vol273.indd 4 IASSIST Quarterly Fall 2003 Editorʼs Notes After some delay we welcome you to the third issue of the IASSIST Quarterly vol. 27. I offer my sincere apologies for this delay. It is my hope that in the coming months we will be able to catch up by sending out the missing issues at a faster pace. The three articles in this 27-3 IQ issue are presentations from the IASSIST 2004 conference and a “user experience” in setting up the 2003 conference. Both were successful conferences – and both were as always “better than ever!”. The session on “Facilitating Data Access and Analysis” included the presentation and the article on “Delivering the World: The Establishment of an International Data Service”. This was presented by the main author Susan Noble from MIMAS (Manchester Information & Associated Services) at the Manchester Computing, University of Manchester. Co-authors on “Delivering the World” are Keith Cole, Celia Russell, Jim Schumm, Nicholas Syrotiuk, Gindo Tampubolon. The ESDS (Economic and Social Data Service) International is a service providing access to the major socio-economic databanks produced by inter-governmental organizations - institutions as the World Bank and the United Nations are mentioned – as well as to international survey datasets. The service delivers the world over the web and the service is free – well not to the world - but to the UK academic community. Up to now access has been very expensive and individual institutions had to have arrangements/subscription to each source. The work has established a national academic access in UK. The article discusses and describes the data acquisition strategy and the establishment of licensing agreements with the data providers. The delivery software and the development of a user interface are described and there are reports on the challenges of converting large and complex datasets. You can take a closer look at international data at the web-site: (Web-site: http://www.esds.ac.uk/international). Another of the sessions had the heading of “Privacy, Security, and Information Today”. The development of information technology has made more surveillance possible and unfortunately terrorism has made these technologies in demand. From the US-side Juri Stratford from University of California (Davis) reports on “Internet Surveillance: Recent U.S. Developments”. The article describes some techniques that in parts resemble well- known telephone surveillance, but in others are much more powerful. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation uses the Carnivore system that can capture e-mails to and from a specifi c account or similar for a specifi c IP address. The dilemma becomes obvious when on one hand the Carnivore system in 2000 was declared “not legal … within the context of any current wiretap law” and on the other hand the USA Patriot Act following the terrorist attacks in September 2001 introduced “new authorities” for the surveillance. The article takes a closer look into this. From the more comfortable editor chair – outside the U.S. - the dilemma is that when more surveillance is heavily performed it transforms the society into a more rigid and totalitarian society which is exactly the goal and claim of the terror. The last article is related to the IASSIST conferences as well. But the connection here is to the administration of the IASSIST 2003 conference in Ottawa. The conference used a web-based registration procedure. The experiences from this have a wider appeal. As the abstract mentions the web can empower the data user and thus free yourself as a mediator between the data requestor and the data. The technique describes using a web-interface and the storage in a database. This is the subject and title of the article from Nancy Lemay: “Linking a FrontPage 2000 Web Form to an Access 2000 Database”. The article is MS-linked too as it uses “a Microsoft Internet Server having MSFrontPage extensions and MSAccess software installed”. But the main point is “to encourage non-technical data specialists to explore this option in order to provide a sophisticated service”. The 1st International Conference on e-Social Science is to be held in Manchester (UK) between June 22nd 24th 2005. You can read a small advertisement for the conference in this issue. Remember to pay a visit at the IASSIST website on www. IASSISTdata.org. The web-crew members are making many efforts in keeping this site attractive and useful for you. Papers for the IASSIST Quarterly are most welcome. Papers can be from IASSIST conferences, from other conferences, from local presentation, etc. So please contact the editor (kbr@sam.sdu.dk). You should also be aware that a contest is running. Sub- missions are due January 14, 2005 and announcement of winner takes place on March 1, 2005. The award is $250 US and one year membership in IASSIST and the competition is not limited to current IASSIST members. The winning paper as well as other submissions meeting the criteria will be published in the IASSIST Quarterly. Karsten Boye Rasmussen, October 2004. You should also be aware that a contest is running. Sub- missions are due January 14, 2005 and announcement of winner takes place on March 1, 2005. The award is $250 US and one year membership in IASSIST and the competition is not limited to current IASSIST members. The winning paper as well as other submissions meeting the criteria will be published in the IASSIST Quarterly.