DIGITAL SPIN:
Wired Activists and Cyborg Reporters
By Theta Pavis
Special to WHYY
The two secret service men approached me slowly. They were tall and trim and, even though it felt like a sauna on the streets of Philadelphia, they were wearing dark suits. The ubiquitous tan communications coil ran out of the back of their stiff shirt collars and up to their ears.
I stepped back.
Maybe they wanted to move me off the sidewalk? That's what the police had demanded protestors do earlier in the day at Broad and Spruce.
I'd spent much of the day following demonstrators around Center City. I was sweaty and dreaming of an iced coffee and a quiet place to write. But as I'd rounded Market Street, more demonstrations were popping up, and scores of police were cycling around the city trying to keep up with them.
"Can I ask you a question?" the taller agent said, peering down at me. "What is the purpose of all this?" He gestured towards a small group of activists on the move. "Is it just, 'Let's protest?'"
Turns out the bemused agent didn't see the press pass hanging around my neck. What he saw was a disheveled woman wearing a backpack and carrying what many well-equipped activists have these days: a cell phone.
No one could really blame him for this mistake. The demonstrators I followed yesterday were notable not just for their signs and drums but also for their gear. Everywhere I looked, there were young people with cellular phones, walkie-talkies, tape recorders and a surprising range of sophisticated digital cameras.
The activists documented everything that was happening. The air crackled with walkie-talkie contact. Cell phones chirped. People who expected to be arrested had telephone numbers written in black numbers on their arms. Anyone wanting to touch base could also always log on to any number of Web sites, including Philadelphia Direct Action Network or r2kphilly.org.
All this technology, of course, is also changing how the press does their job.
The Independent Media Center, which only recently opened up a Philadelphia office, had reporters fanned out around the city. Many were on bikes and in constant contact with each other as demonstrators amassed in Center City.
In the middle of one protest, a journalist from the IMC was doing an extensive interview with a Republican delegate from New Jersey. While she took notes, another woman captured it live with a digital recorder.
"Are you anti-communist?" she asked.
"Isn't everyone?" he said.
DykeTV was also there. Their broadcasts go out on public access television in 50 cities and they also do video streaming on the Web. They didn't bother applying for an official press pass to the Republican Convention. They just hit the streets.
But the most impressive technological display of the day had to be the Mobile Assistant 4. It's a wearable computer, and I saw a demonstration of it inside one of the press tents. The system is made by Xybernaut, a company from Fairfax, VA.
The user straps a small keyboard to his forearm and wears other gear around the waist. He also has a headset that includes a tiny window that comes down in front of the left eye where he can see information on a kind of miniature computer screen. The whole thing is voice activated and comes with a Pentium-class computer and plenty of RAM.
Xybernaut's Jeff Rockwell told me the firm has many clients, such as GE, Lockheed Martin and Boeing, who need their workers to be able to receive and send information wirelessly and have their hands free to work.
During the convention, Xybernaut is working with Apple and Insight magazine (owned by The Washington Times) to do live-video streaming on the Internet.
Like me, Rockwell had just come back from Center City and during the demonstrations he'd been strapped into the Mobile Assistant 4.
"We got right down there. The rest of the press guys had these big cameras. I was right down there in the middle of it," Rockwell said.
When demonstrators started running at one point (a tire blow-out scared everyone), Rockwell kept filming while he ran.
As we talked, an editor was getting ready to upload his footage to the Web, and he was anxious to hear how the audio sounded.
"I think it's definitely the future," Rockwell said. "I took the place of the cameraman, the lighting, the reporter -- everything."
If it's the future for the press, it might also be the future for activists.
Rockwell said everywhere he went, tech-savvy protestors had stopped what they were doing to interview him. In the middle of the demonstrations, they wanted to know about the wearable computer, it's specifications and technology. And where to buy one.
More Digital Spin: Ridge Spotlights
Technology
By Patrick McGee, of Technophilly.com
Governor Ridge kicked off the convention by appearing at an event at the Franklin Institute that highlights the state's technology. (Read the full story.)
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