[X4U] OFF TOPIC: A Chance to Meet Woz

[Joe Sporleder]

Tomorrow I will have a chance to meet Steve Wozniak, or at least see him in person. He is the guest keynote speaker - actually more of a chat and discussion on innovation and technology at a no-till farming conference in Kansas. I know he doesn't have much to do with Apple anymore, except for a paycheck as co-founder (and any stock he might own), but I'm not going to turn down a chance to meet a Silicon Valley icon that is going to be only an hour's drive from me.

My first exposure to Apple  products was an Apple II+ in high school - my little Kansas high school had just switched to them to teach typing. My first computer was an Apple IIGS, that I used for writing term papers, etc, in college (Wichita, KS). I ended up working for an Apple dealer as their Apple II guy, and then switched to Macintosh when the Apple II's were phased out. I moved back to my rural home town to take care of my elderly parents. Applied for a job at a local newspaper in circulation - they noticed I knew how to use a Mac, so ended up getting a job designing print ads instead and have been in publishing for about 16 years, always on Mac, sometimes as tech manager, sometimes as ad design and sometimes as publisher.

Now we are trying to figure out how to reinvent ourselves in the world of iPhones and IPads, taking advantage of what they have to offer over print. The one conclusion - out primary strength is we know local, and that should be our focus, no matter what medium we publish on.

Joe