I love the start of a new year. I’m a list person, so a new year gives me another excuse to make a list of things I’d like to challenge myself to do. I try to keep it fun and low pressure, so I’m motivated to accomplish my resolutions. My favorite resolution from 2013 was to try ethnic foods I had never tried before. Chicago is a wonderful city in which to sample authentic foods from around the world, and my friends and I had a blast achieving my New Year’s Resolution.
This year at the top of my list of resolutions is improving my skills and embracing technology. I have a friend who has teased me for years about being “afraid” of technology. I wouldn’t exactly say I’m afraid of it; I just don’t always love it. Sometimes I like to be completely disconnected and surrounded by quiet. These days, who doesn’t love an area where there’s no cell reception? I cannot be the only one! Anyway, to push myself out of my “quiet” comfort zone, I’m trying to integrate new forms of technology into my life. What better way to do that than to make it part of my daily work with retrofit?
At the end of 2013 I took a web-design course to help me better understand the back ends of this website and www.retrofittv.com and allow me to easily fix anything that may go awry with the sites. (And, as part of my coursework, I designed a standalone site I’m pretty proud of!) This taste of the digital side of publishing piqued my curiosity about other ways we could make reading retrofit a more interactive experience.
As a result, “Trend Alert” is alive! Author Robert Nieminen writes about how the lines between architecture and technology are blurring. He shares examples, like the Cleveland Museum of Art and a Tiffany & Co. exhibition, in which technology allows visitors to virtually interact with the art and jewels, respectively. It was a no-brainer to test out our printer’s ability to make the magazine interactive with this article. After downloading the free Layar-Augmented Reality app, you can hover over pages 55 and 57 of our print edition with your smartphone or tablet and videos showing visitors virtually interacting with the Cleveland Museum of Art and Tiffany & Co.’s exhibits will come to life. In our digital edition, video players are embedded on these pages; just click them to view the videos.
We’re really excited about this new capability and would love to know what you think. I now have my heart set on doing an almost entirely interactive issue sometime during 2014. We also are looking into other really exciting ways to make the magazine’s content more interactive. I’ll keep you posted. I guess technology really is fun but don’t get the wrong idea; I won’t be using Snapchat anytime soon.
Happy New Year!
Autism Awareness
Publisher John Riester’s 18-year-old son, Sam, was diagnosed with severe autism when he was two. In November 2013, John and his friend and running coach, Jason Waller (left), ran in the Rock-n-Roll Half Marathon in Las Vegas. They represented Sam’s group home, Cary, N.C.-based Living with Autism and raised awareness about and money for autism research. Not only did the guys run for a great cause, they also achieved their goal of completing the half marathon in less than two hours. Congratulations!