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Dr. Roger Smith, CTO for PEO STRI, asked me a very thought provoking question:

"What one piece of career advice would you write on the back of your business card?  Imagine that you are about to give your business card to a young person entering your profession. But first, you turned that card over and wrote a short piece of advice to help them get started in their career. What would you write on the back of your own business card to help this person? "

If you would like to see the results of Dr. Smith's queries and/or provide your career advice that would go on the back of a business card, then please go to this site.:

Dr. Roger Smith's Advice on Back of a Business Card Site

I think it is very cool that Dr. Smith is doing this because the type of advice that I saw others provide are priceless!

My personal response was the following:

       I do have three things that I tell any young person, four things if I think they will listen and five things if I know them.

For any young person, my career advice is:

1) Life is short.
2) Death is certain.
3) If you do not make your own decisions now, time will make them for you.

If I think they are listening to me:

4) Always pay yourself first.  I tell the story about the importance of compound interest using the twins story on my blog.


                NOTE: The entry above is from the presentation that I give to Colleges and Unviversities.

If I know them well or their parents well, then I add the final piece of advice:

5) Never, EVER, sleep with someone who has MORE problems than you do.

My middle son Michael Edstrom graduated with a 3.95 GPA from Broad Run High School in Ashburn, VA last month.  Michael will be joining his brother, John, at Virginia Tech next year. Michael was in the top 10 percent of his class. The top ten percent was from  a 3.94 to a 4.46 average.   It was a class of champions, as brought out by this article:

                   "Dr. Ed Markley is not one given to hyperbole.

               In 13 years as Broad Run High School's principal -- and 27 years as a principal overall  he's not been one to heap on meaningless praise.

               That's what made what he said to the 342 members of the Class of 2009 on Saturday, June 20th, particularly meaningful.  This is probably the most outstanding graduating class that we've ever had.

                            First of all, you're great people, almost to a person. I couldn't ask for better kids.

Markley then recounted how this class led a school that received consecutive Governor's Awards for academic excellence, won four state athletic championships this year alone as well as producing a state champion in debate and earning $1.6 million in scholarships. By any measure, he said, this class was exceptional."

Broad Run's 2009 valedictorian was Nam Nguyen with a grade point average (GPA) of 4.46. The salutatorian was Corinne Lepe with a GPA of 4.39.

The top 10 percent of the class, with GPA's ranging from 3.93 to 4.46 included:

• Laurie Adams
• Justin Alexander
• Gi-Tae Baik
• Robert Bobbitt
• Allison Bogle
• Vanessa Bornholdt
• Nicole Bruno
• Catherine Casares
• Monica Chiu
• Michael Edstrom
• Nancy Ellsworth
• Kathryn Finney
• Jessica Foster
• Kelly Friedmann
• Hubaida Fuseini
• Michelle Gabro
• Elizabeth Geary
• Kelly Giltner
• Jacqueline Glass
• Kaleigh Ham
• Katherine Hayden
• Devon Hudson
• Cortney Jiggetts
• Christine Jordan
• Diana Kao
• Mari Kent
• Rohan Kothakapu
• Nicole Lavella
• Han Lin
• Julie MacDonald
• Wesley Malychev
• David Mann
• Jean Manuel-Tayag
• Scott Miles
• Mary Mitesser
• Alyson Mullee
• Patrick Murphy
• Jenny Nguyen
• Thang Nguyen
• Shannon Northcott
• Stephanie Parker
• Eric Pasztor
• Marissa Petty
• Michael Pokrass
• Ashley Pruett
• Michael Schweikert
• Erik Shamloo
• Sravan Tumuluri
• Christopher Tydings
• Megan Waterman
• Bradley Whitwell
• Ashley Williams
• Jaewon Yang
• Eric Zoepfl

It was truly an amazing group of kids.  For the list of the top ten percent, see here.

"Courage is the first of human qualities because it
        is the quality which guarantees all others."

