A long time ago, in what feels like a galaxy far, far away, I was a young editor at a large daily metropolitan newspaper working as a “systems editor.”
What’s that, you ask?
Well, it was back near the dawn of the age of newspaper computer systems, and I was charged with coordinating the installation of my newspaper’s first front-end computerized publishing system and training the editorial staff how to use it.
Even way back then, I remember telling my fellow journalists who were just starting to use computers something that is no less true today then it was when I said it way back when: Be careful what you write on your computer because there is a good chance that the last person you ever want to see it probably will. (more…)