Digital delights

I don’t know much about computers.

But I know more now than I did before. I’ve been into the belly of that particular beast, and I’m here to say it’s not nearly as scary as some might think.

Contrary to my previous beliefs, there’s nothing supernatural about computers and the Internet. Computers, as it turns out, are just machines — tools, really.

Imagine my surprise when, armed with absolutely no knowledge of what I was doing, I crawled beneath my home office desk, popped off the side of that whirring magic box, jammed in three sleeves of new memory into slots that looked vaguely the right size and discovered that it worked.

I’ve been told that working on the interior of a computer is no harder than putting a new carburetor on your car. I now submit that it’s easier, and that’s not just because I wouldn’t know a carburetor if it spit gas in my eye.

I suspect I’m not the first home-schooled techie to figure out you can actually bend a computer to your will, but I don’t care. There’s something to be said for realizing that technological intimidation is only as real as you want it to be.

I think the state’s construction companies are coming to a similar conclusion. Technology isn’t a word traditionally associated with construction, and people talked for a long time about how the industry is way behind the technological curve.

I’m beginning to see evidence to the contrary, and I’m not just talking about the obvious example illustrated in this month’s cover story.

It’s happening in smaller ways. For instance, as I write this column, The Daily Reporter and Wisconsin Builder are accepting nominations for our annual Top Projects competition.

We’ve been running Top Projects for years, and I usually receive more than 100 entries. About two years ago, I got a handful of digital entries. Last year, I got even more. This year, the digital entries far outnumber the packets deli-vered in the mail.

Also, some industry people recently noticed that when we run company names in Wisconsin Builder’s Industry Pulse section, we provide a link to those companies’ Web sites when we put the magazine online.

It’s great that most of those companies actually have Web sites; it’s even better that they realize the benefits the technology offers.

You’ll also notice in this issue that we’re crediting a lot of our job listings in Industry Pulse to The Daily Reporter’s JobTrac. While that doesn’t necessarily highlight a technological advance, the fact that we’ve put JobTrac online for you certainly does.

We had a feeling you’d be headed that way, so we figured we’d have things ready for your arrival. So check out our online JobTrac or look at Wisconsin Builder’s Web site to see how the links might help your business.

And don’t worry. I can now speak from experience when I say there’s nothing to be scared of.