Alan Brandon

Great post over on Brain Pickings about what’s wrong with media today — based on an editorial from 1923! The Death of the Editor and the Rise of the Circulation Manager, by Maria Popova, looks at today’s media issues such as SOPA, copyright, and content farms through the lens of an article titled “Our Changing Journalism”.

It’s interesting to see New York Globe editor Bruce Bliven decry the onrush of modern technology and it’s affect on journalism and the media. Of course, he’s referring to “the telephone, high-speed rotary presses, stereotyping, typesetting machines, color presses, rotogravure, [and] the electric telegraphic typewriter.”

Just before the holidays I finished some editing work on a book called Passion in the Wind, which is now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and from the author, Alan Leduc. The title might sound like a bad romance novel, but the book tells the true story of Alan’s 23000 mile ride around North America on a motorcycle.

With my editing credit, I’ve been having fun searching on my name at Amazon and BN.com. The project itself was familiar work for me. Alan has a background in industrial engineering, so his writing has a lot of the precision and technical detail that I’m used to seeing in my technical publications endeavors. But with my and co-editor Barb Smith’s help, Alan’s story hopefully reflects the adventure and excitement of his actual ride.

Two motorcycle riders, one age 68 and the other age 60, ride 23,000+ miles, with over 2700 miles of the most notorious gravel roads in North America, circumnavigating the United States and Canada in 48 days.

Mike Kneebone, President of Iron Butt Association, says:

In the world of motor-sports, challenges are often measured in miles. Whether it is the Daytona 500 or the IBA SaddleSore 1000, miles count. Miles are simple to measure and everyone can relate to them.

Alan and Tim’s ride has miles, so many in fact that the mere mention overshadows everything else. More than 23,000 miles in 48 days to the very far corners of the U.S.A. and Canada – many motorcyclists who have ridden around the world have traveled fewer.

But as impressive as they are, the miles covered are not what make this ride epic. It is the reach to the remote areas of Canada and Alaska. Their adventure takes them to places far removed from civilization, far away from any reasonable person’s comfort zone. Being prepared to face a freezing cold night on the side of a desolate road with a broken motorcycle — or worse, a broken leg — with help hundreds of miles away, takes a unique outlook on life.

Many riders will never reach the likes of Goose Bay, Inuvik or Prudhoe Bay, but to do so in one ride, to reach the far corners of North America’s arctic regions down isolated, dangerous dirt roads filled with swarms of blood-sucking mosquitoes, while the clock is running redefines the meaning of extraordinary. Alan’s strict engineering sense and Tim’s resourceful easy going nature are a rare combination that works as it takes a bit of both to complete this epic ride. Their intense mile-eating story of the ultimate circumnavigation of the U.S.A. and Canada should encourage all of us to seek out an adventure to make the most of the wonderful gift of life.

…And the answer is not 4G.

I have spent most of my career writing about telecommunications including networking, telephony, and cellular/radio. When I started in the tech writing biz cellular standards were at 2G. Next came 3G. Then came something AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon claim is 4G but isn’t.

Doug Aamoth at Time’s Techland explains it very well in this video:

Basically AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon are marketing the fourth generation of their networks, but those networks don’t meet the definition of 4G according to the ITU-R.

(Am I the only one who sees “ITU” and thinks “Oh, the CCITT”? Probably. Also ETSI, CEPT, ….)

OK, I know serial commas and Oxford commas are the same thing. But I needed a third item in my headline list so I could use one.

Have you heard the brouhaha about Oxford University eliminating the namesake comma from its own style guide? (And here we must note that Oxford University uses a different style guide than that published by Oxford University Press, which still does recommend the use of the serial comma. Got it?) There’s been plenty of coverage, but my favorite so far is this late-breaking summary from Meghan Casey at Brain Traffic. It opens with an excellent quote from the also excellent Lynn Truss, author of Eats, Shoots & Leaves:

“There are people who embrace the Oxford comma, and people who don’t, and I’ll just say this: never get between these people when drink has been taken.”

For me, the serial comma is essential. Maybe not life-or-death essential, but I agree with Brain Traffic’s Melissa Rach:

“The serial comma is a courtesy. Is it required? No. Is it a nice thing to do for your users? Absolutely.”

The serial comma was part of the Bellcore style guide, Putting Words on Paper, which I cut my teeth on. That style guide is basically hard-wired into my brain, and so the serial comma is with me to stay.

I always hoped that if I was going to be replaced by a robot, it would look something like the one in the Terminator movies. Instead, thanks to Narrative Science, I’m going to be replaced by a lowly piece of software.

Narrative Science, a software company based in Evanston, Illinois, has developed technology that “transforms data into high-quality editorial content.” Great. I thought that’s what I had been doing for the last 25 years as a technical communicator. What’s next, an iPhone app that writes Moby Dick?

Actually, Narrative Science’s software is pretty cool. It’s already being used to create sports articles based on uploaded game stats. Check out this example on GameChanger (and some background on the GameChanger and Narrative Science deal here).

Also, check out this comparison at Business Week. See if you can pick out which of the three examples was written the evil job-stealing robot Narrative Science software, and which was written by the poor beleaguered human writer.

Narrative Science is looking to expand beyond sports stories to create narratives from all sorts of structured or unstructured data. Possibilities include financial reports, real estate listings, and so on.

I don’t know how far this type of technology will go. But to be on the safe side, I think I’ll start developing skills in a backup career. Perhaps robot repair?