Remember your job before the Internet? The unruly mound of post that was on your desk when you came back from holiday? The hours spent researching things in actual books? The quarters you carried to make calls from pay phones when you were on the road?

Yes, we’ve made real strides in simplifying business communication in the last two decades.

But the digital age has brought its own inconveniences too. Our e-mail inboxes fill up overnight with hundreds of unwanted messages from people we don’t know and wouldn’t care to do business with. A search engine can deliver the contents of a million books in a fraction of a second – but it can’t weed out the 999,999 books that aren’t what you’re looking for. Your cell phone gives you 24-hour access to your colleagues—but do you really want that?

Here’s the problem with the digital age. We still haven’t figured out how to regulate information effectively. Let’s face it, trying to drink from a fire hose is messy and painful.

That’s why I don’t think I’m alone in missing the simplicity of the old order, when it was easier to recognize important information at a glance. Yes, communication was more effort, but that meant you didn’t waste your time passing along trivialities. And while there were a lot fewer news sources, at least you knew which ones you could trust.

Am I saying I’d like to step into the wayback machine and rebuild the world to 1984 specifications? Not at all. The digital age is exciting and wondrous. It brings new efficiencies and opportunities. It has tremendous potential for good. And as a society we’re adapting to the new demands of technology. We’re meeting the challenge of change. We’re debugging the cultural glitches. And, best of all, we’re building tools to help filter out the noise.

So, with that in mind, let me introduce you to a new one, made specifically for supply chain professionals in Canada. The “Just-In-Time” Newsletter, brought to you by Logistics Magazine, launches this week with news and products relevant to your world.

Every Tuesday we’ll send out a collection of the most interesting supply chain stories that have crossed our desk in the past seven days. We’ll tell you about a few products that have been unveiled that you might want to consider for your operation. And we’ll include a feature item that we hope you’ll find entertaining and useful. It might be a profile of a successful enterprise or a visionary entrepreneur. It might be the story of an ambitious logistics project. Or it might be coverage of an industry events or relevant news from the world of politics or academia. One way or another, we’ll fill that slot 52 times in the coming year with information you won’t want to miss.

But this is your newsletter, so we want to hear from you too. Your thoughts and reactions to the stories of the day will be more than welcome. We plan to include your feedback in the newsletter. Hopefully they’ll spark lively discussions on key industry issues.

And we’ll be happy to include your opinion pieces and essays, too. If there’s a subject that’s close to your heart, let us know about it. We’ll give you an electronic soap-box from which to reach the masses. I’ve met a good number of you out there, and I know you have opinions. Send them in to us.

We’re not looking to add to the clutter that’s out there. Just the opposite, we want to make your job easier.

If the world of the supply chain interests you, engages you, and is important to you, sign up to receive the Just-In-Time Newsletter. We won’t swamp you with the banal and trivial. We’ll be timely. We’ll be interesting. And above all, we’ll be relevant. You can hold us to that commitment. 

And we'll see you next Tuesday.