Editoral Pointers

The future of high-performance networking and the data-intensive applications that depend on it is in the hands of some of today’s brightest computer scientists. Their efforts are making it possible for e-scientists to collaborate on projects sometimes so wide-ranging they embrace the entire universe from desktops worldwide. These breathtaking projects point to a globally distributed cyberinfrastructure that ultimately benefits not only the scientists and their experiments but everyone else in terms of commerce, communications, health care, and entertainment—far beyond the Web.

Developing this network of the world’s most powerful machines and scientifically detailed databases involves significant government support worldwide. The result makes it possible for e-scientists to distribute, process, mine, and visualize the data in real time. This month’s special section is an extraordinary look at this historic effort from the inside. Guest editor Maxine Brown has drawn some of the leading forces in the cyberinfrastructure movement to lay out their pioneering innovation and vision, describing the technologies and projects guiding them through this journey. We hope you enjoy the trip.

Also in this issue, Huff et al. apply technology acceptance theory to examine why the iMode mobile Internet access system is the rage in Japan and whether that popularity might spread worldwide. Easley et al. explore events in music e-distribution and the recording industry’s response to those developments.

Daniel Lorence offers a fascinating account of the current, albeit inaccurate, state of medical data classification. Such variations—whether due to a lack of universal coding standards, untrained personnel, or deliberate misrepresentations for reimbursement purposes—can result in health care decisions that are ineffective or potentially life-threatening.

Anselmo and Ledgard argue that in order to improve software productivity we must be able to measure such properties as functionality, complexity, and quality in a comprehensive manner. And Vitharana et al. present hypotheses for measuring the strengths and weaknesses of component-based software development used constructing products and identifying requirements.

Our columnists this month look to the past to advocate changes in current patterns and practices. Peter Denning unearths the great principles of computing. Robert Glass argues it’s best to look at the sociological and political turns in open source practices before pledging devotion to either side. And Geoffrey Sampson contends the ideas from economist Ronald Coase have been misunderstood over the decades and inappropriately employed to explain the state of the "firm" today.

Diane Crawford,
Editor