About this Issue

We begin this, the first issue of our fifth year of publication, with a great deal of enthusiasm.  The Berglund Center has a number of what we believe to be exciting initiatives in process.  The new look of this issue, created by our Webmaster Heather Hawkins, is indicative of the spirit and energy in our offices. Heather welcomes comments on the design at: < heatherhawkins@pacificu.edu >

The dominant motifs in this issue are be globalization and language, perhaps because Benaiah Young our Berglund Center systems operator and myself recently spent six weeks working in China on behalf of the Berglund Center.

Our work in China with Wenzhou Medical College during the fall of 2004, as we cooperated on IP-based web-enabled shared classes (a complicated way of saying “classes taught over the Internet”), is already paying great dividends in terms of knowledge gained.  We feel that the Berglund Center is now well ahead of the curve on utilizing this transformational technology.  Our Chinese colleague Yang Desheng (Tom Yang) will report on the Chinese perspective in the March issue of Interface.

In this issue, Globalization is represented by an article by a former Systems Operator at the Berglund Center, Matt Ernst, now a graduate student in Computer Sciences at Washington State University. The article grew out of an incident that may or may not involve a jihadist link to a Pacific University site maintained by Matt.  See Matt’s piece at: “Free to Say 2 + 2 = 4” < http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2005/01/ernst.php > Many may not agree with Matt’s conclusions, but we feel that they represent a perspective which should be considered in the debates concerning the tensions between intellectual freedoms and national security.

Globalization is further represented by this month’s editorial piece, “Globalization and the Internet, 2001-2005” found at: < http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2005/01/edit.php  >

Our education editor, Mark Szymansky, takes a position similar to my own in the above editorial, believing that at least some elements of current national policy are poorly considered.  In “The Elimination of EETT:  Enhancing Education Through Technology” Mark argues that some recent funding cuts will have detrimental impacts upon education, and particularly upon the use of technology in education. The article is found at: < http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2005/01/szymanski.php >

While it may be a stretch to see Kevin Kawamoto’s piece as related to globalization we would maintain that it is, though the globalization is less geographic than generational.  Kevin hits upon three important references to the impact of the Internet in this article, “Genealogy, Technology and Health” found at: <http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2005/01/kawamoto.php >

Our final piece under the rubric of globalization is by our game editor, Chris Pruett. “The Role of Culture In Video Game Characters” can be found at: < http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2005/01/pruett.php > Chris, who is fluent in Japanese as well as in a variety of computer languages and frequently travels, studies, and works in Japan, discusses the issues of “localization” of video games which will be released in a variety of countries and cultural systems.

Language issues, as well as globalization, are represented by our book review, David Crystal’s Language and the Internet. See it at: <      URL> We have long searched for a single work that seemed to us to discuss the impact of the Internet upon language(s) and feel that this is the book. It should be read by everybody with a serious interest in the Internet.

Language issues also are covered in this issue by Glee Cady, our editor who covers security and privacy, with her piece: “Privacy Notices: What Do We Really Want?” found at: <http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2005/01/cady.php > As always Glee provides material of both theoretical and practical interest.

We hope you find this inaugural issue of our fifth year of publishing Interface both useful and entertaining.

Jeffrey Barlow,

Director, The Berglund Center for Internet Studies

Pacific University