XplanaZine

John Schwartz’ article in Sunday’s New York Times talks about how people can be identified and quantified to some extent by what’s on their iPod. The “know-me-by-my-collection” revolution is more than music, however. Greater portability of technology, increased storage, and enhanced media capabilities mean that all of us will be known by our various “life” collections.

Schwarz talks about an iPod collection and that’s a decent place to start. If someone reviewed my iPod they would discover eclectic, if not schizophrenic music tastes and influences. What they couldn’t know from my iPod, however, is that the most powerful influence on my music collection is my wife. The truth is I don’t know much about music and allow my wife, fairly indiscriminately, to add new albums as she sees fit. It’s kind of a new surprise each time I sync with iTunes.

There is more than music on my iPod, however. It is also a portable storage device that holds important personal documents and images. In that way, it functions as a hardware e-portfolio of sorts.

This trend towards electronic collections has lots of momentum both in public life and within the confines of education. Much of the recent attention has been on software applications such as The Open Source Portfolio Initiative (OSPI). is but one great example of how e-portfolios can function within the learning space.

Something that occurs to me, however, is that e-portfolios will be increasingly affected by hardware. Current working assumptions focus on the personal computer and software platforms that can be integrated as parts of other platforms. As handheld technology evolves, it is likely that the computer will not be the point of origin for our personal collections. Here are a few alternatives.

• iPod: The iPod is my current leader when it comes to a device for handling personal collections. It is compatible with With major platforms, handles music and photos, and has lost of easy-to-use space. While the current front runner, it is limited potentially by the speed with which Apple decides to innovate the product’s features.
• Cell Phone: Cell phones are ideal candidates as the preferred hardware platform for personal collections simply because everyone has one. Phones have increased multimedia capabilities and their connectivity is hard to beat. Storage will improve as will the wireless connection speeds for handling large amounts of data. Their limitation at this point is storage and software. Until they can handle 40-60 gigs of data they won’t be serious contenders. In addition, better content management software will be required.
• Portable Gaming System: This may seem like a dark horse now but it actually make a lot of sense, at least for certain portion of the population. After all, systems like the new Nintendo DS have plenty of storage, handle graphics and sound, and are also collaborative devices with built-in wireless. The limitations of portable gaming platforms are obvious but the technology is becoming ubiquitous enough that the thought of using them for our personal collections is no stretch.

I’m not saying that software won’t play a role, but rather that the jury is out on what hardware platform will be the primary location for our personal collections in the future.

Regardless of the final storage solution, our personal collections will continue to grow and we will demand that those collections travel with us and be updatable as we move around. In addition, we will erase the traditional boundaries between business, entertainment, and personal collections.