This is Craig's wiki page.

 

My name is Craig Byrne. I am an MA candidate in English Ed. at USF ST PETE. I was born in Paterson, NJ. and grew up in Greenville, South Carolina. I graduated in 1999 from the University of South Carolina. Next year, I plan to pursue a Phd. in Comp Rhetoric.

 

For fun, I enjoy going to the beach and playing music with friends. Currently, I'm learning how to play guitar. At age 34, this can be a daunting task, but it is fun to learn a new instrument and very relaxing to play in times of stress. Anyway, that's all I'm going to write for now. More is to come.

 

 

 

"One must have chaos in order to give birth to a dancing star." This quote by Nietzsche is a tough one to interpret. What I think it implies is that chaos breeds the need for trying to harness the disorder so that order can be made, and in turn, a new beauty results.

 

 

Here's a pic of my hometown, Greenville, South Carolina...

 

 

 

 

 

 

IN CASE OF AMNESIA

 

Dear Craig,

 

 

You were born in Paterson, New Jersey. You grew up in Greenville, South Carolina. Your father, Wayne was a Vietnam Veteran, your mother Linda a veteran of bearing four sons. These four sons include you and your three brothers, Michael, Gary and Patrick Byrne. Michael is an electrical engineer who lives with his wife, son and daughter on a farm in Greensboro, North Carolina. Gary is a computer junky with some firm in Greenville, South Carolina.(He’s the reserved one that’s probably been watching ESPN sipping on bourbon while visiting your hospital room.) Patrick is Vice President of Marketing for Wachovia Bank in Charlotte, North Carolina. And you are a graduate student at USF St Pete. Unfortunately, I’m not sure how long you’ve been in your coma and the statute of limitations on your degree may very well have passed by now, but I hear McDonald’s is always hiring.

 

 

 

 

READINGS/RESPONSES

 

Marshall_McLuhan.jpg

 

 

 

 

UNDERSTANDING MEDIA: MARSHALL MCLUHAN

 

I’m going to take a wild stab at trying to process Mcluhan’s assertion that “the medium is the message”. In this attempt, I must say the context of Mcluhan’s first chapter, which surrounded his mantra of “the medium is the message” was difficult to comprehend. His metaphor about the lightbulb shed little light on what he was trying to say, but like I said, I’m going to attempt to do so, anyway.

McLuhan talked about various mediums throughout history and he discovered that each medium is constantly replaced by another medium which changes the dynamic of the previous medium’s content. Therefore, like a mirror upon a mirror, the medium is the message with its own content, which is a message in itself with its own content. In today’s information age, the medium’s content, which is the information is constantly challenged by emerging new mediums. These new mediums have their own content that transforms the dynamic of the old mediums content. This one aspect of emerging new mediums made me think of Lessig’s chapter in the Future of Ideas, where he discusses layers and the economics of commons. These old layers, which are transformed by the new layers, seek to gain some type of revenue for their existing content. This is simply a discussion of how new mediums change the dynamic of existing mediums on the internet.

All of this is a bit convoluted in my brain; however, I thought about Barack Obama’s historic speech tonight and tried to relate it to McLuhan’s observation about mediums being messages. I thought about the lights of Invesco Field in Denver as mediums first, because McLuhan himself uses this example. The content of these stadium lights are the people in the crowd and Obama himself, the message of the crowd is to elect Barack Obama and the message of Obama is to explain why he should be elected, with the most primal medium being his thoughts which spill the content of his words, which spill the content of the message of why he should be elected, and so forth around and around in circles. My only question is whether or not the thoughts of Obama are the content of a previous medium that precedes his thoughts. I think I might be diving into a bit of Platonic imagination here, so I’ll stop by saying that “the medium is the message” is downright confusing to me, and McLuhan is one hell of a deconstructionist.

