Digital plumber - 1996

[Benjamin Barrett]

The Spiegel report on US intelligence activities December 29 has sent the term "digital plumber" to about 120 pages that Google has indexed. (I searched for "digital plumbers" "intelligence" "operations" but did not look at each link.)

1. Google Books has 1996 in _RAND Issue Paper_ "Issues 146-216 of Issue Paper, Issue Paper" (http://ow.ly/si2Bu)
-----
Responsible for installation and integration of wiring [illegible] and sensors, these digital plumbers are becoming increasingly critical, as well as hard to find. Several labor pools, including electricians, telephone repairmen, and cable/security-system installers, are likely candidates to move into this niche market." ... Many of the digital plumbers in attendance at EHE also expressed concerns that the....
-----

2. Google Books also has 1997 "The Bioneers: Declarations of Interdependence" by Ken Ausubel (http://ow.ly/si2DJ), but it's a false date. The book refers to the Y2000 bug and Amazon says it was published in 2001.
-----
Hundreds of billions of dollars and swarms of feverish digital plumbers averted the predicted apocalypse shadowing the centralized technocratic plundering of the world.
-----

I don't have OED access, but Wiktionary does not have this term or define it under "plumber."

Benjamin Barrett
Formerly of Seattle, WA

Learn Ainu! https://sites.google.com/site/aynuitak1/videos

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org