Interesting little tech/media anecdote...

This afternoon several of us had lunch at, well, this guy's apartment. I say "this guy" because he doesn't have an official title, and that's partly due to unions, and partly because he's just this total tech-guru - always on the cusp of media convergence - combining traditional journalism with satellite feeds, camera work and computer editing all out of a "go-bag" he keeps by his door.

We really don't have a name for what he does. Apparently, this German media outlet just profiled him and labeled him their phrase for "one man band."

("das onemandabandashoken" - that would be my guess.)

"New Media" - that's what we call it. And so far, the two J-schoolers I know who studied New Media have phat jobby jobs. I studied print. Thus, I am an unskilled ducha vaginal.

Anyways, so This Guy zips around his kitchen in his loft-apartment, part of this interesting unit he says used to be giant horse stables on the Paris outskirts, back in the day.

He checks on the coffee, he puts a baguette on the table along with cheeses, he opens the oven and checks the vegetable tarts, he pulls out a few bottles of wine.

Oh, and he changes the New York Times Web site.

That's right, he put on a dinner party and managed to re-arrange the NY Times online, all at the same time - checking the wires and images. Since it was about 6AM New York Time and apparently somebody just left, he was on duty. "No big deal," he said. "Just 'bomb patrol,' basically."

Eventually, we brought the wine, conversation...and This Guy's Macintosh out to the courtyard, where he continued to listen and click away at the same time.

A Web site that gets 1.5 million hits a day, and he's just nonchalantly editing it over drinks in Paris, while millions of New Yorkers wake up.

That's the future of journalism.

Someone remind me to take a class in Flash when I get back...