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.thequoteblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/Marshall_McLuhan.jpg

 

 

RACE RHETORIC AND TECHNOLOGY: Adam J. Banks

 

Adam J. Banks tells a good narrative of an insider looking out at the digital divide, as he describes being a young African American who witnessed the gap first hand. This chapter relates very well to Technicolor because it recognizes the importance of bridging the digital gap through a first hand account. Banks uses powerful metaphors about Jim Crow Laws and early post slavery existence, where ex-slaves mastered old technology as new technology emerged in the industrial revolution to “layer” the old mediums of an agrarian age. This economic significance relates to today’s digital divide that keeps minorities at a disadvantage in the technological workplace and in education.

 

 

TECHNICOLOR:

 

This chapter, like the Banks chapter discusses the digital divide and responds to the Clinton administration’s efforts to bridge the technological gap between minorities and whites and asians. It discussed CTC(Community Technology Centers) that have cropped up in various cities throughout the United States, and while they teach computer skills to minorities, they seem antiquated and serve only to help minorities(a small percentage within a community, I’m sure) keep up with new technology rather than get ahead. This relates to the economic impact of technology and its influence upon socioeconomic standing within communities and schools as discussed in the Future of Ideas. It appears that CTC’s are a good jumping off point to establish minority intitiatives designed to serve the importance of developing a minority workface that rises above the status quo.

This chapter made me wonder if there are any CTC’s in a city like St Petersburg. My guess is that these centers are very limited, propping up only in the larger metropolitan areas around the country. While the idea serves its purpose, apparently the actual implementation of such centers is lacking. After all, they seem only to serve to help minorities keep up, which we know in today’s technological age means they are behind, and they probably only exist for a very small minority of the minority population. What about those minorities who do not have time to go to such a place, or lack transportation, or lack the knowledge of their existence, or who live in a city without a CTC? These are the real world questions about an initiative that would be an outstanding program if it were funded to rise above its current status.

 

 

 

 

 

THE FUTURE OF IDEAS: LESSIG

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

what is free...next chapter explores rivalrous and nonrivalrous commons and layers the commons are the old, the layers are the new in the internet age..commons like a park commons or a beach..multiple people share access to the information or the property..talks about intellectual property and how lawyers must screen everyting in films for use..discusses how the old are making laws to protect themselves, essentially outweighing the balance in their favor for all the new jacks online. very economic theory based book.

 

 

RANDOM THOUGHTS ABOUT MCLUHAN AND LESSIG:

 

 

 

 

 

Lessig talks about technology and its relationship to systems, in one case, a highway system, and discusses how it is certainly possible to be able to control such a system like flight patterns are controlled by the FAA. This example provided a glimpse into how one “common” could be regulated by technology, but presently is not. He called these new highways smart roads, implying that our current system was “not smart”. He believes that a controlled system would be better for those who share this particular common(39).

Whether or not the internet would be better off if it were regulated depends on how you view the level of control, and how you view individual freedom of conscience. Like the person who pulls the trigger in the McLuhan reading, individual discretion plays a major role in how the internet is controlled. Like Lessig’s example of the “smart road” that is not being used because of an existing layer, such as our present highway system, the internet has remained relatively unscathed by censorship attempts or any regulatory attempts at all since its inception. Nowhere is the freedom of access to information more prevalent than on the world wide web. Who has control of this information? Does everyone have equal control of it, based on individual discretion, or do some have more control than others? Do people simply make choices about how to utilize the information available on the internet? I would argue that there are those who are the "technological haves" that may have more of a share of control than the technological "have nots". It seems, at present, that whoever knows how to manipulate the information to his or her advantage during his or her space and time has control. Examples of this manipulation are: the hacker who steals someone’s identity online(negative control), or the professor who edits a wiki page so proper facts are available to the masses(positive control). As citizens around the globe cruise down the information highway, where discretion is based on individual regulation, instead of a "smart" road regulated by a governing body, the technological "haves" remain in control, thus, maintaining the power of the information. Like McLuhan's gun or his pie, the internet may be neither good nor bad, but the human factor does play a part in the manipulation of information, which produces either a positive or negative effect.