Winston Churchill

Today is the two year  anniversary of the tragedy at Virginia Tech.  As a parent of a VT student (and one more likely to be there next year), it is still hard to comprehend the magnitude of this tragedy.  I put in the Winston Churchill quote because courage is what I think of when I think of the Virginia Tech.

My prayers go out to the family, friends and relatives of the victims....

My Aunt Evie passed away on Friday January 16th, 2009 in her home in Zumbrota, Minnesota.

Evelyn Gloria Irene Husbyn was born March 10, 1929, in Minneola Township, Goodhue County.    She grew up on the family farm, attended country school, and graduated from Zumbrota High School in 1947.   On Jan. 17, 1948, she married Stanley "Tat" Thompson in Zumbrota.

Below is Evie and me at my sister's Ph.D. graduation at George Mason University in 2006.  Evie is the lady in the white hair second from the left.

They owned their own businesses and were extremely successful.  I remember working at their Skelly Gas Station in Zumbrota, Minnesota with my cousin Richard Franklin while our Grandpa (Melvin Thompson) would oversee our duties. My Grandpa would give discounts to all customers when they filled up their cars or trucks, but it was a total to mystery to me on his percentage discount logic.    When I asked Tat and Evie on what math logic that Grandpa was using they just laughed.  They told me, "Dave, Pa does not have any logic, he simply makes it up as he goes."   Neither Tat nor Evie would tell my Grandpa to stop, because they knew that it made Grandpa feel good to give the people of Zumbrota a discount on their gas.

Tat and Evie epitomized the smart, caring and cool couple.  

Tat and Evie always had the coolest cars.  There was a time in 1970 when Tat owned a 1969 Dodge Charger R/T that had  7.2 litre engine at 375hp, 0-60 in 6 seconds, 0-100 in 13.3 seconds and top speed of 150mph.  That year and model car was voted the best muscle car of all time.   Evie had a 1970 Ford Torino Cobra Jet that had the 429 cubic inch engine with 370hp, 0-60 in 6 seconds and was Motor Trend's Car of the Year in 1970.   Tat and Evie's love of cars, trucks and motorcycles (Tat owned Harley-Davidson's long before it was fashionable to do so) really created a love of cars, trucks and motorcycles in everyone's lives they touched.   One of my life goals was to have a car faster than anything that Tat or Evie owned.  Finally, at age 42, I bought a Corvette that as faster than anything Tat or Evie owned.  But, Tat and Evie had more cool in their little fingers than I have in my whole body :-)  You can not buy cool.

 My family moved around lot growing up.   When Tat and Evie would come visit us, the excitement level was palpable.  Tat always had a big wad of cash in his pocket.   No one on planet earth knew more jokes or stories than Tat Thompson.  What always amazed me about Evie is that no matter how many times she heard Tat tell a story, Evie would always laugh out loud like it was the first time.  One time when Tat and Evie came to visit I was in the process of buying a 1972 240Z and need to pay cash to the owner so I had $2,100 on me.   After Tat and Evie were there for awhile, I said to Tat, "Tat, I don't have any clue on how much money I have in my wallet right now, but I will bet you $100 that I have more than you do."   Tat said, "well, I don't want to bet you, but let's find out."   Tat had about $700 or so.  After I got to about $1,000 Evie just started laughing.  It was like that MasterCard commercial - pricelesss.

 Evie was extremely smart in dealing with people and had a level of common sense that was unmatched.  Evie's mother, Ida, was the same way.   I remember when I was 18, I was giving Ida a hard time because she had (literally) $3,000 in a freezer in Tat and Evie's cellar.   When I told her that she was not making any interest by doing that, she simply responded with two sentences that put me in my place and I am reminded of that conversation today.  

Ida asked me, "Dave, let me ask you one question.  If you went to the bank to get your money and that bank was closed down and you lost all of your money, how long will you remember that day?" With our economy in the toilet and getting worse, I think of Ida's advice often....

Evie will be greatly missed among all who knew and loved her....  

