About this Issue

The September-October issue of Interface is a lively one covering a wide variety of topics.

In the Feature, Our Security and Privacy Editor, Glee Harrah Cady, discusses the importance of content providers, particularly businesses, having clear policies about investigations of leaded data. Glee, of course, mentions the current Hewlett-Packard case in some detail. See the piece "Just Words? Nah, It's Truth or Consequences" at http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2006/04/cady.php

Our "Digital Hygiene" Editor, Charles Boulet, discusses "Security Tools" at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2006/04/cboulet.php Charles, in a highly practical step-by-step piece, covers important programs and techniques for protecting your own computer.

A piece, by Mike Charles of the College of Education at Pacific University, "The $100 Laptop: Informal Learning in the Developing World"± discusses an initiative which has been much discussed for several years now. Its purpose, recognizing the great global disparities in access to and use of the Internet, is to place a functional but affordable Internet appliance into the hands of children in poorer countries. See it at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2006/04/charles.php

Mike's article is complemented by our Education editor, Mark Szymanski's piece, "Using the Internet to Teach American History through the History of Jazz" is found at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2006/04/szymanski.php. This is the first of a four part series...

Our legal practices column this issue is by Robert Napper of the legal offices of our Legal Editor, Leonard D. DuBoff. In "Is Arbitration the Way of the Future for Commercial Disputes" found at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2006/04/napper.php Robert discusses an increasingly important alternative to the courtroom.

Technology Editor Michael Geraci offers Part III of a very useful extended series on font typography, "Typographical Control via Cascading Style Sheets" at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2006/04/geraci.php Anyone who creates more than an occasional web page should read this series.

Our Book and Site reviews cover are also highly varied this month. Global Taiwan, edited by Suzanne Berger and Richard K. Lester, ostensibly focuses upon the development of high-tech industries in Taiwan. In doing so, however, it makes a major contribution to high-tech development in China as well, and globally. It describes a new Internet-enabled industrial globe, very much complicated by issues of Sino-American relations. See the review at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2006/04/berger.php

Two important sites have recently tackled questions relating to the future of the Internet. Each is made possible by an extended project in which the participants truly are key figures in the development, management, and analysis of the Internet itself. See these sites described at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2006/04/sitereview.php

In addition, my editorial opinion piece opens a topic not unrelated to the future of the Internet, "Negotiating Culturally Appropriate Data Transfers Part I: Defining the Problem" at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2006/04/edit.php

In our announcements we introduce our new Berglund Student Fellow, Joseph Webb, at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/stufellow.php We encourage other students contemplating entering Pacific University to apply for this annual Fellowship.

For those in the Pacific Northwest, we announce an important regional conference on "Technology, Intelligence, and the Preservation of Civil Liberties" to be held in Astoria, Oregon, November 17-19, 2006. See site pages at: http://www.pacificinstitute.net/securityConference/

As always, we hope that this issue of Interface finds our readers well and happy, and that they find it both interesting and informative.

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