Is Google Chrome OS for me?

Google Chrome OS may just be the answer to many of my problems. As a mother, student, and business owner I find myself rushing and always multitasking. I watched this video demonstrating the capability.

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I was amazed that Google had taken the internet to yet another level to make my life easier. I am constantly switching between multiple programs. I often get tired of waiting and regularly close an application accidently. Recently I have experienced viruses that compromised much of the data on my hard drive. I noticed there has been a lot of discussion about the security, although, when I watched the “How it Works” video it explained it very simply, by saying it was like email.

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I am not and have never claimed to be technically competent especially when it comes to anything to do with the internet. I think about Google Chrome OS and I think I must have it, but windows is all I have ever known and change is always something I embrace slowly. I would like to convert to Google Chrome OS, but I have so many questions.
Questions like, Can I still use windows? Will I still be able to save files to my hard drive? What happens to games and music that are normally played through a windows icon? Is the OS part of Google Chrome even available yet?

Sometime during my HP career each employee was given the book “The HP Way.” I must confess I did not read the book in its entirety. I did read enough to take way a philosophy that inspired me and an often frustrated me when I wasn’t able to live by it. The philosophy was to give people the tools they need to succeed and watch them succeed. Perhaps Google Chrome is one of those tools people need to succeed.

What interest me

Several people have contacted me since I began this blog. Wow, who would have known I would be using an internet tool to do a little socializing. Perhaps I am getting the hang of this, I guess time will tell. Many of you have contacted me through email or by phone just to say you were happy to hear from me and surprised I was pursuing a communication degree.
Well what better way for me to introduce my next entry. I will start with an explanation of my choice along with a little philosophy. When I decided I was going back to College and it wasn’t going to be in medicine I had to ask myself, where is the action? What appears to be the big thing and will it keep going long enough for me to get educated, hired, and potentially retire from my next career. If you know me, it’s no surprise; I started asking everyone their opinion. A few people gave me great advice and said figure out what you want to be then see what education is required to do that job. Advice like that was great because I decided my dream job would be to work in the marketing department for OSU athletics. I am also interested in working in the health industry doing health awareness and promotional campaigns. If those choices don’t work out then hopefully I will find a government job working with parks and rec or child services. Once I targeted some positions I began to see what education was needed. They all listed various BA/BS degrees sometimes focusing on business, marketing, or humanities but all of them allowed for like disciplines. I felt like I was getting closer, but I just couldn’t find a business or marketing degree that appeared to be at the heart of where I thought the action was or was going in the future. Even though I was fairly committed to going back to school a job that interested me came open, so I decided to apply. Unfortunately I did not get it, but I did get some amazing advice. When I received feedback to why someone other than myself was offered the job I was told their education was a better match. I asked if I would have had a BS in business or marketing would I have gotten the job. I was told possibly, but the majority of the candidates had those types of degrees and the committee learned they were happier with someone who had business and marketing experience combined with an education they called the foundation for success. It turned out that foundation was “communication.” I have always been a talker, but communicating is so much more.
Immediately I went in search of communication degrees. It turns out this is a field that has had a lot of evaluation in the last two years. When I finally settled on the college and degree of my choice it was because an advisor said we just modified our program for 2010 to be what some have termed “a modern marketing degree.” It focuses more than ever on means and methods, which I have coupled with a double minor of business and entrepreneurship for my very own educational combination, I call “modern marketing.”
During the first week of my media and society class I realized even if I don’t get my dream job upon graduation I would have an education that interested me and built on my skills and experiences. On the first day of class we watched one of the “Did You Know” videos on YouTube and one of the screens said, “we are educating today for jobs that haven’t even been created.” Isn’t that fantastic news for me! Then I started reading What Would Google Do. If you haven’t guessed by know I am quite fascinated with Jeff Jarvis, the book What Would Google Do, and especially Google.
Every day I read more of what Jeff Jarvis has to say, I checkout ways to be “googlier”, and I think about the internet and how I interacted with it. Personally I have begun to form a fairly strong opinion that storefronts are going to be a thing of the past. They may only remain for perishable items or items that cannot be shipped. I guess it will be easier to always stop by the store to pick up milk. Although I could be wrong, my parents told me stories about the “milkman”, who I believe delivered the milk regularly. There are companies like U-haul that specialize in moving. Currently they are a do it yourself company, but they have the means to be a shipping company. Perhaps even the perishable and non-shippable storefronts will also disappear!

