Meeting Media

In the early 1980's I was at a retreat for employees of a Birmingham radio station when the man running the meeting paused and called out one of the people at the table, suggesting he might learn something if he paid attention. The employee was looking down, typing on a weird looking textbook-sized "machine" unlike anything anyone had seen before. It was a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 100, the first "laptop" computer with a full-sized keyboard. "Dave" was paying attention...he was taking notes about what the speaker was saying. About 24 hours later I had my own Model 100. Too cool.

Now portable media devices are everywhere, and just about everybody's cell-phone is "smart". There's a NY Times story this morning about the etiquette of using them in meetings. Back to the future.