Summer Reading: What Airshippers Are Reading For Business and Pleasure

Summer is a great time to catch up on all that reading you wish you could be doing the rest of the year. Over the next few months, we’ll be highlighting team members from across Urban Airship, showcasing how they stay up-to-date on our rapidly changing industry and keep up role-specific professional development, as well as what they read for fun. Not everyone is going to admit their deep love of [insert embarrassing guilty pleasure here] unfortunately, but take a look — you may discover a new favorite “everyday” read!

This week we’re featuring Head of Strategic Consulting, Alyssa Meritt’s summer reading list.

1. MIT Media Lab

For over 30 years, the MIT Media Lab has been “inventing a better future” for us. From GPS, wearables and eInk to Guitar Hero and Scratch, many of their ideas have formed technologies that we use today.

Some recent posts have been on the ethics of driverless cars, and Placelet; Google Analytics for physical space. I like reading about what our future might hold, and thinking about messaging and communications fits into these new technologies.

2. American Press Institute’s Need to Know

I’m fascinated by, and fearful for the news industry today. We work with a lot of media companies experiencing the challenges of ad blocking, monetization, aggregation, and transitioning from print to digital and mobile. API’s daily email gives me an insider’s look into how the media is rethinking quality, innovative journalism.

3. Atlas Obscura

Urban Airship has sent me all over the world (18 US States, 12 Countries!) to visit clients. Atlas Obscura is my go-to for finding weird and wonderful places to explore when I’m on the road. This site led me to a ghost town in Belgium and the Cockroach Hall of Fame in Plano, TX. It’s also exposed me to hidden adventures here in Portland!

Continue to follow Summer Reading every Friday throughout the summer to learn more about how Airshippers both stay on the cutting edge and let loose.