Virtual Reality

by Steve Ciarcia

t used to be that if you hired an editor or columnist they worked at a central facility. These days, with the Internet, many of the people in a publishing business are off-site. I was always skeptical about the efficiency of this, but a conversation with Jonathan Erickson, Editor-in-chief of Dr. Dobbs, at a trade show a couple years ago convinced me that it can work. Dr. Dobbs is in California and Jon lives in Kansas. Can't find an editor willing to join the insanity in CA? Let them stay by the shore in Oregon or on the plains of Kansas. When you are reading this editorial, can you tell if I slaved over a hot computer at the magazine's office in Vernon or I sat with a laptop on my deck at home along with a snifter of GlenLivet and a Partagas?

All levity aside, the trend today is to find the best people wherever they are and let them telecommute. Unfortunately, the virtual office can only go so far in focusing the complex values inherent in the soul of a published periodical. A magazine, like Circuit Cellar, is very much the product of the editorial personalities and their dedication to the ideals I encourage. Readers learn to trust Tom Cantrell and our other columnists because we all share the same values.

Let's just call it a reality check. We've been doing this magazine a long time, but even I occasionally ask myself if we are covering all the bases. The way I did it this time was to put all my columnists and editors on planes and call them in for a two-day editorial meeting at Circuit Cellar world headquarters. The game plan was to critique our present performance and have a strategy planning session.

In truth, I just wanted everyone to meet each other and solidify the feeling of community. I wanted my in-house editorial staff to absolutely recognize the solid credentials and talents of all the people who make Circuit Cellar what it has become. Yes, the magazine exists because I started it, but I am the first to promote the reality that our continuing success is a result of the authors and columnists who write for it. I pay the bills and manage the staff, but it's the infectious inspirations from Ingo Cyliax, Fred Eady, George Martin, and others that contribute to a feeling of "soul." A virtual office may solve many of the financial burdens of office planning but it takes real face-to-face discussions to communicate mannerisms and humor. An editor who has met Tom Cantrell understands that his penchant for cute metaphors is a necessary part of his personality.

Not all of our columnists had attended the same trade shows or had come to previous meetings. This time I had everyone there for two days of strategy planning, raucous debate, and just plain overeating.

So what did we accomplish? The strategy session was probably the best. What technologies should we focus on in the future? Should our present reintegration of embedded PC related topics into the mainstream editorial continue? Should Ingo broaden the scope of topics he covers? Should Fred present a couple of Internet Appliance articles? Will I ever drive at 60 mph and take more than 6.7 seconds to get there?

One question that Tom raised was whether or not we have too many contests. My attitude, as a designer and not just the publisher, was that readers wait for the processor of their choice to rotate through. People who love the 8051 architecture aren't interested in a PIC contest and vice versa. By having a continuous succession of contests we hit more component types and involve more readers. I've said in previous editorials that we get a lot of project articles from contest entries. The more variety in contests, the more variety in the projects we publish.

Because we were at the office in CT having this discussion rather than me e-mailing Tom in CA, I decided to make my point more emphatically. I walked up to Tom at the meeting and dumped a big crate of envelopes in front of him. "Here are some of the projects for the Philips Design2K contest that we just sent out to the judges. Here's one for a digital altimeter and another for a logic analyzer. Here's a USB to I²C converter, an auto-racing simulator, and a weather monitor."

I continued piling them in his lap. "And, Tom, here's one that you'll really like. It's a feature upgrade board for a Furby!" Tom conceded that the contest entries were great. If this was an indication of the kinds of projects we received for contests why didn't we do this more often? "Hold on, Tom. We're doing it as often as we can handle it right now." (See page 15 for our current contest.)

So, we had fun. We also did some work. But, one of the best results of this meeting was that the virtual community got a shot of real human community. Circuit Cellar columnists will always be spread all over the country. Like our readers, our columnists live where the action is. I feel very fortunate that they choose to be part of Circuit Cellar. Then again, perhaps that's why you all read it too. Circuit Cellar's success is that community.