 

 

 

 

A VISIT TO ST VINCENT DEPAUL CENTER OF HOPE....and an interview with Mary Jo Nelson, Program Coordinator

 

On September 5, I visited St. Vincent DePaul Center of Hope on 15th street in St. Petersburg and interviewed Mary Jo Nelson, Program Coordinator and Senior Case Manager. Mary Jo was kind enough to answer some questions that I had concerning the Center of Hope’s program for the homeless. The Center of Hope is a community outreach center that serves the needs of Pinellas County. At the center, homeless men and women have the opportunity to live rent free in private rooms during a transitional period that works to assimilate them back into society. About 80% of clients are in recovery from substance abuse. Most of these clients are male, and about half of them are Veterans of Foreign Wars. Sixty percent suffer from mental illness and many are dually diagnosed with a mental illness and a substance abuse problem.

The center of hope works to make its residents feel as though they have a real home by providing meals, shelter, private rooms with beds and bathrooms, and each floor of the three floor building has private showers. Mary Jo explained that for many of her cases, the center provides the first home that some clients have had in many years of living on the street. The program holds many opportunities for clients to transition back into the community, but what I was most interested in for the purpose of this study was the literacy program offered and the computer training program offered by the center.

Homeless InterviewMary Jo provided me with descriptions of an array of services that the center offers to help its clients become more productive citizens. Not only do these services help residents learn valuable skills that make them more employable, they also help residents develop self esteem and work to alleviate the anxieties associated with transitioning from being homeless and addicted to being sober and productive. One such program is the “Writers’ Workshop” which meets Wednesdays at 4:00 PM. At the workshop, clients have the opportunity to journal, compose poetry and write prose under the direction of Mary Jo and another team member from the Center of Hope. Mary Jo gathers the compositions and publishes a short booklet called “Thread and Cloth” by the “15th Street Scribes.” She describes the clients writing as an “anything goes” type of project that hopes to “show clients the power of the pen.” She offered me a copy of “Thread and Cloth”, and invited me to join the group at their next gathering. The contents of “Thread and Cloth” range from emotional accounts of clients’ battles with addiction to pieces describing the plight of the poor and outcast. Mary Jo believes the writing project is therapeutic and a way for clients to express themselves through a medium they otherwise would not be exposed to. She believes the power of the pen is so mighty that she encourages her clients to journal whenever they feel the urge to relapse. As long as they can write for seven minutes, she says, the thought of returning to substance abuse has a much better chance of being alleviated. She believes that those who journal every day have a much better chance of recovery from addiction. The pen, therefore, may very well save a client’s life in times of extreme stress, according to Mary Jo.

Besides the writing project, I was interested in the center’s vocational rehabilitation program, which includes an on staff technology instructor and partnerships with local vocational tech programs, including Tomlinson Center of Pinellas County. Mary Jo showed me the computer lab on site, and I thought about Adam J. Banks book on the digital divide and Technicolor. The digital divide could be seen first hand in the lab. Antiquated Dell desktops with outdated programs lined the interior of the room. Although many clients have the ability to “take apart and put back together a computer,” according to Mary Jo, “many of them have never used a mouse.” When I asked Mary Jo what types of skills were taught by the technology instructor, the most advanced skill mentioned was that of sending an email. There is not enough funding available to teach much more than that in the lab. The Tomlinson Center partnership allows for more advanced study, such as training to become a computer help desk employee, but not all of the clients are able to take advantage of such an endeavor. Many of them are concerned with finding any type of work that will assist them in transitioning back into the community. One client told me he can’t find anything that offers any more than nine dollars an hour. He was a young man, no more than twenty years old. I’ll call him Chris. Chris couldn’t wait to show me his apartment, little more than a ten by ten room with a bed, desk, bookshelf, toilet, and posters adorning the walls. To the beaming Chris, it may as well have been a mansion.

St. Vincent DePaul Center of Hope provides exactly what its name implies to clients like Chris. His hopes are to find a job and transition back into society as soon as he can, but for now, he is happy to have a place to rest his head. There are many like Chris at the Center. They have found a place that works to assist them with needs such as literacy, vocational rehab, substance abuse twelve step meetings, relief from mental illness through a partnership with Suncoast Hospital, and the chance to live in a community where there are four walls, three meals a day, and people like Mary Jo who care enough to devote their lives to improving the lives of others.

