They called it the Trash 80!

It was in 8th grade that I began to discover what it was the I loved in computers. At the time, our school had 2 computer labs – one full of Tandy TRS 80s, and another full of Mac Plus units. I struggled with the doldrum of coding BASIC – school friends who were able to think more like the computer language did well, and I often had to plead for a little help on homework. The language didn’t feel right to me. A blinking asterisk symbolized a loading program? A spinning forward-slash symbolized a rendering formula? I felt somehow wronged by the silver and black box, with its glowing green letters. The next semester, the world opened up to me in the Mac Plus class. Sitting down to VisiCalc, the visual user interface and mouse completely democratized the computing experience for me. I immediately understood the potential, and i was in love!

I do believe that technology can help us distribute the wealth of ideas and opportunity that all of us deserve to have access to. It was the same level of excitement when I first discovered the web in 1993. The Internet opened the world to me. It tore down geography and granted me connections to communities I had lost touch with or had always wanted to be in touch with. Since then, I’ve dedicated my career to the amazing, empowering potential that is digital communication.

Now and again, I have nightmares though.  The letter ‘C’ chasing me down a cold, dark alley made of forward slashes.  Or was that just a flashback to my computer lit class in college?