hello 2

All this was running through my head on May 31, 2009, nearly ten years later, as I stared at the laptop screen on my apartment desk. Encyclopedias...how often had I consulted them? Not that often. I was anything but an egghead. Their language, point of view, their tone...the wheels began turning, digging up memories as far back as my college years when real, library-shelved encyclopedias served more of a need for me. I also recalled reading recently on Wikipedia that "a neutral point of view" was sought. That was going to be sticky. Should the founder of something as potentially big as two-way television also be the one writing its description for all the users of this online encyclopedia to read? And when at the end it asks me to provide my sources, am I suppose to type "two-way-television.com", my own website?! I wrote every word of it! Before I began giving out my brightly-colored, professional-to-a-tee cards in the 1990's, who had ever heard of two-way television? (Answer: not a soul on the planet)

My fingers began to glide effortlessly across the keys as if they had a mind of their own...

"Two-way television is a developing theory that would allow the viewer at home in front of their own TV to communicate back to the person appearing on TV. Built-in cameras would make the interaction possible. Users of two-way television may bypass normal TV operation by using the handheld remote to dial telephone numbers on the same keypad presently reserved for channel-changing. In this capacity, the remote keypad essentially functions as a cell phone's. The alignment of the ten number-buttons on both the remote and cell phone is the same, allowing a toggling key to be added for switching between the two. A picture call results when the call placed from the TV remote is answered. In theory, two, three or four people might communicate in split-screen on their home TVs, known as video-conferencing in business today."

I took a deep breath. That paragraph had gone much better than I thought. With so much I could have said on the subject, I was able to condense it down pretty well. And the meaning of the words aside, gave myself an "R" for Rhythm. I felt more confident going into my succinct conclusion.

"Two-way television involves a re-arrangement of our thinking about present-day TV as it puts the viewer in the picture. Frightening to many, exciting to others, two-way television remains in the early stages of development."

Then I launched it into cyberspace hitting the appropriate button. On the subject of providing my sources for the article, I instead chose to 'protect my sources.' Translation: I chose silence.

...and so, for the first two weeks of June 2009, that's how it stood. Was I proud! Anyone searching for "two-way television" on Wikipedia would have found it, just like that. My own creation in an online encyclopedia.