The cutting edge...

I've come to the determination that working at a university (or other academic setting) has a lot of advantages over other places of employment.

Not the least of which is that even when doing mundane tasks related to being an administrative assistant it never fails to be different and often more than a little strange.

A few examples:

One of the professors in my department is on a trip to London... not to have any sort of business meeting, or to sightsee, but to offer testimony before the house of Lords in Parliament about environmental health exposures on soldiers. Other members of the department have repeatedly testified before various congressional committees here in the US. The scope of projects that are routinely worked on range from the office itself, to neighborhoods across the city, to huge global research studies.

And these are some very smart people... Creating mathematical models to improve public health, monitor the cleanup of some of the worlds most toxic dumping grounds and generally go around using lots of big words. Dr's of all types abound. Its hard not to sometimes feel overwhelmed.

Yet my favorite moments almost always involve technology, because as smart as these people all are when it comes to computers, they're still stuck in my parents (or in some cases grandparents) generation. They know what's going on, but when it comes to change it's like watching a glacier move...

Which is why I was surprised when one of them came up to me today and asked if I was on Twitter (I'm not... so far...) This caused a moment of reflection. I was beaten to the technological punch by a 65 year old college professor who's previous technological experience was limited to e-mail and the occasional blog post. I think that's ok though. (I'm on facebook and he's not HA HA HA) One does not have to ride every popular wave yes? (oh no! I'm starting to sound like my parents).

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed the ensuing conversation about all the pros and cons of various social networking sites and their possible applications for the advancement of global and public health and coordination of intra-office parties with the doctoral students. How's that for an office environment? Hmm.. Maybe I'll start twittering after all!

**SMILES**