Eulogies and lessons learned

When I was a little kid, I loved hanging out in my great uncle’s woodshop. He had every finger-snatching power tool on the planet. But telling him I cut it three times, and it’s still too short only lead to his insistence that I start over.

This is the situation the new editor of a great magazine finds himself in, and I have been through it before.

I was lucky to be the editor of a great magazine during a great boom and a huge bust — Boardwatch Magazine. I replaced a legendary editor there when he retired after the sale of the magazine. I know the responsibilities.

Boardwatch Magazine’s bones lay in a cold and silent grave, though. I hear some version of Boardwatch may leak onto the Web, but January is the last print issue of the magazine. The disappearance of print means Boardwatch is dust.

I heard this news on a December day with clouds spitting snow. So I listened to Howlin’ Wolf, and thought about the lessons for MRT.

I hate writing in the first person but I have heard rumors about MRT becoming a less technical magazine, or that MRT will become this or that. So as much as I would like to insist this isn’t about me, I need to make my vision for this magazine — and all the products that surround it — clear.

MRT will never be a non-technical magazine. There will be additional coverage that explores the interrelationship of communications technology, politics and business. Our features this month about Ultra Wideband (UWB) by Dana Blankenhorn, the transition away from Cellular Digital Packet Data by Steve Stroh and the security issues around 802.11x by Jim Thompson illustrate that point. We end the magazine with the ever-opinionated Doug Mohney’s take on the regulators and UWB.

But this commentary page is open to you. MRT welcomes all commentary. If you wish to have an opinion piece published, please keep it between 500 and 750 words with a short bio and a mug shot. We will not run any sales pitches, but only opinions on matters of importance to our readers.

I want to direct you to our letters section as well. This is a place to air your opinions as well as your concerns. I am anxious to hear your complaints and willing to air them publicly, so that we can address them in an open manner.

In other words, I need your help. What do you want from MRT? You can send your comments to [email protected] or directly to me, [email protected].

As politically incorrect as this statement may be because of the dot-com disillusion, this is the new economy. It may not be the new economy we envisioned, but it is the one we have. So I want this magazine, our Web site and our tradeshow to be as useful as they can be to you. We live in a world of convergence, especially in the communications industry.

But there is also a world of hype. I want our magazine, our tradeshow and our Web site to cut through all the hype. That’s it. But arriving at the truth requires debate. And we want to facilitate that. That is really all there is to it.

And hopefully I can make it through this process with all my fingers.