 

Brian's Thoughts

 

 

HOSSFELD ARTICLE FROM TECHNICOLOR

 

In “Their Logic Against Them,” Karen J. Hossfeld examines the plight of immigrant women workers in the Silican Valley production industry. She discusses how managers(typically white males) use “seesaw” tactics to discriminate against these workers. These managers talk out of both sides of their mouths. One minute, they tell immigrant women workers that the reason these women are underpaid and unable to advance is because they are immigrants and women. If the women complain about their job conditions, the managers use a strategy of “equality” by telling them that there is no special treatment for workers no matter what class, gender, or race they may be.

Hossfeld believes these women immigrant workers are being exploited, and rightfully so. She pulls data together that reinforces her point, showing how these women do not advance as rapidly as their white male counterparts. Hossfeld also describes the harsh working conditions that resemble something out of a Dickens tale. Many of the women she interviewed seem reluctant to complain, however. These women compare their work conditions to that of their third world countries and see nothing but an improvement. What the women do not seem to realize, though, is that no matter how much of an improvement their work conditions may seem, it does not relegate the excuse for exploitation. In a country that is supposed to lead the world by example, the Silicon Valley employers act more like sweat shop owners in China than Democratic capitalists.

While the blame for conditions may rest on the shoulders of the employers of these Silicon Valley production companies, Hossfeld points out that another group seems to be lacking in responsibility when it comes to defending the immigrant women workers. This irresponsible group of people make up the labor unions that have ignored the situation. Because so many of the immigrant women workers come from the third world, and feel lucky to be in America, they lack the desire to organize and “rise up” against their exploitive employers. Hossfeld certainly understands this mentality, but she views the labor unions who have ignored the situation as part of the problem, as well.

Based on Hossfeld’s evidence, there is no doubt that exploitation by management and poor working conditions exist in the Silicon Valley for immigrant women workers. In an age where the feminist movement has advanced women’s rights in the work place(albeit, still not to the extent that equality has been achieved) the plight of these women immigrants seems like a throwback to the late 1800s. Hossfeld even compares the situation to how slaves in Texas did not find out about their freedom until two years after the fact. What Hossfeld is trying to say is that these immigrant women workers don’t seem to know about their rights as workers in American industry, and the management in the Silicon Valley would like to keep it that way. In an age where we, as Americans, are constantly bombarded by media reports of horrific working conditions for Chinese and third world laborers, it seems we should be looking in our own backyard to provide an example of a real democratic workplace.

 

 

 

CHAPTER 3-LESSIG

 

I learned a great deal from Chapter 3 of Lessig’s The Future of Ideas, namely the history of telecommunications in the United States, and the general makeup of the internet as a commons with unlimited possibilities for expanded growth and new applications. Because of end to end technology(e2e), new applications can be introduced to the internet without interfering with its networking capability. Perhaps the most influential application introduced to the internet thus far has been the world wide web. After surfing online for a decade, I now finally know that Tim Berners-Lee invented the web. I guess the Al Gore debate has finally been settled. When I think about the plasticity of the internet, or its ability to evolve with uncertainty at this point, I wonder what the next “big thing” is going to be for a technology with unlimited possibilities. So far, as an unregulated commons, the introduction of good and useful applications far outweighs any bad applications that I can think of. What I concern myself most with, as stated in a previous wiki entry, is the flow of information across the web and how this information is to be controlled. I can’t imagine the Web remaining anarchist forever, and I can only wonder who or what entity is going to step in to formulate a regulatory body to determine what information can and will be allowed. It boggles my mind that there is no governing element to the information across the network, not that I have an opinion of whether or not there should be one, unlike Lessig who believes a controlling element would only be good for this particular commons. I’m looking forward to reading more of his thoughts on why he believes this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a website devoted to creative commons law...check it out:

 

 

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/

 

 

 

http://edu.blogs.com/edublogs/2007/03/open_source_pol.html

 

This site discusses open source politics in the digital age, and talks about the globalization of information. It does a good job of defining what open source politics implies, and has some good links to interesting articles surrounding the debate. One comment the writer made that I thought was interesting revolved around how governments(in this case, esp. the UK) react to what he calls the equality of information. Now that users of the www all over the world have access to information that used to be reserved for a select few, governments are reacting to this equality. The writer makes a valid point when he says that instead of doing things the old way in regards to this new technology(governing the tech.), there must, instead, be creative new ways to react to the new influx of information that is accessible to any user of the www. He also discusses social networks, such as MYSPACE, and how open source politics applies....