Last night I was flying in back to Dulles, from Cincinatti with a stopover in Charlotte.  I was coming back from a great MTConnect Technical Advisors Meeting where we voted through the MTConnect 1.0 Standard.  It was a GREAT meeting and a historic day.  More about MTConnect later this weekend.

Because of fog, we looped around around Charlotte until the pilot said, we are running out of fuel and need to land in Greenville-Spartansburg.  We get to Greenville-Spartansburg and sit on the runway for 45 minutes.

The pilot comes on literally says:

        "Folks, when we are grounded for weather related factors, we are not
        required to provide housing or transportation. If I were you, I would
        get a hotel room.  Good luck."

Ah, airline service at its very best...

Luckly for me, I ran into four fantastic people.  Vance, who offered to give me a ride to Charlotte.  The hero for all of us was Dawn of SAP.  Dawn is the highest level of traveler at US-Airways - Chairman Preferred.  Thank god for Dawn, she called the Chairman Preferred 800# and got all of us set for flying out to Charlotte the next day.  Michael of Oracle got the rental car.  All Todd, the exotic car shipper, and I had to do was ride to Charlotte with Michael and Dawn.    On the way there, Dawn used her very high level with Marriot to get us a distressed rate of $99 instead of the $169 normal rate.

We all joked that this was like the movie Planes, Trains and Automobiles :-)  I did joke with Todd that he reminded me of that guy in the movie Something About Mary and the Rest Stop scene.  Luckily for me, Todd laughed.

We got to the hotel in time to get in our rooms by 2:00am and I was up at 5:30 heading back to Charlotte to fly out.  Luckily for me, everything went well today getting back for Dennis Govon's Farewell Party.

My faith in humanity was lifted last from South Carolina heading to North Carolina with the kindness from Oracle and SAP's employees.

 Tom Toles of the Washington Post that captured just how important today is with this op ed cartoon.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed....

 Without question, this is the most historic day in my lifetime and if we ever needed a transformational and inclusive leader it is now.   Barack Obama has been given a very tough hand, but I believe that he has all the tools to be a truly great President of the United States of America.

My wife Julie and I celebrated our 25th Wedding Anniversary
by spending a month in Europe. NO EMAIL OR VOICE MAIL :-)

We flew First Class and our three sons - John, Michael and Tim flew Business
Class.  The retail cost would have been almost $50,000.  THANK YOU United
Airlines - I used 480,000 miles from my Frequent Flyer account.

Best month of my life.  EVERY DAY WAS SUNNY TO PARTLY
SUNNY! No rain during any of the days for an entire month.

The Complete Itinerary is at the end of these set of photos.

John 20, me old, Michael 17 and Tim 14.

Above is my oldest son John wearing an OpenOffice.org t-shirt on top
of the leaning tower of Pisa.

Tim on a donkey riding up the long trail in beautiful Santorino.

Above is the picture of my family and my parents (aka Slim and Weasie) on the wrap
around porch we had in our Royal Carribean Brilliance of the Seas Royal Family
Suite  (biggest suite on the whole ship :-)

John,  Tim and Michael at the Coliseum.

There were three nights where it was black tie on the ship.
We rented tuxes so we were not carrying them all around Europe.

I rented a Ferrari 360 Modena (400HP, V12) and took it on the same Monaco
Gran Prix F1 Circuit. 

We had GREAT sunsets every single night on the cruise.

ITINERARY

June 23rd fly out from Dulles to Zurich

June 24-28:  Jesolo, Italy (outside of Venice), Hotel
Mediterraneo pronounced YaySolo   We went to Venice and saw
'The Bridge of Sighs'  now I know Robin Trower did not come
up with this name for his famous album :-)  Great food and
the only place you should ever order pizza.

June 28-July 1: Munich, Germany, Mercure Hotel Munchen

We went on a three hour tour of Munich.  Highlights for me was the Science and
Technology Museum in Munich.  The Hofbrau House is always a highlight :-)  My
wife did not buy my rationalization that I was *only* drinking two beers at
night.  I guess when each beer is a litre, that is different :-)

July 1:  Zurich, Switzerland; Hotel Continental Zurich is a beautiful city and
we took a train to Luzern which is the most beautiful city on planet earth.  We
will go back there to spend much more time.  Tim jumped off a 20 foot platform
into Lake Luzerne.

