As part of the Big Bad Recruiting Blog Swap, todays post is brought to you by Yvonne LaRose of The Desk. Enjoy...
Working online hit the legal industry a very long time ago. Let's just say it was well established before 1970. Lexis-Nexis and then Westlaw provided online access to their databases to law firms and solo practitioners. For a monthly subscription fee, you got access to case reporters, codes, newspapers, and various other databases.
Before unleashing the firm's lawyers and paralegals on the tool, however, they first were sent to a training class on how to form a search string, how to access the database, how to select the database, how to call up the search results -- either in full text, short text, or headers -- and then how to sort and print all of that information. It all made sense. It became easier the more one used the tool. It was an alternative to the books but not a replacement.
I finally got a stand-alone PC while I was freelancing as a Hearing Board Clerk at the AQMD. After a while, it became more convenient for me to write up the Board's findings and decisions and send them to the Clerk of the Board so they could be printed. This was doable because I'd upgraded my PC by adding a 1.1 MB modem. Did that mean I was telecommuting? Was that term even in use then?
For me, the infusion of Internet access via a library came around 1993. Maybe it was 1994. I forget. That happens with things that you take for granted. But whenever it was, there was an election coming up. A state election. And I needed access to the ballot measures so that I could research them in full text and develop some of my radio programs based on the measures. The San Francisco library had just added Internet as one of its features. So I determined that was where I would gather my copies.
Well, I input my search terms and found what I wanted in short order. It was then just a simple matter of clicking on the link so that I could access the database that contained the content I wanted. I clicked. And I waited. And I waited, and waited, and waited . . . Why is this taking so long! As I said, you forget about some things after they're taken for granted. With all of my previous (1980 to 1993 or '94) online experience, there was no such thing as a long wait. Adding to that, this Internet stuff wasn't that different from Lexis or Westlaw. What's taking so long?!
The other thing that happens to all of us is that we get caught up in the swirl of progress and don't see the phenomenons happening. We don't appreciate the enormity of the dynamics.
So let's leap ahead a few years. It's 1998 and 1999. My computer suddenly dropped dead and needed to be replaced. The replacement was not a stand-alone PC with no hard drive, that was driven by 2.5MB floppy disks. Nope. It was a super fast, super saver with 2 GIGABYTES of hard drive storage plus Internet access. Not only that, it came with all this nifty preloaded software (and backup CDs, not floppies). Little did I know what was in store for me with that computer. It was my introduction to tech savvy.
The computer was loaded with pirated software, MS among them. The modem was set to be physically disabled in order to force the owner to return it to the builder so that they could, for an additional $45, enable the modem. The computer was built with damaged parts, a used hard drive, and many other issues. Over several months, on a weekly basis, Tech Support walked me through learning how to fix this, how to fix that. Out of fury and frustration (not easily daunted by very much), I ripped open the tower, yanked out the card, found the modem, and had Tech Support walk me through enabling it -- putting the cable into ON position.
And as more months passed, I found PointCast and learned about newsfeed, built three websites in HTML and learned about syndication, joined chat groups and writers groups, and web building groups, tech newsletters, and learned techie things. Lo, and behold, somewhere along the line, I discovered I had more than a pedestrian knowledge of tech issues and skills.
It was around 2001 that it finally hit me, this Internet stuff, this tech stuff. It was an entire industry that had been born. Not only that, by 2002 or so, the infant was developing specialty niches. They were so specialized that, with the plethora of other issues I was juggling, I was no longer among the membership but merely one watching the growth and doing whatever I could to maintain some knowledge of the evolution. That's how you can assess who's got what on the ball or not.
It's amazing how all those things that you just take for granted are actually technology, progress catching us up in its swirls, like a tornado, and dragging us along for the ride. When we get dumped on the side, we can look up and see what an amazing thing we've been riding.
Yvonne LaRose, CAC
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