June 1994 No. 12

ISSN 1071-5223

About INFOBITS

Infobits is an electronic service of the Institute for Academic Technology's Information Resources Group. Each month we monitor and select from a number of information technology and instruction technology sources that come to our attention and provide brief notes for electronic dissemination to educators.

On the Horizon Newsletter and Email List
Information Highwaymen
Guides for Citing Electronic Sources
Life After Television
Readings on User Interface Design

ON THE HORIZON NEWSLETTER AND EMAIL LIST

On the Horizon, the Environmental Scanning Newsletter for Leaders in Education, is a newsletter that keeps a weather eye out for the trends and events that will affect the future of education. Editorial board members look for changes in the Social, Technological, Economic, Environmental, and Political (STEEP) environments; report that information; point readers to sources of supporting information; and discuss the implications for the future of education. Articles in the April/May 1994 issue include: "The Information Revolution," "Coming Soon: Your Own Knowledge Robot," and "Assessing the Case for Paradigm Shifts."

On the Horizon is published five times a year by the Institute for Academic and Professional Leadership, School of Education, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Subscriptions are $24.50/year (personal), $49.50/year (organizational), and $124.50/year (organizational with site license which allows unlimited duplication rights within an organization). Postage and handling for non-USA subscribers: $8.50/year (Canada and Mexico) and $18.50/year (all other countries). For a free sample issue, please contact the editor: Professor James L. Morrison, CB# 3500 Peabody Hall, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA; tel: 919-962-2517; fax: 919-962-1533; email: Morrison@unc.edu.

Although On the Horizon is not available in electronic form, email users can subscribe to the Horizon (E-mail) List. The purpose of this list is to encourage discussion about environmental scanning and issue management. Much of the discussion will center on articles that have appeared in the On the Horizon newsletter and on ideas for articles that should be published in future issues of the newsletter. Coverage may include K-12 schools as well as colleges and universities world-wide.

To subscribe, send email to listserv@gibbs.oit.unc.edu with the message "subscribe horizon your_firstname your_lastname" To post to the list, send email to: horizon@gibbs.oit.unc.edu. If you have questions, contact Ruby Sinreich by email: rubyji@gibbs.oit.unc.edu or tel: 919-962-2517.

INFORMATION HIGHWAYMEN

Feeling uneasy as you travel through cyberspace? You aren't the only one. For a technically-accessible overview of security and privacy issues on the Internet read "Wire Pirates" by Paul Wallich [Scientific American, vol. 270, no. 3, March 1994, pp. 90-94, 98-101]. Wallich outlines the hazards and risks awaiting users and provides information on data encryption, firewalls, other fixes.

Scientific American is published monthly by Scientific American, Inc., 415 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10017-1111, USA. For reprints write to the above address or send a fax to: 212-355-0408. Subscriptions are $36/year (USA and possessions), $47/year (all other countries). Send subscription inquiries to Scientific American, Box 3187, Harlan, IA 51537, USA; tel: 800-333-1199 (USA and Canada); or tel: 515-247-7631 (other countries).

GUIDES FOR CITING ELECTRONIC SOURCES

The prevalence of electronic-only versions of publications can create a problem when trying to cite these publications in articles, footnotes, and bibliographies. Here are some sources of guidelines for handling these citations.

Electronic Style: A Guide to Citing Electronic Information by Xia Li and Nancy B. Crane Westport: Meckler, 1993 ISBN: 0-88736-909-X More complete than The Chicago Manual of Style.

The Chicago Manual of Style, 14th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993 ISBN: 0-226-10389-7 Contains a section on citing electronic resources.

Bibliographic References for Computer Files in the Social Sciences: A Discussion Paper by Sue A. Dodd Chapel Hill, NC: Institute for Research in Social Science, University of North Carolina, 1990 Available by anonymous ftp from URL ftp://ftp.msstate.edu/pub/docs/history/netuse/electronic.biblio.cite

LIFE AFTER TELEVISION

In his little book, Life after Television, George Gilder charts the rise and predicts the fall of television from its exalted position in cultural, economic and technological arenas. The age of television would be replaced by the age of the telecomputer--computers joined to telecommunications systems. Since the original printing of this book was in 1990, Gilder's hypothesis is hardly astonishing to today's reader. However, the book does provide some history on the changes in the U.S. telephone and computer industries that brought telecomputing to its current state. He also shows how close some industries came to adopting dead-end technology that would have delayed the progress that we have come to take for granted as we travel the Internet.

Life after Television: The Coming Transformation of Media and American Life, by George Gilder. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1992. 126pp. ISBN 0-393-03385-6.

READINGS ON USER INTERFACE DESIGN

In conjunction with our multimedia authoring workshops at the IAT, we have a new document, "User Interface Design: Bibliography." This publication provides pointers to readings on screen design and interface building for anyone involved in creating multimedia classroom presentations or designing courseware applications. Copies of this bibliography are available on the World Wide Web at URL http://www.unc.edu/cit/guides/irg-05.html.