July 2:  Overnight train to Barcelona
         We have first class cabins with dinner and breakfast on the train.
         Eurail is the only way to travel in Europe.  We met a very nice family
         from Texas that was heading to the same Mediterranean Cruise we were
         going on.

July 3:  Barcelona, Spain:
        Thanks to my father, we stayed at an amazing hotel called The
        Circulo.   Barcelona has lots of great Tapas restaurants and very
        interesting architectures such as never finish church.

July 4:  Board Ship, Brilliance of the Seas
        We had the largest suite on the entire ship - The Roya Family Suite.
        It was huge, multi-bedroom, huge living room with a wrap around porch
        with our private concierge.

July 5:  Nice, France Julie and the boys went to the beach and I investigated
sports cars.  Highlight for me was renting a Ferrari Modena 360 and taking it
on the same circuit as Monte Carlo F1 Gran Prix.

July 6:  Pisa/Florence, Italy
        We had private tour of both cities.   The history of Pisa and Florence
        is amazing.   We were the first ones up on the Leaning Tower of Pisa
and I bet the first "Open Office" photo on top the tower :-)

July 7:  Rome, Italy    Rome is a City that is the must category of life.

July 9:  Mykonos, Greece   There were 60knot winds the morning we
                           were to leave the ship, so we did not visit Mykonos.

July 10:  Kusadas, Turkey  Too many things to highlight, I will update later.

July 11:  Santorini, Greece     A very beautiful city on a steep cliff.

July 12:  Athens, Greece    BEST food of entire month. 
                     Too many things to highlight, I will update later.

July 14:  Naples   Too many things to highlight, I will update later.

July 16:  Barcelona, Spain, Circulo

July 17:  Overnight train to Zurich

July 18: Zurich, Switzerland; Hotel Continental
                We visited Luzerne again.

July 19:  Return Home

I received an  email from my cousin Chris yesterday.  Chris has done two tours of duty in Iraq.   I was at my sisters house yesterday and my father was there.  My father did two tours of duty in Vietnam and is the world record holder for number of years with  Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL).  

 Chris and my father are just two of the many heroes we should have thanked yesterday for their service to our country.

 
As someone who lives in Northern Virginia, I am very proud of the GI Bill of Rights that Senator Webb proposed.  It is absolutely inconceivable to me why ANYONE would be against this Bill.
 

As The New York Times wrote on the 50th anniversary of the G.I. bill: “Few laws have done so much for so many.”

“These veterans were able to get a first-class future,” Senator Webb told me in an interview. “But not only that. For every dollar that was spent on the World War II G.I. bill, seven dollars came back in the form of tax remunerations from those who received benefits.”

Senator Lautenberg went to Columbia on the G.I. bill, and Senator Warner to Washington and Lee University and then to law school.

The Bush administration opposes the new G.I. bill primarily on the grounds that it is too generous, would be difficult to administer and would adversely affect retention.

This is bogus. The estimated $2.5 billion to $4 billion annual cost of the Webb proposal is dwarfed by the hundreds of billions being spent on the wars we’re asking service members to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. What’s important to keep in mind is that the money that goes to bolstering the education of returning veterans is an investment, in both the lives of the veterans themselves and the future of the nation."

I think back to when I was with Joy W. and my wife listening to Oliver Stone present at a small College in California.  Oliver Stone was asked, "why did the Vietnam war go on for so long?"   Mr. Stone replied, "Do you really NOT know? - that is EASY, because Senators and Congressman's sons were NOT dying."

 Why is it that it is always the politicians who were never in battle  are ALWAYS the ones who are quickest to send our sons and daughters in harms way, but then have the complete LACK OF CHARACTER AND LACK OF COURAGE to take care of them when they come home?
 

