Evan Lenz

I thought I’d post a few updates about what I’m doing these days. My consulting business continues to be doing well, and I’m about to start a new project for a large software company, which will involve lots of heavy XSLT work. In the mean time, I’ve been learning about how to develop apps for the iPhone and iPad, using a really excellent, free online course from Stanford, Developing Apps for iOS, by Paul Hegarty. Highly recommended. I’m also gearing up to go back to school part-time to get an M.A. in Digital Arts through Goucher College’s limited-residency/distance-learning “MADarts” program. I’ll be traveling to Baltimore next month for my first residency in this brand-new program and I’m really looking forward to it.

Here are some of the computer-related books I’ve been reading lately:

• JavaScript: The Good Parts, by Douglas Crockford
• The Passionate Programmer: Creating a Remarkable Career in Software Development, by Chad Fowler
• Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, by Henry Jenkins

JavaScript is taking over the world, so we might as well make the best of it; Crockford’s book shows that there’s a lot to be happy about as long as you take a discriminating approach. Fowler’s book has lots of nice tidbits and insights on how to be an effective software developer, especially if you’re working for someone else. And Jenkins’ book is a fascinating study of how the role of media is changing in the age we live in, utilizing concepts such as “participatory culture” and “collective intelligence.” It’s obviously the most widely accessible of these books, with chapters about Survivor, American Idol, The Matrix, Star Wars, and Harry Potter. It’s a textbook for one of my first classes in the M.A. program, and I’m likely to blog about it some more in the future.