One of the cool things about my time at EmpireAvenue.com is that I’ve been introduced to dozens of amazing and interesting people.

One of them is David Brin.

I first heard of David when Adriel or Chris (it was some time ago – memory fails) commented that [X] should buy this fresh face because he was “THE” David Brin. I bought as much stock as I was permitted, knowing only that he was a writer.

Having pretended that writing was something I could tackle at some point in my life, I always referred to myself as an outdoor writer (with a small ‘w’) but certainly would never call myself a ‘Writer’. David is – as it turns out – a capital ‘W’ Writer.

Over the course of a few months I saw him reference a novel he was working on. Since I was young, I’ve enjoyed reading, but with the advent of internet I find that I rarely pick up a book anymore. In college I was introduced to a new genre of writing by a high school friend. Cyberpunk and Science Fiction became my passion. Gibson and Stephenson were my bookends to the school day. Neuromancer provided my passion for computing, and inspired my longest living alias – ‘Maasneotek’ (or just ‘neotek’). The internet arrived, and rather than reading it – I was living it.

Netscape became my ono-sendai, the web my Chiba city, and I became Case. The books – well, they fell by the wayside.

While my wife was recovering from the birth of my second son, I started reading epubs on my iPhone. Though cumbersome I pushed my way through a few novels and short stories that have since become only vague memories. But as I got to the 6 month mark, I started reading Orson Scott Card’s ‘Enders game’. A classic of science fiction in it’s own right, I was reminded of the escapism that literature provided. Despite trying to read it on an iPhone – I was enamored with the ability to access books electronically from the Edmonton Public Library, and …other… dubious sources on occasion – but that my friends is another post.

I’ve recently acquired a Kobo – and broken free of the iPhone (or my new Droid phone) as a reading platform. And David Brin was on the menu.

I kept telling David that I was going to get into his writing – partially because I was aware of his genre, and the (im)personal social connection intrigued me. I looked through his work and decided before I move into a series of novels, I needed to read some of his early work. After seeing a few titles that didn’t grab me, I found ‘The Postman’.

Disclosure: until I had completed the book – I’d NEVER drawn any connection with the Kevin Costner film. I quit looking at Costner some time ago (waterworld was the clincher for me) so I’d never really even followed the trailers for it.

I finished the 300ish pages in 4 days, and was taken well and fully by the book. David wove a wonderful tale with beautiful but deeply flawed characters. His characterization of humanity felt all too possible, and his vision of a possible future is chilling. As a reader, I was forced throughout the read to imagine the environment of the novel – to draw my own conclusions about the hardships faced by the community, and the state of the world given the actions of man. Truly a science fiction piece without the science fiction.

You can meet David Brin on EmpireAvenue ticker (e)DAVIDBRIN1

Give “The Postman” a read – available at Amazon

Seems that whenever I try to take a rest from the world of Social Media I am drawn back in. I still don’t get paid for it, but I do see a tangible value to the arena.

Like many others I was introduced to the world of ‘social’ media through facebook. The ability to connect with family and colleagues opened up channels of communication. The ability to socialize over distance, the frequency of contact to rekindle some old friendships, and the ability to converse with friends and colleagues simultaneously in a more ‘functional’ environment than a chat system.

Over the next few years services started to appear that placed value on the social environment. Where MySpace was once a niche social channel, facebook opened up the gates to new and exciting services, and brought life back to others that may have been ahead of their time.

Image sharing through flickr, location sharing through foursquare and gowalla, music through last.fm, soma, or blip.fm (particularly blip.fm for me.) The ‘web 2.0′ trend of the 90′s brought a new user paradigm. Interactivity. This revolution in internet services has changed the face of many modern first world societies. In the 80′s and a priviledged few accessed information on the new ‘internet’ in text through university accounts and what would become the standard for information exchange – email. Through the mid 90′s and into the new millenium, gopher and usenet gave way to ‘mosaic’ and the world wide web, and the unidirectional web has now become not only interactive, but engaging.

For those who do not embrace these technologies, little will be lost to them. Life will go on, the sun will rise and fall, and work will remain, well, work.

Those who engage in this new media will however see the world through different eyes. Introduced by their ‘friends’ in the social spaces of facebook and twitter, or the images of flickr or it’s contemporaries we can see more of the world, and engage in the things that truly interest us.

We are able to seek, form, and contribute to communities that provide an outlet for our interests and passions to grow. Most certainly there are some negative aspects of this space too. The internet does suffer fools gladly. Personal opinion is wielded like the Encyclopedia Brittanica of our youth. Ego is both driven and crushed by the nameless pseudonyms of online bullies, and we have (as users) all found ourselves in positions where we believe to be the recipient of targeted attacks on our intellect.

So when I feel that the effort required to share and engage is getting too high, that the process feels more demanding than rewarding, I look at the services I use, try to sense their value to me personally, professionally, emotionally, and intellectually. Occasionally that means I start thinking of pulling back, closing off a few accounts.

A few days in however, I begin to consider the potential of losing touch with some of the great folks I’ve met as a result of these social systems. The ability to contribute to projects I’m interested in, the enjoyment of engaging in good conversation with unique and skilled contacts, and the potential to engage with some of those ‘famous’ people just to take them back down from the ivory tower we tend to put them atop.

So – for the most part, with the occasional lull, I live social. I blog, I tweet, I foursquare, I tumble, and I facebook the things that are interesting and important to me. Along the way, I learn a lot, and that makes those few moments of question, or attacks on who we are smaller in the grand scheme.

See you out there!

As always – I’m running at 300 miles an hour. No matter, some good things to report.

I’ll be speaking at Quexa 1.0 Life in downtown Edmonton in July, on sharing digital photography with your friends and contacts through social media eyes. (Quexa.ca) Be there or be square!

I’m now happily sharing my portfolio on 500px.com in addition to the sets on flickr. (http://gscratch.500px.com)

My tumblr has been rocking with images (http://anotheritch.tumblr.com)

And I’ve just read two WHOLE books – something I’ve not done on purpose in quite some time. The Kobo is getting a workout. I’ll be talking more about those soon.

Hope you stop by for a visit!