 Thank you Senator Webb for you LEADERSHIP!
 

 

 

The picture below was on the Collegiate Times last year at VT:

 

There is a permanent  memorial at VT.  The Collegiate Times has a nice article describing the memorial.

My memories of last April 16th started with a phone call from my wife.  Julie called and said, "just wanted to let you know that John is fine."   At the time I was on my SunRay reading email while on a con call when she called my cellphone.  She never calls me during theday since she is a school teacher.    "Why would John not be be fine?" I asked.  She asked me if I was watching TV or listening to the news.  Of course I was not watching TV or listening to the news.  She explained what was going on.  I immediately interrupted the Sun folks on the con call and quickly said, "I had to there was a shooting at my son's school."

 It was then that I turned on the TV and was shocked to see the peaceful and beautiful VT campus on the news.  I started getting emails, phone calls from literally around the world checking on John.  You sometimes forget in casual conversation that you mentioned something about your kids that your friends and colleagues remember.   Every time a call came, I paused the DVR.  I was getting the current updates from friends and family over the phone.  As the numbers kept rising, it became more and more surreal. 

 
Last year, when John was working for the Collegiate Times,  he put together a very nice week long history of events starting on April 16th through April 23rd that shows what happened each day. 

 I can not imagine the horror the students and faculty must have felt.   There was an article in the post today by Nick Miroff,  titled, "A Year Later, Virginia Tech Is Still Healing" is a well written article worth reading.  As Miroff points out:

"Virginia Tech students have learned to talk about it in shorthand, if they talk about it at all.

They do not use the words massacre, or shootings, or rampage. They call it "April 16th," and sometimes not even that. To say "four-sixteen" is enough.   Everyone knows."

 I have been back to VT five times since April 16th, 2007.  Each time, the first thing I do is visit the memorial.  Governor Kaine has done a good job with the VT Task Force.  

Governor Kaine stated today:

 "On April 16, 2007, Virginia Tech University suffered a terrible tragedy.  Today, my thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families and the entire Virginia Tech community.

"In the year that has passed since that horrible day, we have grieved for those we lost and prayed for the comfort of their loved ones. We have rejoiced in the recovery of those who were injured. We have been inspired by the unfaltering hope and Hokie spirit of Virginia Tech. And we have renewed our commitment to do even more to learn lessons from that day and to make our campuses and communities safer.

"As I think about the victims' families, I am at a loss for words to express what is in my heart. The courage and strength they have shown in the face of such tremendous, tragic loss is awe-inspiring. We have been inspired by the resilient Hokie spirit of Virginia Tech, both in Blacksburg and around the world. Since that tragic day last April, the unshakeable sense of unity and hope demonstrated by the Hokies has touched the lives of people around the world. Their focus on pulling together to support their school and each other in the days after the shooting, and their commitment to public service through the VT Engage program in the months that followed has moved us all.

"We still have work to do. A continued commitment to improvement is the best tribute we can pay to those who lost so much. And as we move forward, we will continue to be inspired by those in the Hokie Nation."

VT seems to have made the right changes.  The VT Task Force seemed to not pull any punches when it came to how the University should have dealt with the events on the morning of April 16th, 2007.  

As the AP reported and I FULLY AGREE with Governor Kaine about purchasing firearms at gun shows.  Virginia needs to get its act together.

"Gov. Timothy M. Kaine proposed mandated background checks yesterday for everyone who attempts to purchase firearms at gun shows - legislation that he called critical to helping prevent future tragedies like the shootings at Virginia Tech.

Many families of those killed or injured in the April shootings have called on legislators to close Virginia’s so-called gun show loophole, which allows people to purchase firearms from unlicensed sellers at gun shows without having to submit to background checks. Under current Virginia law, only licensed dealers are required to run background checks on customers.

“If by doing this, we can keep one family from having to go through what these families have suffered, it will be the best thing that the legislature will do this year,” Kaine said at Virginia State Police headquarters, surrounded by several of the victims’ families."

