under a minute when I'm not.

Myself and one of reporters are testing out working solely off of these netbooks (Since all of our reporters now have them with built in air cards! Go mobile filing!) and logging into our editorial system when needed using Citrix. So far it's worked without any major hiccups. Let's hope it keeps going and that the whole office can soon be rid of their Windows 2000 desktop dinosaurs!