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Hazardous Business

ERIK EMERY HANBERG: ALL IS VANITY (SEARCHING) >>>

Last month I applied for a job at a local company. The second question of the interview was “On a recent comment thread on a local blog, you wrote ...” followed by a quotation of what I’d written.

Ouch. I think I would have preferred we discussed my greatest weakness.

My comment wasn’t critical of the company but it came up because it was critical of one the company’s clients. The interviewer, perhaps seeing a look of panic cross my face, told me not to worry about it and added that “the staff had a lot of fun Googling me.”

Again, not exactly the words I wanted to hear. I went home after the interview, typed Erik Hanberg into Google, and started searching.

My previous vanity searches had been limited to checking out the top few results, mainly looking for what comes first--my blog, my twitter feed, a few random profiles here and there. Nothing too surprising.

Hazardous Business

ERIK EMERY HANBERG: MAGIC BUS >>>

When you want to talk about technology and the environment — especially as it relates to the future — at some point you have to talk about transportation.

That means talking about cars and talking about transit. Let’s start with the cars.

For 16 consecutive months, Americans have driven less than they did the previous year. It started because of rising gas prices, but then the global-financial-panic-recession-meltdown-crash-thingy (GFPRMCT) happened, and that drove miles down further. The trend doesn’t seem to be changing, either, prompting Nate Silver to wonder —with the help of some statistical charts  — whether we have ended our “car culture.”

Sixteen consecutive months of less driving and you’ll start to notice. I have a friend who commutes from Seattle to Tacoma every day. He told me that when the crash hit and its effects started to be felt in companies and jobs losses, traffic got better. Not even just a little better, a lot better. Since October I-5 has cleared enough that my commute saves at least twenty-five minutes each way.

Hazardous business

ERIK EMERY HANBERG: BRITNEY, RUSTON, AND THE RIGHT TO ASSEMBLE >>>

In 2007, Ruston resident Karen Pickett was frustrated with the town council of Ruston. Public comments at meetings had been curtailed, and Pickett felt like residents had lost their voice. She opened a free account on Blogger and started Ruston Home, a place for Ruston residents to talk about their town.

Since then, as Ruston has seen mayors resign and its very existence questioned--some on the town council believe the town should be annexed into Tacoma--Pickett’s blog has been on the scene, combining reporting with commentary. It provides a valuable way for busy residents to find time to discuss their community and participate in its future.

Pickett’s blog, and the community that has formed around it, has been around for a year and a half.

But many online groups are much more fleeting.

Hazardous business

ERIK EMERY HANBERG: BEYOND “MATH AND SCIENCE” PART II >>>

Among the many qualifications it takes to land a job as Science and Technology Writer for the Volcano, I think the one that sealed the deal was my “Sophomore Science Student of the Year” award. ... Yeah, that’s still on the ol’ resume.

Since college, I’ve mostly been an arts and humanities kind of guy--film, theater, novels, etc. But before that, I was quite the science nerd.

So maybe that’s why I’m so glad to see the birth of the Tacoma School District’s “Science and Math Institute” (SAMI).

The subject: the natural world. The classroom: Point Defiance Park. Thanks to partnerships with MetroParks (which runs the zoo), UWT, UPS, Northwest Trek and the United States Geological Survey, students will be a part of a very unusual school, one focused on science, math, and environmental research.

Students will have a longer school day than most high schools--8:00 am to 4:00 pm--and an unusual school year. Like many colleges, SAMI will have a January Term where students take one intensive class for 3 weeks, with opportunities for specialized research or even travel abroad.

There will also be a strong focus on community service, where students can take what they’ve learned and contribute back to the region. SAMI will be so committed to this that students will be able to earn a varsity letter in community service.

Hazardous business

ERIK EMERY HANBERG: BEYOND "MATH AND SCIENCE" >>>

It seems like everyone wants more “math and science” education these days. Echoing a long list of politicians, last week President Obama called math and science education “vital” and noted that “we're falling behind other countries on that front.”

Our community doesn’t only have to worry about falling behind other countries, we don’t want to fall behind other counties. Math and science education that prepares students to use, interact with, and create technology is critical to the long-term prospects of Tacoma and Pierce County.

Fortunately, our colleges and universities are up to the task.

Andrew Fry, an instructor at the Institute of Technology at University of Washington, Tacoma, said that they are seeing “record enrollment.”

Mary Jane Kelly, one of his former students, didn’t know the first thing about computers when she started at the Institute. “When I started my first programming class, I was clueless,” she said. “I had no idea about anything computer-related except that there was a magical box that would run MS Word and Excel and if you did things right you could get on the Internet.”

Hazardous Business

ERIK EMERY HANBERG: TECH  AND THE ENVIRONMENT >>>

Predicting the future is hazardous business. But let me venture a guess anyway: the two biggest forces that will shape the future of Tacoma and Pierce County are the environment and technology.

The first force, the environment, is easier to grasp how it will shape our community. The state of our air, water, and land — not to mention the sea level of the Sound — will affect our quality of life in very visceral, tangible ways. It affects our health, the willingness of businesses to relocate or start here, the number of tourists we get, and our own enjoyment of our home.

The technological forces that shape our region are much harder to figure out. How will Twitter change our interactions? How would cheap solar power transform our way of life? Could new rail technology radically alter our port? What are the chances the next Intel or Amazon or Apple is based out of Tacoma? (Hint: not very likely.) These are all big questions, questions I’ll be looking at in future columns.

But I needed some place to start in order to tackle this mammoth topic. That place was Austin, Texas, host to SXSWi (short for South By Southwest Interactive), a conference dedicated to “emerging technology.” If there’s any single place where you can start to get some idea about what’s coming down the pike, Austin in March is that place.