Hopefully the healing will continue for those directly affected...

 

 

 Today is the one year anniversary of the tragedy at Virginia Tech.

 My thoughts and prayers go out to all the families, relatives and friends of those who lost their lives year ago in this senseless tragedy.....

        "Courage is the first of human qualities because it
        is the quality which guarantees all others."

                Winston Churchill

Today is the two week anniversary of the tragedy at
Virginia Tech.  As a parent of a VT freshman, it is still
hard to comprehend the magnitude of this tragedy.  There
were  many heroes on VT's Campus on April 16th, 2007.  Many
are well documented in the press.

There are five individuals who were behind the scenes
that are absolute heroes in my mind.  Those five heroes are
the individuals who run online Collegiate Times which is
VT's main online paper and kept the world informed on the
latest breaking news coming out of VT on this senseless
tragedy.  These five individuals were literally working
around the clock, giving up sleep to keep their fellow
students, parents, family, friends, faculty and the rest of
the world informed.

These five unsung heroes all have the "first of human
qualities" - courage.  It would have been perfectly
understandable if these five individuals would have given
up when their servers went down.  But they did not.  They
had the courage to literally work around the clock to get
the server back up *and* keep the rest of the world
informed of the latest updates to one of the most of
horrific days in the history of our country.  The five
individuals are:


        Chris Ritter, Online Director
        Tim Tutt, Web Developer
        John Edstrom, Associate Web Developer
        Gabriel Martinez, Associate Web Designer
        Collin Smith, Multimedia Editor

One of the many amazing statistics is that the
Collegiate Times received up to 53 million hits by
early afternoon on Monday April 16th.

Wikipedia has a nice history of the Collegiate Times with the
picture that appeared on the Collegiate Times April 17th, 2007,
edition titled "Heartache."




Below are just some of quotes on the fantastic work that
these five unsung heroes did under
tremendous pressure.

The OnLine Newshour on PBS

        "The Internet became a prime place for people to
        get the news out of Blacksburg.  The college
        newspaper, the Collegiate Times, scooped the major
        media, getting the story online, right after the
        first shot rang out, and staying on it non-stop
        ever since.

        The 104-year-old paper received up to 53 million
        hits by early Monday afternoon, forcing the site
        down for a time. It also listed some of the dead
        early Tuesday morning, prompting the New York Times
        Web site and other news outlets to link to the
        Collegiate Times."


The Shield - University of Southern Indiana Student Newspaper

        "The information on the Web site is remarkable.

        Besides the list of confirmed deceased, the site
        provides a graphic map of the shootings, a photo
        gallery, personal accounts and interviews and
        related stories ranging from emerging donation
        details to the impact on the nearest hospital.  The
        staff has handled the facts correctly, but not
        without compassion, which is a difficult task.

        The Collegiate Times editorial says, "When
        considering the number of deceased victims, 32 is
        devastating, but those lives are not just a number,
        each one is a member of our community." Journalism
        cannot be disregarded due to a personal tragedy,
        since citizens rely on journalists for information.
        Such journalists must remember, however, that
        although horrific tragedies stir media attention as
        sensational, there is nothing sensational about
        human suffering and coverage must be conducted
        tastefully.

        Well done Collegiate Times staff.

        To those that believe campus newspapers are a waste
        of time and funding, let this tragedy serve the
        purpose of proving the necessity of campus
        newspapers nationwide."


Chronicle of Higher Education

        "National Public Radio is among news organizations
        that have profiled and praised Virginia Tech
        student newspaper, The Collegiate Times, which has
        become a crucial source of information for other
        reporters covering Monday's events.

