About this Issue

We believe that this, our October posting of Interface, has something for virtually every reader.

Our feature is the transcript of our first Berglund Roundtable presentation,
Cultural Issues and Doing Business Internationally Through the Internet” by Mark Lipson, CEO of Lunar Logic, a software firm in Eugene.  Mark has been working successfully with programmers in Poland.  We think that anyone interested in the use of the Internet in international communications or business will find this article very useful.  See it at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2005/06/lipson.php

Our legal editor, Leonard D. DuBoff, as usual presents very timely information that is potentially important to any producer of electronic information.  See “Copyright Developments You Should Know About” at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2005/06/duboff.php

Glee Cady, who writes on security and privacy, presents “Have you got yours yet?” about breaches of security of what many of us mistakenly think of as “our information.”   See it at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2005/06/cady.php

Chris Pruitt, our Video Game editor in “The Great Internet Quandary or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Blog” discusses fundamental questions facing anyone who consumes electronic information.  See his column at:  http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2005/06/pruett.php

For our book reviews, we range widely. The first, John Markoff's What the Dormouse Said, is found at:  http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2005/06/markoff.php This might be described as a history of the development of the PC in the San Francisco Bay Area, or a wider sort of work discussing the impact of the ‘60’s on computing, and vice-versa.

The second review, of Richard Li-Hua's Technology and Knowledge Transfer in China http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2005/06/lihua.php will no doubt be of interest to a smaller audience, those who wish to understand theoretical issues around the problem of knowledge transfer, or those wishing to better understand large scale construction projects in China.  For that audience, however, this is a uniquely valuable work.

Our Education and Funding editor, Mark Szymanski, presents “The Comic Life of a Teacher” found at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2005/06/szymanski.php At this time of year, any student or educator will welcome the mere suggestion that educational instruction and comedy can co-exist.

In our editorial, we begin a three-part discussion, “Paradigms of World History and American Technology” which we hope you will find relevant to contemporary issues facing Americans, whether policy makers. businesspeople or consumers.  See it at:  http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2005/06/edit.php

In addition we make several important announcements in this issue.  We have selected our Berglund Fellows for 2005-06.  One is Professor Yang “Tom”  Shengde of Wenzhou Medical College and Pacific University.  The other is Professor Eli Dresner of Tel Aviv University.  See their projects at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2005/06/fellowships.php

We also will be presenting six Berglund Roundtables this year.  The schedule, as well as video files and transcripts of each event, can be viewed at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/roundtables/schedule/index.php It is also possible for our readers to view the presentations live, after downloading appropriate software.  Begin this process at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/roundtables/tech/index.php

As always, we hope that you will find this issue of Interface both interesting and instructive.  Our next issue will be posted in late November.

Jeffrey Barlow
Director,
The Berglund Center for Internet Studies
Pacific University