 

 

 

 

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold....McLuhan’s Chapter Three...

 

 

In this segment, I will discuss how McLuhan’s reverse pattern principle relates to open source politics. Because McLuhan mentions WB Yeats in Chapter three, I thought about a famous line from Yeats’ poem The Second Coming, which states, “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.” Nowhere is this more evident than in the digital age, where information has no center, but is equally distributed among participants on the world wide web. Information flows through the universe at such enormous speeds and in every direction that no center can possibly hold it in the global village we all inhabit today. In the link I cited concerning open source politics, George discusses this reversal of power when it comes to information and how this reversal is firmly in place in the digital age. No longer is certain information reserved for a select few, but the masses now have an opportunity to acquire access to this information. Of course, there are certain top secret government documents that the global public cannot acquire, but there is much information that at one time seemed “top secret” that can now be accessed. McLuhan talks about this reversal when he states, “the endless reversals or break boundaries passed in the interplay of the structures of bureaucracies and enterprise include the point at which individuals began to be held reponsible and accountable for their “private actions.” Such responsibility falls on the shoulders of private citizens today when it comes to the commodity of information on the www. This private responsibility is something I discussed earlier in a post about Lessig, so I won’t dive into this subject at length again. Just as there is a struggle between power groups concerning the digital divide, there is a struggle between power groups concerning the commodity of information. McLuhan discusses an overheated medium that causes a breakdown, or overextension of man or culture. It seems that today’s society is bombarded by an overextension of information; however, with no center to hold it, there does not seem to be alarm for any breakdown. The information has already been broken down with Berner-Lee’s invention of the world wide web. The centers, or bureaucracies that once had control have lost their grip. Even in cultures that remain under the control of oppressive governments who care little for human rights have access to information which could challenge the very existence of these governments. As Yeats believed when he penned poems and prose that helped spawn a revolution in Ireland, information can ignite social change.

 

 

 

McLuhan Chapter 4

 

In McLuhan’s Chapter four, “The Gadget Lover”, he uses the Narcissus myth as a metaphor for how man becomes dependent on extensions of himself. I’m not exactly sure why, but I thought about a powerfully addictive drug, crystal meth, when I read the chapter. Crystal meth is unlike any other street drug because users do not feel the “high” from ingesting the chemicals. Users feels the high from the toxins, or the cause of pain associated with the drug leaving their bodies. Typically, a user can become addicted and begin to “worship” the drug above all else in a very short matter of time. They become dependent upon a false perception. The drug becomes an extension of themselves. Replacing feelings they used to associate with receiving pleasure, they feel numb from expelling poison. McLuhan discusses this type of worship of extensions of man when he discusses how technology, as an extension of a living organ, causes a numbness of the central nervous system. Computers, in today’s age, cause this type of numbness because we are so dependent upon them as extensions of our brains. This artificial intelligence has replaced what used to be accomplished by the intelligence of man. A simple example is a calculator. Although a rather antiquated invention by today’s standards, it serves the purpose of explaining how complex mathematics can now be accomplished with the push of a few buttons rather than the sweat of one’s mental brow. Like crystal meth, man is dependent upon computers as extensions of themselves, as pain leaving our bodies, as the numbness of central nervous system, as narcissus falling to worship an extension of himself. While I use the term “worship” loosely, it defines how we are dependent upon these idols of technology, how we have become numb to performing certain tasks that at one time were necessary....in the information age, we no longer use computers as mere “gadgets;” they are extensions of ourselves.

