I attended the National Association of Science Writers conference in Austin this week. It was inspirational, but activated some latent fears and frustrations.

The first two talks were about the instability of the journalism market and the potential for multimedia to enrich communications. These were followed by several talks about social media networks and their use in promoting journalism.

The first worries me, because it seems like writers are becoming expendable, or at least much less tied to traditional news organizations. 'Get used to it,' was the bottom line, following by, 'what a time of great opportunities!' I see that, but it's still unsettling.

The second talk troubled me because I miss making movies, devoting time to the visual. I haven't been able to spend much time working on documentaries, for work or outside of work, and I miss the process.

The third talk caused me to realize that I'm not only anti-social in the real world, I'm not anti-social in various virtual worlds as well. Speakers kept imploring us to join and be an active part of virtual communities, and all I can say to that is...I'll try.

By and large, the conference stimulated a lot of ideas and ambitions. Top people, in science and science writing, talking about their passions, their predictions, their processes. It made me want to grow into the next phase of my professional career.