        The papers online edition, said NPR's Larry
        Abramson, has grabbed international attention
        indeed, on Tuesday The New York Timess home page
         linked to the student publications list of
        confirmed victims of the shooter.  Mr. Abramson
        also pointed out that Collegiate Times staff
        members know how to mine Facebook for information
        inaccessible to many older reporters who are
        unfamiliar with the social-networking site." -


WGHP Fox TV VIDEO:


        "The team at The Collegiate Times, the campus
        newspaper, will remain. So far, they have been
        setting the pace for all journalists"



Middlebury Campus


        "The face of a crisis, the writers, photographers
        and editors of Virginia Tech's student daily, The
        Collegiate Times, transcended their roles as
        college journalists to not only inform their
        community, but to inform the world. With many local
        news sources shut out, only limited comments coming
        from Virginia Tech officials and an entire campus
        on lock-down, the importance of these students'
        work was heightened to an extreme. The written,
        photographic and video posts to The Times website
        throughout the day were among the most vivid and
        honest portraits of the campus available. Working
        from computers outside of their offices, the
        students held nothing back, and produced a raw,
        emotional narrative of the tragedy. Their reporting
        was effective, critical and in every sense, brave."

Editor and Publisher


        "While the editors of the student newspaper went
        about their work with inspiring leadership,
        internal communications by Virginia Tech
        administrators showed the University was less than
        fully prepared. As more and more details about the
        sequence of events have been released, it has
        become clear that administrators did not notify the
        entire campus or order a full lockdown until more
        than two hours after the first round of shooting
        began. Whether or not any of the deaths in the
        second round of shooting could have been avoided,
        we should realize the need for all institutions to
        prepare for the unimaginable. And in the face of
        this shooting, college administrators everywhere
        should recognize the need to share information with
        their communities quickly and clearly, even as the
        full extent of a crisis may remain unknown."


        "The college paper at Virginia Polytechnical
        Institute kept a running account of the tragedy
        that struck the campus today, with more than 30
        students gunned down in at least two areas of the
        campus, a dorm and a classroom. The shooter is
        allegedly dead as well, but not identified. It is
        not known if he was a student ...

        Here is how the student-run Collegiate Times
        reported it, blog-style, with the most recent
        posting first. A full article is now posted there,
        which includes the note that police "are also
        investigating if it has any relation to the recent
        bomb threats on Tech's campus."

Seattle Post Intelligencer


        "For unique reporting on the massacre read the
        Collegiate Times, Virginia Tech's student-run
        newspaper."


University Daily Kansan

        "While news organizations like CNN have done a
        thorough job in covering Monday's events, I'd like
        to point the readers of kansan.com to Virginia
        Tech's student newspaper, the Collegiate Times.
        After overcoming early technical difficulty when
        the news initially broke, they've done what I feel
        is an admirable job as the student voice of the
        Virginia Tech community.

        In the process of learning about these tragic
        events, be sure to not overlook the students
        themselves. http://www.collegiatetimes.com"


WRAL

        "I found a couple sites with unique angles on this
        story.  One of the most interesting is  The
        Collegiate Times, which is VT's student newspaper.
        Their staff apparently first reported this shooting
        this morning.  The server is overwhelmed right now,
        but it will be interesting to check their coverage
        in the days and weeks ahead."

Forbes

        "Monday's shooting at Virginia Tech provided a
        grim, real-time stress test for the effectiveness
        of Web 2.0 technologies. And on Monday, all of them
        seemed to work: Information flew through text
        messages, blog posts, Web sites, online videos and
        social networking sites.

        The Internet reacted to the event immediately--and
        more quickly than Virginia Tech administrators, who
        took two hours to warn students, via e-mail, about
        a first shooting. The Web site of VT's student
        newspaper, the Collegiate Times, crashed when
        students flooded it after the first shooting. As a
        replacement, students created a low-tech blog,
        CollegeMedia.com.

         It posted the first entry about the event at 9:47 a.m.,
         minutes before the second shooting began."

Yahoo News

        "The student newspaper, the Collegiate Times,
        regularly updated its website proving to be a
        valuable resource for the campus as well as the
        national media."



Daily Californian


        "And as this happened, students at the Collegiate
        Times, the Virginia Tech student newspaper, were
        able to live-blog the days events. The Web site
        began the day with a post at 9:47 a.m. EST,
        reporting Shots were fired on campus and
        provided continuing updates throughout the day. The
        entries of the papers staff provide an
        illuminating window into the fear and questioning
        that doubtless gripped the campus in those
        uncertain hours."


