The Meaning of the Web

Speculation about the meaning of the Net (the Internet and potentially associated networks) and its most rapidly developing dimension, the Web (the World Wide Web), are both symptoms and components of a broader reshaping of world politics, economy, and culture. These changes challenge many of the categories within which we have grown used to thinking about the shape and meaning of society and its future. For individuals and local communities, the promises, hopes, and fears associated with the growth of the Web have particular poignancy as they face the challenge of establishing and asserting their identity in a ever more complicated and interdependent world and, through that, finding a strategy for achieving the sort of future they would like to live. The Net and the Web are technologies that promise us access to the world, but they and their associated social and economic trends challenge many of the premises upon which our identity is forged. The Net facilitates the development of new forms of transnational community organization, opening up the promise of more effective ways of acting as citizens across the broader social terrains in which it must be expressed. This article reconsiders the traditional theoretical tools that we have available to understand these issues. It addresses some of the central difficulties and possibilities available to us in rethinking identity, exploring the new promising cultural potential of the Web and Net in a more integrated and simultaneously fragmenting world.     

Modellierung und Simulation hybrider Systeme mit Smile

Zusammenfassung. Es wird eine werkzeugunterstützte Entwicklungsmethodik vorgestellt, die der Erstellung von Berechnungsmodellen für die Simulation hybrider physikalisch-technischer Systeme dient. Dafür werden verschiedene Modellbeschreibungstechniken dargestellt und klassifiziert, die anschlie?end in einen falltypischen Entwicklungsproze? eingebettet werden, der auf hybriden Erweiterungen von UML und Z basiert. Die Simulationsumgebung Smile (http://buran.fb10.tu-berlin.de/Energietechnik/EVT\_KT/smile/) erm?glicht schlie?lich die generische Erzeugung eines ausführbaren Simulators. Architektur und Kernkomponenten dieses Systems, wie beispielsweise L?sungsverfahren und Experimentshell, werden eingehender diskutiert. Ein Anwendungsbeispiel illustriert den beschriebenen Entwicklungsproze?. Eingegangen am 15. Juli 1999 / Angenommen am 12. November 1999     

Utility, library priorities, and cataloging policies

This paper seeks to provide a philosophical framework for choices made about library priorities and cataloging policy, the contexts in which they are made, and the consequences they have for users. The authors invoke the notion of utility as a philosophical backdrop for dealing with competing library choices and the fallout from those prioritizations. They then look at how general utilitarian principles can contextualize the layers of wants, needs, and resource allocations in the research library environment. Finally, they examine issues and recent developments at the Cornell University Library as a case study with which to illustrate some of these principles.     

Business Planning for Higher Education Institutions

Business planning is now an essential discipline for universities, polytechnics and colleges. Those which do not already have a corporate strategy will find they have to develop one in order to succeed in the new funding competition. The skills and attitudes required for successful business planning will have to be acquired and exploited alongside traditional academic strengths. In this article two management consultants who know higher education well explain how institutions can develop and benefit from a structured approach to business planning.