In 1999, I took a job with a start-up company called DirectAg. We were going to be giant-killers and redefine agribusiness. On the surface--and collectively--it may have appeared that we failed like everyone else who didn't make it through the dot-com bust of 2000.

So what happened? I would argue that it was media hype, but not in the way you might expect. They got the message correct, but they were 10 years too early in the effort to be the first to report on it.

Ironically and paradoxically, I live in a town where the largest employer is still a paper mill and where the second largest produces digital products for the educational community. Just up the road, I teach an interesting combination of courses in computer information systems, technical communication and web design. Our mid-sized, mid-western public university is actually one of only a small handful of colleges that offers a four-year program in web design.

In 1995, it shouldn't sound to shocking to say that I was the first instructor (as a graduate student) to teach HTML and Web design at Purdue University.

My colleagues and I continue to blaze the trail here at UW-Stevens Point. We offer courses in: 

• AJAX
• UML/XML
• Web Content Management System Courses
• Online Marketing and Ecommerce
• User-Centered Design and Usability Testing

These are digital literacy skills, but they're not the most important in some respects.

It might be strange to argue at a public University, but I would contend that we still train the elite. I argue that because less than 25% of the adult population in the state has earned a four year degree.

As traditional media continues to suffer, what about the other 75%? 

This section of the site is devoted to my research in this area: into how individuals access information differently, and what it means as radio, newspapers and television lose their influence.