                   "The Collegiate Times, Virginia Tech's campus newspaper,
                    was the first media outlet to break the story Monday with
                     on-line reports of shots fired on campus."

Manhattan Mercury

       "No amount of on-the-job experience or education
        could have prepared Kelly Furnas for what he's
        faced this week in his capacity as an editorial
        advisor to the campus newspaper at grief-stricken
        Virginia Tech University.

        .....

        To be honest its been pretty much non-stop working
        with the student newspaper I have not had time on a
        personal level to sit down and digest everything
        yet," Furnas said.

        The Collegiate Times, Virginia Tech's campus
        newspaper, was the first media outlet to break the
        story Monday with on-line reports of shots fired on
        campus.

        "I can't put into words how proud I am of our
        students," Furnas said.  "They have provided
        desperately needed information to their readers,
        and they have done that with gusto. I think the
        campus newspaper's reputation with the students
        here has helped a lot."

 

The Age (Australia)

        "'The school's student newspaper, The Collegiate
        Times, filed up-to-the-minute online dispatches. At
        4.44pm: "Police have confirmed that the shooter
        took his own life." At 4.54pm: "University
        Relations has confirmed 31 deaths at Norris Hall,
        in addition to two deaths at West Ambler Johnson."


Gulf Times

         The Collegiate Times (its server quickly crashed
        and a blog written by editors with messages from
        students appeared instead on the web site of the
        newspapers owning company), as well as to media
        outlets around the world, including CNN and the
        BBC.  Regardless of where the contributions are
        aimed, the back and forth on facebook.com and other
        social networking sites are equally an instant and
        new resource for news producers and reporters

     

NPR


        "As reporters from around the world descend on
        Blacksburg, Va., one publication stands out:
        Virginia Tech's student newspaper, Collegiate
        Times, is doing a truly remarkable job of covering
        the story."

        About 15 staff members were rushing to update the
        site about every 15 minutes with news of the
        convocation, shooting investigation and candlelight
        vigil plans.

        "We're getting like 10 billion phone calls,
        everyone from Al Jazeera to tiny radio stations in
        Iowa," Kendall said.


LA Times


        "The paper's scoops included eyewitness accounts of
        the shootings, interviews with a classmate of the
        shooter and a list of victims' names that was
        posted late Tuesday. A reporter was one of the
        first to question administrators about why they
        didn't warn students during the two hours between
        the two shootings Monday morning."


Poyneronline

        "The Web staff for Virginia Tech's student
        newspaper, The Collegiate Times, was also
        scrambling for solutions after its servers crashed
        around 10:30 a.m. the day of the shootings.

        Online editor Chris Ritter's main goal was to get
        the site back to its original state -- a large,
        graphical and Flash-intensive homepage. When that
        couldn't happen, Ritter and his staff opted for a
        simple text page with blue background -- to ensure
        they could communicate information quickly to
        users. After that page continued to overload its
        own server, The Collegiate Times tech adviser,
        Scott Chandler, suggested that the staff use the
        College Media server, the parent company which
        hosts the publication's site.

        Once the site stabilized on the additional server,
        The Collegiate Times began posting photos and
        videos to a third server usually reserved for
        design research and development. To prevent
        crashing again, a Virginia Tech server is now
        hosting videos and photos for the site.

        Monday night The Collegiate Times staff redesigned
        its homepage from scratch to have a Web site that
        was "intuitive and a graphically pleasing display"
        of its special content for the shootings. The
        Collegiate Times began creating breaking-news
        multimedia when escaped convict William Morva shot
        two police officers at Virginia Tech on the first
        day of school last August.

        Since then, Ritter said users are looking at the
        Web for information more than ever before, and the
        staff has adopted a Web-first attitude change."


Roanoke Times on CT:
Coping Through Journalism Video