These writers aren’t just working for the usual suspects of tech journalism, such as Wired, Technology Review, or the Circuits section of the New York Times. They’re also spouting off in the pages of Slate, Salon, the New Republic, and a host of other publications, both dead tree and digital, which are usually associated with political and cultural junkies more than hardcore geeks. And then, of course, there are the bloggers, who churn out some surprisingly well-crafted commentaries in exchange for zero compensation, aside from the warm fuzzies proffered by readers in their comments sections. Though I confess that this doesn’t bode well for my future financial prospects, many of these unpaid writers produce more perceptive, well-informed pieces than my colleagues who make a living by opining on the social impact of Blackberries.
Ultimately, though, the majority of pieces selected for this volume came from the more traditional standard-bearers of technology journalism. One favorite is Wired contributing editor Joshua Davis’s “La Vida Robot,” the absolutely enthralling tale of four Mexican American teenagers—each of them an undocumented immigrant—who banded together to build a killer underwater robot. Davis doesn’t skimp on the technical details of the machine the quartet constructed, describing in depth, for example, the team’s decision to use PVC pipe in lieu of foam. The real joy of the article, however, is the way in which Davis fleshes out each character, so that by the end our hearts sink upon learning that Oscar Vazquez, the team’s leader, is hanging Sheetrock rather than attending college. “La Vida Robot” may be a Rocky-like yarn, but it’s also a painful reminder of our nation’s myopia about the importance of educating engineers. If there’s any justice in this world, Vazquez will get that degree and end up working on NASA’s Mars mission someday.
Source: digitalculturebooks ("a collaborative imprint of the University of Michigan Press and the University of Michigan Library dedicated to publishing innovative work about the social, cultural, and political impact of new media")
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