Computer-Mediated Communication Magazine /
Volume 1, Number 6 / October 1, 1994 / Page 2
Editor's Page
by John December,
Publisher/Editor
Thanks for this Issue
I'd like to thank Nick Weaver, Lisa Schmeiser, Camille Shandor,
and Bruce Mindheim
for helping to proofread this issue.
Welcome
I welcome Stephen
Doheny-Farina as Columnist to CMC Magazine. Steve is
an Associate Professor of Technical Communications at
Clarkson University
and is interested in the study
of virtual communities in education.
He has edited two collections published by MIT press,
Rhetoric, Innovation, Technology: Case Studies of Technical
Communication in Technology Transfers (1992) and
Effective Documentation: What We Have Learned from Research
(1988).
He brings keen sense for what issues
are important in the virtual world, and, in
his The Last Link column launched this
month, a bit of an attitude.
In this Issue
Japan, despite its might as a Pacific economic engine, seems to
be lagging in its efforts to internetwork.
Bruce Hahn's article in the June 1994
CMC Magazine
explored the state of Japan's business communications. This
month's issue includes two articles by
John Ratliff,
a Foreign Researcher at the Institute of Social Research,
University of Tokyo,
in which he examines
the Sunshine City "Communications World '94."
John also examines the public policy issues behind Japan's
apparent slowness in networking,
in his article about
Japan's work to play catch-up in digital communications
In a similar vein, I take a brief look at
New York State's current situation with regard to internetworking
in business communications. I report on the
recent Communications Expo held in Albany and
raise possible reasons for the
apparent lack of involvement in networked communications
by the big telecommunications players in New York.
These articles illustrate how public policy issues are part of the
equation for diffusion of technologies
that can be used for CMC. While theorists in CMC have re-oriented
much current research toward including users' social context as part of
the study, a healthy attention toward the larger aspects of this context--including
public policy issues--may also play a role in this analysis.
Government policies, particularly as many
governments are undertaking
initiatives for national information infrastructures,
may play a significant role in the adoption of CMC technologies.
This issue also continues a series of articles about journalism
issues in Net communications.
CMC Magazine Assistant Editor
Gary Ritzenthaler describes the Global Student
News project, a network of student reporters learning about
technology and gathering news.
Gary Gach surveys
some ways current professional
journalists use the Internet
as a communications tool that can cross
geographic, time, and organizational borders.
Robert M. Slade's review of
Netiquette by Virginia Shea sheds light on
another link in the encoding of network social
norms. As more peole use the Net,
these norms may play an increasingly important role in
helping people cope with discourse and interaction in online virtual
communities.
As mentioned in last month's Editor's
page, I'm printing a chapter from the
The World Wide Web Unleashed, a forthcoming
book from Sams Publishing by myself, Neil Randall, and
other contributors.
In this chapter, I examine the growth of Web information and its impact on
information quality, drawing on my experience
and identifying
issues for Web information providers.
Clarification
CMC Magazine apologizes for the
initial inaccurate characterization of
the Tuesday Cafe meetings of the
Netoric Project in last month's article,
"Meet Me in Cyberspace".
I added an editorial note clarifying
the purpose of the Tuesday Cafe
in response to a reader comment
soon after the release of the issue.
I regret the error, and encourage readers to check out the link
given above for more Netoric Project information.
This is a very worthwhile project, and I wish it success.
Staff Additions Coming Soon...
I'd like to thank the students in the Department of
Language, Literature and Communication and
and the Department of Science and Technology Studies
at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
who have enthusiastically joined a local
CMC
Discussion Group.
From this group, we will build a production
team to ensure the continued improvement of
this magazine and the
CMC
Studies Center. With the involvement and help a local
production team can bring, I hope to better
support input, submissions, and editorial assistance
from scholars interested in CMC worldwide. Next month's
issue should contain the start of this greater involvement by others
in this magazine.
¤
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