Dear ASDP Board

President's Message

05/01/2014 2:27 PM | Anonymous

As we sat around a conference table at our ASDP annual board of trustees strategic planning meeting in early March I took note of all of our computers. I tried to remember what things were like before laptop technology, and I fear that I sometimes yearn for those simpler days. Having said this, I still think technology has helped us in many ways.

When I looked up “first computer” on the internet, I found this definition: The word “computer” was first recorded as being used in 1613 and was originally used to describe a human who performed calculations or computations. The definition of a computer remained the same until the end of the 19th century when people began to realize machines never get tired and can perform calculations much faster and more accurately than any team of human computers ever could.

There were many machines considered to be computers starting as early as 1822, so I narrowed my search down to the first portable computer. This is what I found:

The IBM 5100 was the first portable computer, which was released on September 1975. The computer weighed 55 pounds and had a five-inch CRT display, tape drive, 1.9MHz PALM processor, and 64 KB of RAM. The current-day laptops and tablets weigh much less and also have huge amounts of memory compared to the originals! This is definitely an improvement in technology.

Information I found about the start of the internet states; “The Internet, then known as ARPANET, was brought online in 1969 under a contract let by the renamed Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), which initially connected four major computers at universities in the southwestern United States.”

From this humble beginning, we now have the capability to communicate in various ways via our computers. ASDP board members communicate a lot in the management of our organization, and much of this is done via emails and online conferencing. If there were no computers or internet, we would be playing a lot more telephone tag with each other. Because of technology, ASDP files and documents are stored online and on computer drives. This makes for streamlined storage and a smaller paper trail. Our new webmaster, Rhonda Brown, began working for ASDP at the beginning of April. ASDP’s presence on the web is a very important member and marketing tool, and I look forward to seeing changes that Rhonda will recommend.

So, although I will still look back fondly on the simpler life before computers, I know there are many tasks in my life that have been improved and streamlined by their technology.

Our strategic planning meeting involved lots of talk and planning for this year’s conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and long-range planning for ASDP. One of our tasks was to make a selection from the excellent nominations our members submitted for this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award. I am excited and honored to announce that Judith Neukam, senior editor of THREADS magazine, was chosen! Judy’s involvement with the annual THREADS Challenge and her hard work and compassion in furthering our industry are just a of couple reasons she was nominated. Help us to honor her as she receives this award in Philadelphia!

 Teresa Nieswaag by Chuck Islander


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