Made Thing

It’s easy to take something simple and make it complicated but difficult to take something complicated and make it simple.

Elizabeth: Daddy, where are you taking that microphone?
Me: I’m taking it to school, honey.
Elizabeth: For show and tell?
Me: Yeah, for show and tell.

I had intended to blog from several of the panels at AWP using my iPhone, but that turned out to be impossible for two reasons, neither of which was the iPhone’s fault.

First, the Hilton failed to provide wifi to the panels or the bookfair. (A couple of the presenters at the bookfair told me the Hilton wanted $800 per booth for wifi access). This ruined much more than my blogging ambitions; it also meant that online publications at the fair couldn’t display live versions of their web sites (they had to save offline copies instead), and the panel on the future of online journals was reduced to passing around handouts with long lists of printed URLs.

Second, AT&T’s data service was almost useless everywhere I went in Manhattan. At times it wouldn’t work at all; at others it worked so slowly I simply gave up. This made Google Maps inaccessible for parts of the trip, which of course is exactly what you want when you’re lost in a mega city.

That being said, the iPhone worked well as a note-taker. I made a lot of typos using the touch keyboard, but the result was still easier to decipher than my handwriting. I also used it to compose quick contact emails to people I met in lieu of passing out business cards and to enter new contacts into my address book in lieu of carrying 200 business cards home with me.

I’m still a bit amazed wifi was so hard to come by. It’s 2008. A professional conference without wifi is like a professional conference without electricity.