Am I literate?

One of the opportunities I have had in my Media and Society class was to attend an open forum at LBCC. Please read Jay’s blog to get a complete list of panel participants along with a great overview of the discussion. I would like to draw your attention to the last paragraph of his blog entry for “What Does it Mean to be literate?”

It reads, “When it comes down to it, what people should take away from these informative discussions is that no longer is literacy only being able to read and write. Our world has evolved into one dominated by technology, and those unable to use this technology are quickly falling behind those fortunate enough to have access to today's advances. We must promote self-awareness, and search for what we don't already know.”

Jay’s summary was dead on. I left this discussion realizing just because I could read, write, and generally understand what I read and what was wrote, I am not only Internet challenge, but I may also be illiterate in this context. One of the speakers point out that today’s research doesn’t typically start with cracking open a book. Instead you open the internet go straight to Google and begin fact finding. They mentioned they were worried that a society that simply “fact finds,” may miss out on the cultural and moral aspects of the facts. This comment really hit home with me. I must confess, I am a “fact finder.” I rarely read for pleasure anymore, and now with social niches (These days you never have to leave your computer to have an entire community of friends and family agreeing with your opinion and thinking just like you. After all, they probably made it on your friends list because you had something in common.) defining who we are, I too am worried about our cultural and moral future.

Did you know

I am internet challenged

This is my first blog. I find it ironic that I worked for Hewlett Packard for nearly 20 years. In most folks mind they would consider HP to be a high tech company that specializes in computers. They may also think that if you work for a high tech company that specializes in computers you must know the internet. Well I am here to tell you that is not necessarily correct. Personally I feel there is a whole world that exists through the internet that I have never seen or been exposed to in my life. I must log on more than a dozen times a day. My homepage is set to Google, yet I consider myself internet challenged.

I am creating this blog as a part of my last project for my Media and Society class. The requirement for the project was to create a blog and select an item to discuss. My choice is the internet. I realized I was not internet savvy on the first day of class, when the forum question was what are the social networks you use? The list included things like MySpace, face book, and twitter. I felt like I had been living under a rock when my answer was limited to “LinkedIn” and I really wouldn’t say I use it socially, but at that point, I was happy to have something.

Aside from feeling like the oldest person on campus, I also feel like I am the most internet challenged. The social networks are one thing, but what about websites? It seems that everyone but me has made at least one website. I know we have one for our business, but my husband made it. Blogging is another thing that seems to be very common and widely used, yet this is my first. I can’t even begin to comment on the gaming side of things, they are well beyond my interest and my skills. The only thing I can say I have mastered on the internet is searching ……… Thanks to Google!

My Media and Society class has opened my eyes and introduced me to much more of the world within the internet. One of the required readings for the class is “What Would Google Do?” The book is written by Jeff Jarvis. I absolutely love it. I have to force myself not to read it all at once, in fear that I would forget what was discussed in particular section before the weekly test. Well we are 6 weeks into the course and I have finished the book. Who would have known I would enjoy going back and reading parts of a book that my instructor uses as required reading. I like it so much I just can’t call it a “text book.” The book really highlights how the internet is a necessity for business. I already knew this because of our personal business, but what I didn’t know was how a website is really just one small tool the internet has to offer.

I would love to hear from fellow HP’ers, friends, family, classmates, or anyone who may share my experiences or would like to offer me advice.