About this Issue

In the April-May posting of Interface, found online at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2006/02/0206.php we present materials on a broad spectrum of topics, from Sex Online to a “borrowing” of our digital material by the Iranian Ministry of Science.

Our feature is “Sex Online; A Panel Discussion” between Patricia Barrera, M.A., Clackamas County Department of Community Corrections; one of our new editors, Jerald J. Block, M.D., who does a great deal of work on Internet Addiction; George Heuston, a cybercrimes expert from the Hillsboro, Oregon, Police Department; and two Pacific university students, Matt Leady and Cameron Bardwell. See it at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2006/02/sexonline.php

Our newest editor, Michael Geraci, who has taken on the huge challenge of writing regular technical features for us, begins with “Web Typography: Let Your Words Speak” See it at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2006/02/geraci.php Welcome, Michael!

Our legal editor, Leonard Duboff, joined by his colleague Marisa N. James, presents useful materials for all those who own or might acquire digital property in “Are You Properly Considering the Disposition of Important Property?” found at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2006/02/duboff.php We are very fortunate to have Leonard’s expertise in continually introducing us to the many legal issues facing those who are active in the digital world.

Our gaming editor, Chris Pruett, in his piece “Defining Challenges” discusses those difficult question that face every computer gamer: “Is this game challenging enough? Or too challenging?  What sort of challenge do I want anyway?”  See it at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2006/02/pruett.php

Pat McGregor as usual hones in on a timely topic, Online Communities, but takes a broad view of them, beginning with “MySpace.”  See her piece Online Community: Is it really a village? At: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2006/02/mcgregor.php Pat also has broken new ground for all of us at Interface by creating a blog in which to discuss her articles, as well as those of our colleague Glee Cady.  Please check in at Glee and Pat’s blog found at: http://interface.nithaus.org/

Our General Education Editor, Mark Szymansky, presents “The View From Above: How Digital Mapping Tools Can Change Our Perspective on Learning”  This is the third in a three part series on this topic by Mark.  For the initial part see: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2005/07/szymanski.php; the second is found at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2006/01/0106.php

In my editorial, “CYBERJACKED! Again... and Again...”  found at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2006/02/edit.php I discuss a number of recent problems with the odd uses that our Berglund Center digital content sometimes has been put to, ending with a recent case in which important elements of our site were copied to the servers of the Iranian Ministry of Science.

Our book reviews include a work on digital security written from a largely European perspective, Peter Warren and Michael Streeter's Cyber Alert, found at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2006/02/warren.php It provides, above all, a very interesting history of the development of certain types of cybercrime and an introduction to the criminals themselves and the authorities who oppose them.

Our second review, Richard Davis' Politics Online, found at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2006/02/davis.php is an excellent introduction to the influence of electronic communication, particularly blogs and chatrooms, on democratic political processes.

For an announcement of a yet another new initiative at the Center, Berglund Student Fellowships, see http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/stufellow.php

We hope that you, our audience, are spring as much as we are at Pacific University.  We post again in early June, when we will have the pleasure of announcing additional Berglund Center initiatives, including a call for Berglund Research Fellowship applications.  We have increased both the number and the amount of the Fellowships for our next round.  Please look for us.

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