(COLLEGE PARK, MD – October 11, 2026) – Isn’t it amazing how far digital technology has come since the mid-1990s? It feels like just yesterday we were sliding floppy disks into our computers to install AOL. And who could forget “You’ve got mail!”? That familiar greeting was our collective introduction to life online.
In roughly 30 years, we’ve gone from dial-up to the Age of AI, with MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok along the way.
Just look at how our lives have changed. The underlying concept is still familiar: platforms connecting the people who produce information and entertainment with the people who consume it. Newspapers, radio, and television served that purpose for generations. Digital technology expanded the reach, sped up the exchange, and gave everyday people the tools to become publishers themselves.
Now people around the world are creating, communicating, and competing on these platforms. Algorithms influence what we see. Data shapes business strategy. And behind our screens sits a physical infrastructure of servers, data centers, electricity, and the water used to cool it all.
We call it the digital world, but its demands, and its consequences, are very real. As we enter this new Age of AI, I keep thinking about how far we’ve come and who will have a say in where we go next.
As a digital baby, BMORENews.com has been part of this evolving landscape for 24 years. When we launched in 2002, many people in our community were still getting familiar with websites and what they could do. Those days seem prehistoric now.
Still Learning
Today, as a doctoral student at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, I’m hearing about things like quantum computing. My first reaction? It sounds like AI on steroids. It isn’t exactly. It’s a different way of computing altogether. But the point stands: we’re still figuring out AI, and the next wave is already forming.
This is an ever-evolving phenomenon. I chuckle when I hear people call themselves AI experts. Most of us are students now, whether we’re enrolled somewhere or not.
That’s why I made a point of attending a recent Smith School webinar featuring Amartyo Sen of OpenAI for Government. It was the first in a year-long series on AI and government, hosted by Professor Balaji Padmanabhan and Rebecca Bellinger of the school’s Center for Global Business.
Rolling the Dice With Skill
Sen is a Smith School product. He graduated in 2018 with a degree in finance and management. From there, he didn’t take the safe road. He went into startups, moved through companies like Compass and Gong, spent time at Amazon Web Services, and became a founding member of the OpenAI for Government team.
What struck me most was his willingness to take risks. Startups are a roll of the dice. Taking that chance requires preparation: a skill set, instinct, and the discipline to keep growing. Sen bet on himself, sharpened his tools at every stop, and now holds one of the more consequential posts at the intersection of technology and public service.
I identify with that. When I launched BMORENews.com, there was no blueprint for a Black-owned digital news outlet in Baltimore. You learned by doing, and you trusted your gut. So seeing a Smith graduate make that same kind of leap, on a much bigger stage, was encouraging. I’m only in my third semester, but it’s clear what this school produces.
A Bigger World
The night delivered a second lesson I didn’t see coming. Professor Padmanabhan earned his bachelor’s degree in computer science from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, part of India’s renowned IIT system.
I’ll be honest: I had never really pondered IIT. I’m usually good at picking up on things like that, and I was disappointed in myself for missing it. The IIT system is among the most selective in the world. It draws some of the brightest minds from a country of more than 1.4 billion people, and its graduates have built a powerful global network in technology, business, and academia.
That realization expanded my thinking about the power of education and how technology gets applied in an ever-changing world. Here in America, we can get caught up in the politics du jour and forget how big the world is. If we’re serious about understanding where the future is going, and who is shaping it, we have to widen our lens. Many of the people building tomorrow’s technology came up through institutions many Americans have never heard of.
Two Takeaways
I left that webinar with two lessons. First, the future belongs to people willing to take calculated risks. Second, the future is global, whether we’re paying attention or not.
For an independent publisher who has spent nearly a quarter-century online, that’s both humbling and exciting. The landscape keeps changing. The question is whether we keep learning fast enough to have a say in where it goes.
Doni Glover is the founder and publisher of BMORENews.com and a DBA candidate at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.
