From the Editor: Beginning Our Sixth Year of Publication

With this issue we begin our sixth year of posting Interface from the Berglund Center for Internet Studies at Pacific University. This is our 36th issue.  In this period we have reached a cumulative audience of more than a million visitors---we cannot be precise because our access logs have grown so large that we cannot maintain them over extended periods.  Still, the knowledge that more than twenty thousand people read at least part of each issue is gratifying.  We often hear from readers, from the authors whose books we review, and from yet other writers querying us as to our interest in specific pieces.

Behind our success is a group of selfless volunteer editors, some of whom have now written regular offerings for us for the entire five years of our publication.  None of them have received anything resembling adequate remuneration, nor can we cover even minimal expenses.  They write, we think, out of a passionate commitment to their subject areas and for the pleasure of reaching an interested audience.

We cannot easily say how many authors we have published in this period, but believe it to be well over one hundred different writers.  We have awarded fourteen Berglund Fellowships, and funded many other projects as well.  By sponsoring Transpacific Internet Classes to China, we also have begun to reach hundreds of Chinese students with American educational materials, and to draw upon their observations on the impact of the Internet.

We have enjoyed working with dozens of Pacific University students in this period, many of whom have created web materials for us, some have run our network and several servers, others have written and edited.  Each one of them has made important contributions to the Berglund Center, and we hope in return it has made important contributions to their education and life experience. We could not have functioned without them, nor would working at the Berglund Center have been such a joyful experience for us all.

The result of these many contributions has been conspicuous success, particularly for a publication run largely with volunteers and undergraduate students.  As the Director of the Berglund Center, I am the closest thing we have to a professional staff member, and less than forty percent of my workload at the university is in the Center, the rest has been in the classroom as a working teacher. For next year I move up to half time at the Center.

Yet all these possible limitations have been more than outweighed by the enthusiasm of our editors, advisory board, and student staff.  At almost any time, a Google search on such strings as “Internet Studies,”  “Center for Internet Studies,” or related terms will turn us up well toward the top of the first page of listings, along with much larger institutions.  Frequently we will be first, ahead of similar Internet centers at such large state universities as Washington and Minnesota, and at such well-funded private Centers such as the Berkman Center at Harvard. We are proud, of course, to be ranked among them, and learn continually from the examples which they set.

For all these reasons we think that this has been a very successful period for us, but we also believe it to be mere prelude.  For next year, we will enjoy a substantial increase in our budget, thanks to the continuing generosity of James and Mary Berglund, and to the support of Pacific University.  We have recently had the pleasure of firming up plans for our new quarters in the Berglund Building, for which we will soon break ground at Pacific University.

As a result of these increased resources, we will soon announcing a number of new initiatives.  While we cannot yet be specific in every case, in general terms these will include:

  • Increased numbers of annual Fellowship grants.

  • The creation of a new category of Berglund Student Fellowships for the support of talented incoming students who will do their Fellowship work at the Berglund Center.

  • The addition of professional administrative staff time.

  • An extension of our activities beyond the academic year at Pacific University.

  • The addition of a peer-reviewed process for some, but not all, of our Interface publications.

  • The publication of a new category of e-books in addition to our regular journal offerings.

  • The addition of new editors and feature writers, with new areas of regular coverage.

  • We will be increasing the amount we pay for published submissions.

  • We hope to be adding “Blogs” which will draw reader attention to important information regarding the impact of the Internet.

For specifics about some of these initiatives see additional “Announcements” in this issue, and look for further information in future postings.

And above all, we want to thank you, our readers.  It is your keen interest in the impact of the Internet which makes you a thoughtful and keen observer of current important technological and social trends, and us a successful publication.

Jeffrey Barlow
Director
Berglund Center for Internet Studies
Pacific University