 

 

 

Lessig Chapter 4

 

 

Chapter four of Lessig gave a good historical breakdown of coding for the internet. It was interesting to note how the enterprise of coding took on a nearly Marxist form, with the enterprise of knowledge distributed to all who wished to understand and improve upon the existing technologies. Lessig once again showed how AT&T was the innovative launching pad of this technology, and how the government played a central role in its development. Like AT&T with its development of the telecommunications industry, Microsoft felt the heat of the government as competition grew fierce. Lessig did a nice job of describing how technology operates under the open source system and how having a government controlled monopoly works to the advantage of companies who wish to pioneer innovation at the beginning, but later bites them in the ass when the system decentralizes. It is only a matter of time, I’m sure, before some new control is placed upon the next great innovation before the free market ensues. What I admire most about the gurus who developed coding systems is that they seemed to operate under the knowledge for knowledge’s sake mantra, working long hours after their regular day jobs were through just to improve upon existing technologies.

 

 

The following website is dedicated to case filings of the U.S. government against Microsoft for Anti Trust violations...

 

http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/ms_index.htm

 

 

Technicolor: Interview of McLean Greaves

 

This was a very interesting article on a number of levels. It served as a good account of how the digital divide affected and still affects an actual living breathing human being. Greaves talked about how difficult internet start ups are for black entrepeneurs because of how the establishment is not quick to offer venture capital. He stressed the importance of having good management when starting a new media business, which seems the key for a business of any type. If I may be critical, however, I thought his comment concerning the existence of technology factory “sweat shops” was a bit callous and egocentric. Of course, I”m sitting here criticizing him for what was an honest comment, but I guess that’s easy for me to do. I just thought it was interesting how he sidestepped the question and concerned himself with the long hours of new media execs, calling their workplace “aesthetically pleasing sweatshops.” Even though he didn’t give a “politically correct” response, his honesty was a good indicator of the problems associated with the disenfranchised workers of tech factories, as discussed in an earlier chapter of Technicolor in the article by Karen J. Hossfeld. The problem, of course, is the same problem that garment and shoe manufacturing plant workers have had to deal with. Greaves called the new media enterprise a gold rush, and it seems that is exactly the problem. In a capitalistic society, greed seems to overshadow human rights for the most part. Like I said, it’s very easy for me to be critical as I pound away on my laptop and “talk” about the problem without doing anything about it. I just found it interesting that Greaves actually compared himself as a hard working entrepeneur to a hard working laborer in a tech factory who is underpaid and suffers under abominable work conditions.

 

 

 

 

McLuhan Chapter 5....

 

 

When I read chapter five of McLuhan, Hybrid Energy, a couple of media hybrids came to mind. First, I thought of how Jack Kerouac used the medium of music- jazz music, to pen his famous novel “On the Road”, which actually was a modern day Huck Finn, with the road as river...Just as Mark Twain used a hybrid of oral tradition and contemporary novel techniques to pen Huck, Kerouac’s prose jumped and grooved on the page like a jazz band’s wild rhythms and punchy beats. Then, I thought about how Madison Avenue uses a hybrid of the sit com with many of its commercials. For instance, the Geico Gecko has been running on TV for a while now, as if the commercials are his show...when McLuhan discussed the explosion that would occur when third world met Western culture, I thought about the cultural hybrid I occasionally see on the news, like the Anti-American activist at a rally in the middle east wearing a Nike t-shirt...

 

 

 

Rough Draft

Craig Byrne

Rough Draft

Case Study

 

On September 5, I visited St. Vincent DePaul Center of Hope on 15th street in St. Petersburg and interviewed Mary Jo Nelson, Program Coordinator and Senior Case Manager. Mary Jo was kind enough to answer some questions that I had concerning the Center of Hope’s program for the homeless. The Center of Hope is a community outreach center that serves the needs of Pinellas County. At the center, homeless men and women have the opportunity to live rent free in private rooms during a transitional period that works to assimilate them back into society. About 80% of clients are in recovery from substance abuse. Most of these clients are male, and about half of them are Veterans of Foreign Wars. Sixty percent suffer from mental illness and many are dually diagnosed with a mental illness and a substance abuse problem.

