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On October 4, 1957, a small sphere roughly the size of a beach ball hurtled around the Earth. It had been catapulted into orbit from an unnamed town in central Kazakhstan by a team whose identity would be cloaked in secrecy for decades. Quietly broadcasting a simple series of beeps, the message was received loud and clear by the entire world: Sputnik (and the future) had arrived.
I know I’m dating myself here, but I would not be born for another 18 years. Even so, I find inspiration in the story of Sputnik. Just like anyone with a Web browser today can find and read content from anywhere around the world, anyone with a ham radio could tune in at 20 MHz and hear those beeps. One nation may have proudly carried its banner into space, but this object was truly carrying the hopes and dreams of the entire human race. No longer were we tied down by gravity. We could lob objects – and soon, human beings – into space!
WOW!
In many ways, this thrilling feeling could describe my very first exposure to the Internet. In 1993, I was a freshman at the University of Kansas. I met a friend who was a fellow Cubs fan and Mac geek. I remember meeting him and some other friends in his dorm room and being amazed at what I saw on his screen. Inside the telnet screen, he was using a VAX program called PHONE. On the top of the screen, you saw his words. On the bottom, you saw his friend’s words … typed out in real-time, over in another state. And then he explained e-mail to me – you could send a message to anyone around the world for free.
WOW!
Recently, I had a similar WOW! moment. Earlier this week, I resigned my position with my employer (PR firm Arment Dietrich). When I posted a note about this to my Facebook profile, two friends wrote notes on my Wall offering their congratulations. I’ve never met either of them in person, and yet they feel as close and important to me as if they were in the next room. Just like that transcendent feeling so many years in Kansas, distance became meaningless and friendship is redefined in an instant. I know there are many people who debate the validity of friends vs. Friends (with a capital F), but I find myself increasingly blurring any sort of preconceived boundaries I may have ever had.
The world is filled with “WOW!” moments. Sputnik was one that inspired millions of people to dream of worlds beyond our own. The Internet has similarly inspired many to reach beyond their own boundaries and find connections worth treasuring elsewhere. It has been my mission to find the "WOW!" moments in my professional life, and I'm eager to find out where the next one will occur.
What is your “WOW!” moment?
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Comments
Well, I have WOW! moments quite frequently but this is polite company so I won't talk about that...
I had a WOW! moment in 1994 when I first surfed the Web. I stayed up all night and there were not nearly as many cool sites back then.
Another WOW! moment was discovering Usenet, what was like forums are now. I could not talk and debate with people from all over. What fun.
Then there was the day my dad got on email and sent me an email. That was very WOW! Dad and I have been emailing every week since.
Posted by: Neil Anuskiewicz | 10.08.07
I had such a WOW! moment when I got my first laptop 15 years ago. This was literally pre-internet (in any recognizable form). But I did send an email from a client's office in another time zone back to my office with a bunch of requests for my assistant to follow-up on. We had many laughs over the years re-living her shock and embarassment. Apparently she went running around the office saying things like "He's going to be in big trouble -- he's supposed to be in North Carolina and I just got an email from him...he must be here in the building!" She had never received an email from outside our office building before.
Posted by: John Rosen | 10.08.07
I remember being blown away by a FAX at my first job out of college in a newspaper's newsroom. Words (words!) sent over phone lines...! Newspaper stories filed INSTANLY rather than a day later! Now THAT was a WOW moment....
Today, Facebook is pretty WOW to me. What's more, the little widget I created on this home page (with Daily Fix headlines) is pretty WOW to me, too... mostly because I did it on my own in about an hour. (And anyone that knows me personally knows that I lack the geek gene... so that's really WOW for me.)
Much as I love WOW moments... and believe me, I do... I'm also wondering lately about the context for WOW. Is it incredible because, well.. it's bright and shiny and cool? Or because it truly redefines something fundamental? But I suppose that's a post for another day...
Posted by: Ann Handley | 10.08.07
I do remember the first time I got in Internet as a WOW where the hell I'm now??????
It was back on 1995, I had just bought a laptop from Apple, the 190 CS and a 28,8 modem.
Then when I was looking at screen asking myself: so what?
And not much different was my feeling when I opened my blog one year ago: WOW!
Posted by: gianandrea | 10.09.07
Ann -- I grant you that most "breakthroughs" (or anything labeled "visionary") are usually more hype and spin, but perhaps it's a bit of both. Does the WOW! feeling first start with the "cool, shiny toy" mentality, and then evolve into a breakthrough moment? Or vice-versa?
Gianandrea - My first laptop was a PowerBook Duo 230 at college. 28.8 modem all the way! Does anyone even remember having to configure SLIP and/or PPP accounts? *grin*
Posted by: Michael Rubin | 10.09.07
Ann,
I think the context here is our first discovery of a new (to us) technology tool that changed our lives in some dramatic way.
So I don't think the WOW! we all like the best counts. :-)
Posted by: Neil Anuskiewicz | 10.09.07
Michael,
I remember having to configure SLIP and PPP accounts.
Do you remember when the Internet was only Unix (text)? It is funny Unix (or the variant called Linux) is still behind the scenes running most everything but not many people know an OS (Unix) invented circa 1968 (the year i was born) is still the underpinnings of most of what we can do on the Internet.
Most people probably also don't know, or care, that the Internet started as government project to build a nuclear war proof communication system: a packet switched network. Look what it has turned into?
It is kind of like Eisenhower building the Interstate highway system as a way to move military hardware quickly from place to place if we were ever invaded. Look what it has turned into?
I find it amusing to see the Libertarian culture that is so strong in the tech world using a system here courtesy of Uncle Sam. But I digress.
Posted by: Neil Anuskiewicz | 10.09.07