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ANSAXNET is an electronic discussion group accessible through Bitnet or Internet for scholars of English culture before 1100 C.E. and demonstrates several principles to be observed in setting up such an electronic discussion group or 'list.'[1] First, humanists must be aware that they are engaging primarily in social, not technical, endeavors. Furthermore, to be successful, a list in the humanities will depend upon a small, stable nucleus of scholars, the moderator's efforts to encourage membership and to develop an archive of valuable shared resources, and a list design which can easily accomodate members with varying telecommunications skills. Key Words: ANSAXNET, electronic discussion group, telecommunications, humanists, Anglo-Saxon studies, e-mail computer-mediated communications, ANSAXNET as an electronic discussion group exhibits several main points vital to the development of such systems. Since the basic reason for a discussion group is to encourage information exchange, initiate further research and develop professional skills among members, it must be realized that such activities are primarily of a social and administrative nature. Therefore, verbal and interpersonal skills are more valuable in managing these groups than those of computer programming and languages. New technologies also allow scholars to reposition themselves in relation to each other and the world.

A single-photon source in a proof of concept test-bed over a distance of 2 km in standard telecommunications optical fiber is performed to demonstrate the principles of quantum key distribution (QKD). Characterization of the QKD parameters and the studies related to the effect of varying the optical excitation power of the quantum dot microcavity on the quantum bit error rate and cryptographic key exchange rate of the system are presented.

Byline: Douglas N. Jones The staying power of certain public values underpinning public policy in the provision of utility infrastructure is remarkably strong. A list of (nine) Public Values is offered (e.g., universal service, affordability) that has varied little in the past 100 years in the USA. To accommodate these named public values policymakers in the utility field have an array of Institutional Arrangements to choose from (e.g., public ownership, market competition). Five major ones are identified. The thrust of this paper is to see how far each of the Arrangements is likely to satisfy each Public Value.

Byline: Nick V. Flor, Seana Coulson, Paul P. Maglio Autonomous online social systems can emerge from the interaction between the stable social practices of soliciting and eavesdropping when they are performed online. These practices are distributed manifestations of the stable mental operation of conceptual blending. The technology mediating the communication in the practices must be polymorphic, noisy and open.

Byline: Phillip G. Bradford, Olga V. Gavrylyako Sensors and other constrained devices periodically transmit small information packets motivating the study of hash chains with small domains and ranges. Hash chain based protocols use deferred disclosure and it is often assumed their hash functions are one-way, thus essentially unbreakable. However, if a deterministic hash function's domain and range are both very small, then the hash function can't be one-way. This paper proposes a solution to this challenge - general hash chains. General hash chains have the following properties: repeated hash elements don't indicate cycles; subsequent hash elements don't have exponentially diminishing ranges.

Byline: Carlos A.S. Oliveira, Panos M. Pardalos, Tania M. Querido A controller area network (CAN) is a special-purpose communications system, used for real time control of embedded components in vehicles and other general purpose automation systems. A combinatorial algorithm based on network optimisation concepts is presented for scheduling messages on a CAN. The message scheduling (CANMS) problem in CAN requires that messages be allocated according to their priorities, to prevent excessive delays on important messages. The CANMS is an NP-hard problem. The objective of the proposed algorithm is to minimise the total time allocated for message occurrences, in order to avoid message loss. A graph construction is employed, transforming the original problem into the problem of finding cliques with restricted size. According to computer experiments conducted on representative instances, low latency schedules can be obtained through the use of the proposed algorithm. The low computational complexity of the procedure presents the possibility of efficiently solving larger instances of this NP-hard problem.

Ever rising environmental concerns and their social effects due to over-exploitation of information and communication technologies are discussed. Few policy questions that need to be addressed to mitigate environmental problems are discussed.

Byline: A. White, E.M. Daniel, M. Wilkinson Interest in, and the use of, electronic marketplaces, if less than at the height of the dot.com boom, appears to be enduring, and is therefore an important area for continuing academic study. Electronic marketplaces were heralded as allowing buyers to find new suppliers more easily, compare their offerings and if appropriate switch between them. However, sellers have proved reluctant to participate in marketplaces where they perceive the over-riding criterion for comparison with competitors is that of price, contributing to the failure of a number of marketplaces. This study seeks to explore the impact of electronic marketplaces on the relationship between buyers and suppliers. In particular, it seeks to determine if the 'move to the middle' hypothesis put forward by Clemons et al. will be supported in this domain. Case studies of buying organisations, in four distinct industries, that are participating in electronic marketplaces were undertaken. It was found that the adoption of electronic marketplaces has led to a reduction in supplier numbers and to the deepening of relationships with them. Rather than replace human relationships, the establishment of electronic communications between organisations has resulted in increased person-to-person communication. The findings of this study suggest that electronic marketplaces can form an important part of an IT enabled supplier relationship management strategy.

Byline: Emily Yun Zeng, David C. Yen, Hsin-Ginn Hwang, Shi-Ming Huang The power of the web brought in a new era for business. The ability to leverage and integrate the various data sources and processes that make up a corporation's lifeblood and deliver them to the consumer via an integrated web site has given rise to the new world of e-business. At the same time, the world of wireless connectivity has given people the flexibility of doing business wherever they are. The decreasing cost and increasing speed of wireless devices is driving the move to wireless communication. Now there is a convergence underway, enabling wireless devices to act as clients in the exploding e-business world. This convergence of web power with the reach of wireless access is giving rise to a new business era, the age of mobile commerce or m-commerce. Companies that already operate a mobile business will have competitive advantages over their competitors who do not touch it yet.

This paper presents a model for the study of operations at an inbound call center. The call center is modeled as a multiclass processor shared loss system, where the interacting effects of human, telecommunication, and information technology resources are explicitly incorporated. Product form solutions and approximations for this type of system are provided along with expressions for performance measures like blocking and reneging. Some structural properties of system throughput are analyzed in an effort to pave the way for future optimization studies dealing with the design and management of phone centers., 1. Introduction Phone centers, also known as customer service centers and call centers, are becoming ever more prevalent in a variety of industries ranging from financial services to retail companies [...]