Includes four articles that discuss a variety to topics, including a distributed network of physics institutions documents called PhysDocs which harvests information from the local Web-servers of professional physics institutions; the Dublin Core metadata initiative; information services for higher education in a competitive environment; and…

Explores when district courts supervising a desegregating school district should authorize virtually integrated classrooms. Discusses the Internet and how its communication abilities and resources are used in the classroom. Argues that using the Internet to create virtually integrated classrooms can help eliminate the effects of racial segregation…

Offers a description of cyberspace or the "Web" or "Net" and explains how to find information on it. (TB)

Discusses the origin of the Internet, its applications in education, and its current limitations. Describes Internet2 (I2), a national initiative by over 141 research universities to regain the Internet as a research and educational tool by leading the development of the next generation of network technology. Discusses the I2 mission; I2 members,…

Noting the emerging global policyscape toward creating global information networks, this article analyzes policymaking across Europe, the United States, and East Asia. Employing a political-economy perspective, it compares seven countries' networks, highlighting the state's role and varying relationships among education, economy, and society, and…

Managers need to understand the tradeoffs associated with voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) networks as compared to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). This article measures the preference structures between IP telephony and PSTN services using conjoint analysis. The purpose is to suggest VoIP technology attributes that best meet…

Presents a framework for enhancing trust in Internet commerce. Shows how trust can be provided through a network of Trust Service Providers (TSp). Identifies a set of services that should be offered by a TSp. Presents a distributed object-oriented implementation of trust services using CORBA, JAVA and XML. (Author/AEF)

Examines technological developments and the worldwide social-economic impacts of wireless mobile communications. Provides an overview of the technological developments of wireless mobile communications. Describes the evolution towards next-generation systems. Analyzes reasons for the growth rate of subscribers and the related social development.…

Presents a report by Rigmor Sterner (Lulea University of Technology) on the 10th annual European Distance Education Network (EDEN) conference (June 10-13, 2001, Stockholm, Sweden). EDEN is a non-governmental educational association whose aim is to foster the development of open and distance learning and distance education. (AEF)

Describes an approach for linking geographically distributed collections of metadata so that they are searchable as a single collection. Describes the infrastructure, discusses advantages of using linked collections of authoritative metadata as an alternative to using a keyword-indexing search engine for resource discovery, and examines other…

Discusses the educational uses of Electronic Data Exchange and a decision-support system. Describes purpose and products of partnership between Association of School Business Officials, International (www.asbointl.org/) and National Forum on Educational Statistics (www.nces.ed.gov/forum/). (PKP)

Some theoretical models of scientific communication suggest science may be understood as a heterogeneous network of social actors and ideational elements. Bibliometric methods provide the means for empirical application of this perspective to investigations of the formal communication system in science. The conceptual-operational links between key…

This article investigates conditions for increasing active participation in on-line communities. As a case study, we use three generations of facilities designed to promote learning in the area of Educational Modelling Languages. Following a description of early experience with a conventional web site and with a community site offering facilities…

The requirements placed on learning technologies to support lifelong learning differ considerably from those placed on technologies to support particular fragments of a learning lifetime. The time scales involved in lifelong learning, together with its multi-institutional and episodic nature are not reflected in todays mainstream learning…

In 1991 Mark Weiser introduced the idea of ubiquitous computing: a world in which computers and associated technologies become invisible, and thus indistinguishable from everyday life. This invisible computing is accomplished by means of "embodied virtuality," the process of drawing computers into the physical world. Weiser proposed that…