Never assume the level of your understanding

01/01/2004

There's one thing I learned very quickly many years ago when I took over the editorial reins of my first publication—never assume that your entire readership is working on the same level of understanding.

This is by no means meant to be insulting, merely an admission that an editorial staff has a duty to cater to all levels of understanding within the scope of a given subject matter. When a publication like CleanRooms offers a successful content mix, including news, basics, intermediate and technical information, we've hit every level of interest; and, in turn, mirror the understanding level of all our readers in all of our vertical markets.

I mention this now, January 2004, as more news trickles in from the IBM case in Santa Clara. This month's Special Report (page 11) denotes how the medical device industry is starting to take a page out of the semiconductor industry's facility book—as we gauge the slow but steady evolution of contamination-control practice, technology and thinking.

IBM may not be in the news if simple cleanroom dynamics had been in place. And the medical device engineers you'll meet in the Special Report may not be morphing their production lines using automation and lasers if they hadn't learned from the chip pioneers before them.

Our 2004 editorial calendar would not even mention advanced AMC filtration, new clean design for aseptic processing, IT advances in the utility room, disposable manufacturing and automation advances in clean facilities if it hadn't been for innovators broadening their level of understanding and applying these ideals for the betterment of your clean facilities.

No one is going to force you to read every page of CleanRooms this year or attend every conference; but ask yourself where your level of understanding might be next year at this time if you put one foot forward in 2004 and attended one more seminar, read one more technical feature or got a little more involved in your targeted association.

My resolution is this: I plan on increasing my level of understanding this year to help bring an even higher grade of editorial to our loyal CleanRooms readers around the world.

Assess your current level of understanding and come join me at the next level.

Michael A. Levans

Chief Editor