About this Issue

This issue of Interface, the electronic journal of the Berglund Center for Internet Studies, is live and on the web at http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2007/07/

Our feature, by new e-learning editor Tom Cockburn of the Waikato Institute of Technology, New Zealand, is "Trust, anxiety, commitment and knowledge (TACK): Emotional learning in project teams." Almost all projects done on or with the World Wide Web ultimately become a team effort. Tom, on the basis of a two-year long research project, discusses how it is that good teams accrue, sustain, and pass on "emotional capital," a sine qua non for good team performances. See it at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2007/07/cockburn.php

Technology Editor Michael Geraci, is "Now Playing: Web 2.0" Michael defines one of the important stages in the development of the WWW, Web 2.0, as a user driven group computing platform. Before you decide that your own technological skills are not up to this responsibility, please read Michael's article at http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2007/07/geraci.php.

Marisa N. James of the Duboff Law Group provides new information on an old legal issue, anti-trust and minimum pricing arrangements between wholesalers and retailers. The owner or manager of any business which finds itself in such a relationship should read this piece. The law has recently been significantly altered, though the new situation is not yet entirely clear. See "Supreme Court Reverses Course On Longstanding Antitrust Rule" at http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2007/07/james.php

Esther Ntuli, a new teacher who is Zimbabwean born and U.S. educated, discusses in useful detail her initial experience in teaching an on-line class in "Teaching Techniques for Interactive Online Learning: Reflecting on my first technology class. Any teacher or student contemplating this leap should read her thoughtful piece, found at http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2007/07/ntuli.php.

Our book reviews are on two very different works. First we offer a review of the long-time "Maestro" of the American economy, Alan Greenspan's biography, The Age of Turbulence. Adventures in a New World. The review concentrates on Greenspan's analysis of the economic impact of the Internet. See it at http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2007/07/greenspan.php.

Our second review is of Scott Rosenberg's Dreaming in Code. Rosenberg, a founder of Slate and one of the most interesting of technical writers spent several years working with a team with almost unlimited funding and unlimited access to talent which ultimately failed to produce a new piece of software. Anyone working on such projects or with computing techs could find this work not only interesting, but applicable to their own work. http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2007/07/rosenberg.php.

Our editorial analyzes the outcome of a massive anti-terrorist surveillance operation in London in "The Digital Death of Jean Charles de Mendezes." We argue that this case ended in tragedy not so much because of human error but because of technological failures which reveal the upper limits of a surveillance society. See it at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2007/07/edit.php

As always, we hope that this issue of Interface finds our readers well and happy, and that they find it both interesting and informative. Look for us again in February, 2008.

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