University

I was one of the first students at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program in 1979. I've scanned some of my old course papers for posterity ... and your viewing pleasure. It's interesting (to me, at least) to realize how many ideas persist over time.

Early Daze: the ITP

Transcending Profit

The Reading (PA) 2-way "interactive" television project for the elderly was a research model and reference point for the ITP during the early days.

Community Service

Communications as a Community Service. This paper expresses the underlying principles for my commitment to "user experience".

Open Systems Bureaucracy

A major challenge while managing the Municipal Cable Project in Somerville, MA was bureaucracy in the context of an "open system".

Office Automation

The challenge for this paper was to respond to a hypothetical RFP for office automation from NYU. The true focus of the paper - for me - was to demonstrate and understanding of good process and explain how I got there.

The Frame Game

This was a follow-up to my initial proposal to the NYU Office Automation RFP. (If you haven't taken a look at the original RFP and proposal, you may want to take a look now.)

Language Barriers

This was an exploration of the "cultural" barriers within the emerging new media market.

OrgSys for Small & Weak

I applied my emerging understanding of organizational system analysis techniques to my experience managing the Municipal Cable Project in Somerville, MA.

Ad Astra per Aspera

This was my analysis of the Municipal Cable Project, which was a popular theme for me. Community and Communication : "How do you make something good happen?"

Cable as Telephone

This was an exploration of the blurring of the distinction between 1-way (cable) and 2-way (telephone) services. With implications for community and marketplace.

Visual Language

Don't know what this was about, but it is kind of interesting...

The Telephone Game

This is a 2-page Design Project Proposal with a hidden agenda: "Learn by Playing".

MassComm 105

This appears to be a proposal to create a university-level course focusing on "Mass Communications".

Ultimate Cable System

A Speculative History. Actually kinda prescient, tho premature. It earned a "Felix the Cat" from course instructor Gary Schober. One of my proudest moments.

Context : The Wayback Machine

In the years before I entered the ITP, I was a community cable TV and video activist, working with advocacy and arts groups in both Manhattan and the Boston area. This was the era of New Media Synthesis.

Managed one of the first community-operated municipal cable TV channels in the nation
Staffed one of Manhattan'sfirst local programming studio facilities
Worked with community advocacy groups around the issues of "sweat equity" and urban homesteading

These experiences informed my studies - and my papers - at the Interactive Telecommunications Program.

For a little context, This was what was happening in the interactive arena around that time:

Before We Called It the Web