Dear Readers:

This isssue contains four interesting papers that I am sure you will enjoy. Let me also mention that the next (September) issue will contain a number of extended versions of papers that received a Top-Paper Award and will be presented in a shortened form at the WebNet 98 (http://www.aace.org/conf/webnet).

There are two more items that require special reporting today: First, 1999 is only 4 months away; as you know J.UCS will be mirrored in many Intranets world-wide as of 1999 for a total price of US $200.- (two hundred) for the full 6 years 1995-2000. So far, already more than 70 organisations have indicated that they will participate. If you are also interested, do let me know via hmaurer@iicm.edu. Second, there is much debate going on whether non-printable material (like audio-files, movies or 3D models) should be included as appendices in the electronic version of J.UCS. This would mean that the printed version would not be identical to the electronic one any more. At the moment, authors are free to include links to URL's with non-printable material, but such material is not considered part of J.UCS, is not reviewed, and some of the URL's (sigh) might not work at some time in the future. If you have ideas on this please do also contact me.

For now: happy reading!

Yours cordially,