The center of hope works to make its residents feel as though they have a real home by providing meals, shelter, private rooms with beds and bathrooms, and each floor of the three floor building has private showers. Mary Jo explained that for many of her cases, the center provides the first home that some clients have had in many years of living on the street. The program holds many opportunities for clients to transition back into the community, but what I was most interested in for the purpose of this study was the literacy program offered and the computer training program offered by the center.

Homeless InterviewMary Jo provided me with descriptions of an array of services that the center offers to help its clients become more productive citizens. Not only do these services help residents learn valuable skills that make them more employable, they also help residents develop self esteem and work to alleviate the anxieties associated with transitioning from being homeless and addicted to being sober and productive. One such program is the “Writers’ Workshop” which meets Wednesdays at 4:00 PM. At the workshop, clients have the opportunity to journal, compose poetry and write prose under the direction of Mary Jo and another team member from the Center of Hope. Mary Jo gathers the compositions and publishes a short booklet called “Thread and Cloth” by the “15th Street Scribes.” She describes the clients writing as an “anything goes” type of project that hopes to “show clients the power of the pen.” She offered me a copy of “Thread and Cloth”, and invited me to join the group at their next gathering. The contents of “Thread and Cloth” range from emotional accounts of clients’ battles with addiction to pieces describing the plight of the poor and outcast. Mary Jo believes the writing project is therapeutic and a way for clients to express themselves through a medium they otherwise would not be exposed to. She believes the power of the pen is so mighty that she encourages her clients to journal whenever they feel the urge to relapse. As long as they can write for seven minutes, she says, the thought of returning to substance abuse has a much better chance of being alleviated. She believes that those who journal every day have a much better chance of recovery from addiction. The pen, therefore, may very well save a client’s life in times of extreme stress, according to Mary Jo.

Besides the writing project, I was interested in the center’s vocational rehabilitation program, which includes an on staff technology instructor and partnerships with local vocational tech programs, including Tomlinson Center of Pinellas County. Mary Jo showed me the computer lab on site, and I thought about Adam J. Banks book on the digital divide and Technicolor. The digital divide could be seen first hand in the lab. Antiquated Dell desktops with outdated programs lined the interior of the room. Although many clients have the ability to “take apart and put back together a computer,” according to Mary Jo, “many of them have never used a mouse.” When I asked Mary Jo what types of skills were taught by the technology instructor, the most advanced skill mentioned was that of sending an email. There is not enough funding available to teach much more than that in the lab. The Tomlinson Center partnership allows for more advanced study, such as training to become a computer help desk employee, but not all of the clients are able to take advantage of such an endeavor.

Many clients are primarily concerned with finding any type of work that will assist them in transitioning back into the community. One client told me he can’t find anything that offers any more than nine dollars an hour. He was a young man, no more than twenty years old. I’ll call him Chris. Chris couldn’t wait to show me his apartment, little more than a ten by ten room with a bed, desk, bookshelf, toilet, and posters adorning the walls. To the beaming Chris, it may as well have been a mansion.

St. Vincent DePaul Center of Hope provides exactly what its name implies to clients like Chris. His hopes are to find a job and transition back into society as soon as he can, but for now, he is happy to have a place to rest his head. There are many like Chris at the Center. They have found a place that works to assist them with needs such as literacy, vocational rehab, substance abuse twelve step meetings, relief from mental illness through a partnership with Suncoast Hospital, and the chance to live in a community where there are four walls, three meals a day, and people like Mary Jo who care enough to devote their lives to improving the lives of others.

On September 29, I have an interview with Tomlinson Center principal, Dr. Debbie Vanderwoude. I will be discussing how the center partners with St. Vincent DePaul, and the programs available for adult learners in the community. My main goal is to discuss the grant proposal written by Trey Conner, Morgan Gresham, and Jill McCracken at USF St. Petersburg. I am interested to find if Dr Vanderwoude believes integrating Linux operating system into her school will be a beneficial undertaking. For budgeting purposes, it seems as though this project will be a worthwhile endeavor. It will serve to meet the needs of the center’s clients and eliminate the need for upgrades on Microsoft products. I believe this will enable the Tomlinson Center to have access to modern technology and also enable more computers to be integrated into the program, considering that older hardware may be used with the Linux system.

 [Kim's Review of Craig]