About this Issue

This issue of Interface was produced during one of the most eventful periods in our year. Our production staff, almost entirely students at Pacific University, are either in the throes of finishing up the Spring semester, or if seniors, preparing as well to graduate and enter TRW (The Real World). Even our "stable" of regular editors outside academe are often caught up in the many changes that spring inevitably brings. Despite these changes, however, our staff, both student and professional have combined to produce an unusually full and interesting volume of Interface.

Our feature is by Sarah Monda, our graduating Copy Editor. While serving as an intern at the Naval Museum in Baltimore, Sarah produced an exhibition on Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, a little known but extremely influential early contributor to computer programming, as well as at one point in her career the oldest serving officer in the U.S. Navy. Sarah expanded her exhibition notes into the feature article, "Admiral Grace Murray Hopper" found at http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2007/02/monda.php We are confident, that like her subject, Sarah will make her mark in the U.S. Navy, her next stop after graduation in May.

A new editor, Professor Shawn Davis, makes his debut with a regular cyber-medical column, entitled: "Online Mental Health Therapy: CyberPsychology or CyberQuackery?" Found at http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2007/02/davis.php, the article discusses E-therapy or Internet Therapy, the delivery of mental health services exclusively via the Internet. We think you will find Shawn's discussion of this singular impact of the Internet fascinating.

Another important perspective on the impact of the Internet is found in Legal Editor Leonard Duboff's "Where Business is Conducted in the 21st Century," found at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2007/02/duboff.php Leonard, an internationally recognized legal expert on the impact of the Internet, outlines the current state of the law, both nationally and internationally with regard to on-line commercial activities. Anybody doing business or the WWW, or contemplating doing so, should read this piece.

Our regular game editor, Chris Pruett, has been locked away for several months producing a computer game. He returns to Interface with "No Status Quo for Nintendo" found at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2007/02/pruett.php Chris annually visits the Game Developers' Conference held annually in San Francisco and reports from a learned insider's perspective on important issues that arise there. This issue he discusses "a sharp divide amongst developers in the games industry: those who believe that innovation stems from technical progress (who I will refer to as the technologists), and those who believe entertainment and technology lay on orthogonal axes (I will call them ludologists)." As always, Chris touches upon issues that will ultimately influence us all, whether gamers or not.

Our Canadian-America Optometrist-Program Developer, Charles Boulet, presents "Digital Hygiene: Internet Traps and Trails," found at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2007/02/cboulet.php As befitting his wide qualifications, Charles takes a broad and comprehensive approach to the issue of maintaining personal computer hardware and software in optimal working condition. Charles' series has been a wonderful contribution to Interface this year, and we hope we can get him to commit to an additional series!

Our book reviews include Nancy Flynn's Blog Rules. A Business Guide to Managing Policy, Public Relations, and Legal Issues. One of the most prolific of authors on issues tying business practices to the World Wide Web, the review is found at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2007/02/flynn.php This piece may be useful to some harried business executives who want a quick introduction to the impact of blogging on their firms.

Our second review is of David A. Vise and Mark Malseed's newest edition of The Google Story and is found at http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2007/02/vise.php Google has seemingly replaced Microsoft as the firm most commonly referenced in news stories. We think that anyone might benefit from reading this paperback version of the work, in order to better understand the current state of the World Wide Web, and its probably future as well.

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