| Smoking Pipe Tobacco in the 21st Century | | | | with the images because he subscribes to the RSS |
| Things have changed over the decades for the pipe | | | | feed of everything of interest to him (including his |
| smoker. Smoking pipe tobacco in the company of | | | | friend's blog) so he can track all that information in one |
| fellow smokers has become increasingly difficult. The | | | | convenient place. |
| numbers of pipe smokers are thinning and legislation | | | | Ten short years ago there likely would have been no |
| has pushed us out of many of the traditional social | | | | digital picture taken because digital cameras were cost |
| gathering spots we used to gather in. Pipe smokers | | | | prohibitive, while now they are standard in nearly every |
| need not despair! Smoking pipe tobacco need not be a | | | | mobile phone you buy today. If he did have the digital |
| solitary pursuit! | | | | picture, it likely wouldn't have been transmitted by cell |
| Enter the Internet | | | | phone. If he even remembered the pipes at the flea |
| The Internet brought some of us together on Usenet | | | | market when he returned home, he likely wouldn't have |
| groups like alt.smokers.pipe and other discussion | | | | even bothered telling anyone about it. Now that you |
| forums. Online auction sites blew the estate pipe | | | | are convinced you there is plenty for pipe smokers to |
| market into another dimension. Tobacconists took their | | | | take advantage of regarding Web2.0 I'll go over some |
| trade to the Web and provided pipe smokers an | | | | of the tools out there that will be of most benefit to |
| unprecedented range of tobaccos. Top blenders like | | | | pipe smokers. |
| Greg Pease shrewdly rode this wave to success as | | | | Blogs |
| did a range of pipe carvers. Needless to say, the | | | | Blogs are you broadcasting what is important to you |
| Internet has breathed life into our hobby and | | | | to the world. Originally they were called web logs. |
| community. | | | | People would update their static web site every day |
| Enter Web 2.0 | | | | like a journal or diary. Soon software was developed |
| Pipe smokers can not rest on these laurels. The | | | | to make the process of making these updates easier |
| Internet is rapidly evolving and we can keep up. There | | | | and quicker and web logs took off, and the name was |
| is no need not to. With the advances and innovations in | | | | shortened to blog. Your blog is what you want it to be. |
| technology, not only are the ways pipe smokers can | | | | It can be lengthy detailed descriptions or reports on |
| interact, share, and discuss smoking pipe tobacco | | | | something and updated every day or every hour, or it |
| improving, they are becoming easier. At the dawn of | | | | can be short, casual, infrequent posts. |
| the Internet, it required a fair amount of technical savvy | | | | Today blogs are as easy to set up and use as a web |
| just to set up an email account and download | | | | based email account. The best ones are free. If you |
| messages. | | | | can write an email, you can post to a blog. You can |
| With the advent of Web based email, if you can type | | | | write about your pipe collection, a new pipe tobacco |
| your name, point with a mouse, and click, you have | | | | blend you just tried, or share your thoughts on some |
| what it takes to use email proficiently. Today, if you | | | | fresh bit of pipe or tobacco related news that just hit |
| have what it takes to use Web mail, you have all the | | | | the streets. |
| skill required to set up and post to your own blog, | | | | Micro blogs |
| instantly broadcast updates and thoughts to all your | | | | Micro blogs (Twitter is probably the most popular.) are |
| friends, and keep up with what is on their mind. | | | | one of the oddest developments to come along. At |
| How the New Web Can Help Pipe Smokers | | | | first glance, most people see no desirable benefit in |
| Here is an example of how things have advanced. | | | | having one or looking at those of others. I confess |
| Imagine you are in the next state, spending time with | | | | falling in that category myself initially. |
| family and during an outing you visit a flea market | | | | Then I found out what they are capable of. When |
| where you see a cluster of old pipes. While pipes are | | | | used properly, micro blog services fit in the flow of |
| always a welcome sight, the seller wants a little more | | | | your life and what you are doing which means they |
| for them than you wish to spend considering none of | | | | are easier and faster than things you already use like |
| them are of a shape you would appreciate in your | | | | email. You can post to them and read them from your |
| collection. | | | | computer or on the go with a mobile device. |
| Nonetheless you want to mark the occasion by | | | | They allow direct messages to specific individuals only, |
| posting a picture of them on your blog. You pull out | | | | or messaged to everyone flagged for the attention of |
| your mobile phone, snap the picture, select an email | | | | a friend or two, or you can shout out to everyone you |
| address, hit send, and put the mobile phone back in | | | | want. |
| your pocket and go about your business. | | | | If you are a pipe smoker and visited a Internet forum |
| Ten minutes later, your mobile phone vibrates alerting | | | | dedicated to pipe smoking, you may have noticed |
| you of a text message. You check it and see: | | | | "what are you smoking now" threads, or maybe online |
| "Hope you snagged those, that apple looks just like | | | | auction finds. What you post to a micro blog is limited |
| this" | | | | by your imagination and usually 140 characters which is |
| There is a Internet address that takes you to a online | | | | about one sentence or two. |
| auction page where you confirm a pipe of the same | | | | RSS - Browsing the Web is for dinosaurs |
| shape and brand has recently sold for ten times what | | | | Maybe you have seen the little orange button while |
| the seller at the flea market is asking for a starting | | | | browsing the web and wondered exactly what that is |
| price on the entire lot. I'll leave the rest of the story to | | | | for. It is a link to that web site's feed. This "feed" allows |
| your imagination. | | | | the raw content, text, video, audio, images to be |
| This is not to suggest that impetus for taking full | | | | syndicated elsewhere. |
| advantage of this second evolution of the Web - | | | | What this means for the end user is they can pipe in |
| Web2.0 is to make money. I am only illustrating what is | | | | feeds from all their favorite sources of information on |
| available. What just happened in the story took place | | | | the Internet into one location. As a developer from |
| because the pipe smoker had a blog - maybe a blog | | | | Google put it: "it's like an inbox for the Web." This is |
| dedicated to smoking pipe tobacco, or pipes | | | | another one of those features out there that you |
| specifically, or everything that interests him. | | | | won't appreciate fully until you've tried it and learned to |
| He was also networked with other pipe smokers - he | | | | use it effectively. |
| followed their blogs, they followed his. He was involved | | | | These are but a few of the dozens, hundreds, maybe |
| in a community of sorts - a community of pipe | | | | even thousands of services and applications out there |
| smokers from all over who shared his love for the | | | | on the new Web that can and will benefit the pipe |
| hobby. One of those fellows was available to him on | | | | smokers who try them and integrate into their hobby. If |
| the spot because of the new Web. | | | | you want to make your community of fellow pipe |
| He had set up his blog so he could post from his | | | | smokers larger and tighter while giving yourself the |
| mobile phone. He used a micro blog service to keep up | | | | opportunity to learn even more about the hobby, start |
| with his friends via short messages, and could receive | | | | investigating these services and make sure you have |
| those messages on his phone. The fellow pipe smoker | | | | brought your hobby into the 21st Century. |
| who informed him of the auction saw the new post | | | | |