Paul Gilster, who has been writing about technology for nearly 30 years and is the internationally known author of numerous Internet books, is the Triangle’s equivalent of the Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg. In an exclusive interview with WRALTechWire, Gilster salutes Mossberg, who wrote his last WSJ column on Wednesday. But like that tech guru, Gilster certainly has no plans to retire.

“Walt Mossberg has been a humane and wise arbiter of digital tech, a man who combined a deeply readable style with curiosity and approachability,” Gilster says.

“He always made readers feel that he was one of them more than a deeply technical guru, even though he certainly knows his stuff and always has.

“Countless readers have turned to Walt’s columns for advice when contemplating new purchases or just trying to untangle the complicated computing scene. His ability to express technical matters in readable prose has always impressed me – it can be quite a challenge to do.”

Amen to all of that.

Retirement? Egad!

Gilster offers a very similar approach in his own writing, which appears weekly in The News & Observer. He also published a series of very successful “how to” Internet books back in the day when the web, browsers, the net, and even email were still strange technology challenges to most users. His “Navigator” books were based on the fact that people wanted to better understand these new tools – and he showed many in multiple languages.

His books actually track the evolution of the Internet from text and dialup to the web, browsers and faster access – and a look ahead to what the Internet could mean for global literacy:

  • The Internet Navigator, 1993
  • Finding It on the Internet, 1994
  • The Mosaic Navigator, 1995
  • The New Internet Navigator, 1995
  • The SLIP/PPP Connection, 1995
  • The Web Navigator, 1997
  • Digital Literacy, 1998

Mossberg is leaving The Journal for a new gig, so he is not retiring. Neither is Gilster, who keeps pounding his keyboard on all things computer. But he also writes extensively now about the future of space travel.

“Although I’ve been writing about technology for over 20 years now, my focus has largely been on computing and the Internet,” he writes at his “Centauri Dreams” blog, which also is the title of his book about space travel. “But behind the scenes I’ve continued to nurse an active interest in space travel, and the ultimate challenge: finding a way to reach the nearest stars.”

While mankind may not truly travel where no human has gone before when Gilster’s own mortality catches up with him, he certainly isn’t surrendering to the challenges of age. 

“Retirement!” he exclaims when asked about the idea.

“Good grief.

“Writers don’t retire, they just sort of disappear, and I plan to be visible for a long time to come. I enjoy doing the columns for the N&O, but I’m staying very active in aerospace and space technologies through my website as well, and traveling and speaking at various space-related venues.

‘”All in all, I’ve never felt more energetic, even if I do tend to go to bed earlier than I used to at night!”

Gilster recently passed a landmark in his writing – more than 1,000 technology columns written on a weekly basis.

He’s been as consistent a writer as Joe DiMaggio was as a hitter – but Gilster’s streak is, we pray, a long way from ending.

“I started back when it was called Triangle Business and never referred to as TBJ. That would be back around 1986,” Gilster recalls.

“I started writing features for them and kept at it, and around 1988 Regina Oliver, who was the editor then, asked if I would do a weekly column.

“I moved it over to the N&O’s weekly business journal in the early 90s and it made the transition into the paper itself not long after.

“My next column will be No. 1056.”

Impressive. 

Meeting Mossberg

While Mossberg and Gilster are brothers in the sense that they are both tech gurus, the two haven’t spent any real time together personally. But that limited contact doesn’t mean Gilster can’t deeply respect Mossberg’s work.

“I only met Walt once, at one of the early Internet World trade shows,” Gilster recalls. “I found him to be genial and thoughtful.

“He gave a wonderful off-the-cuff presentation at that show talking about how the Internet would allow the growth of interest groups around extremely specialized subjects, with the membership being drawn from a worldwide audience so ideas could be deeply explored. He was absolutely right, of course, and in so many areas like this,

“Walt saw where the Net was leading.”

So, too, did Paul Gilster. 

A Personal Note 

The Skinny has been writing about technology in the Triangle since 1995, starting with a series of profiles and interviews in The Spectator. My first story was a profile of Paul Gilster.

Gilster and I first met when I helped launched Interpath, the first state-wide privately held Internet Service Provider in North Carolina in the spring of 1994. There was only one person who could write the users manual we needed to help subscribers learn how to navigate the Internet.

Paul Gilster.

So while Gilster saluted Mossberg, The Skinny tips the cap to Paul.

May he long keeping writing tech for all of us – and help keep alive the dream of someday reaching the stars.