http://www.sajim.co.za/vol2.nr1.01_07_2000/editorial.main.asp?p Editorial Vol.2(1) June 2000 A recent Time Magazine (vol 155, number 2, 19 June 2000) carried as its Special Report, a number of feature articles under the banner of E-Europe: How Europe and the Web are changing each other for good. Some of the articles have captivating titles, such as Going mobile (why Europe is a leader in mobile Internet technology); Banking on the beach (mobile money management takes off); Introducing T-commerce (what happens when TV ads go interactive); To catch a thief (measures against online hackers); The Terminators (how to keep your personal data secure), and so forth. Included is an article on Europe’s 50 hottest ‘tech firms’, or alternatively, the pioneer firms of the new economy in Europe. Albeit on a much smaller scale, this issue of the South African Journal of Information Management conveys the same message: IT-related developments and how they are impacting the so- called new economy. In the first article of the peer-reviewed section, Itzkin discusses the factors needed for sustained competitive advantage in this perpetual innovation economy. He first discusses the requirements for competitive advantage, and then proceeds to the role of information professionals, suggesting how they can reposition themselves so as to play a more valuable role in this dynamic environment. In the second article, Naven stresses the importance of developing a security strategy and policy, to safeguard an organisation’s intranet and extranet content, emphasizing the importance of protecting information in transit. How to go about to find the right image for the right application via a search engine? Little has been done so far to simplify locating images published via the Web. J.H. Rust’s article is an effort to address some of these challenges – general as well as specific image search engines are discussed, as well as guidelines for finding that image efficiently. Van Steenderen’s article is a rather technical overview of the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). The article covers the developments of WAP, how it functions as well as the pros and cons of this new Web-based technology. The last article in the peer-reviewed section (Van Zanten’s) more or less wraps up the topic with a practical approach to adding value to information. The departure point is again the new economy, but this time with some fresh ideas originated in the company Arthur Andersen’s interpretation of the new economy. The article is a case study, investigating Arthur Andersen’s framework for the management of intangibles and creating value for clients. The contributions in the student section carry the same ‘refrain’ as those in the peer-reviewed part of this issue. These vary from using the corporate intranet to support knowledge management (Du Rand) and portals to enhance the private investor’s information access to the stock market (Esterhuizen), to new information retrieval features of search engines (Van der Merwe) and the role of the electronic publisher as gatekeeper of information by Thomas. But these contributions do not merely discuss relevant issues; they also prove the quality of work that can be reached by junior postgraduate students. This proves another point, namely, that these young writers are knowledgeable not only in Web-based issues, but actually in using the Web to retrieve, evaluate and interpret digital information and information sources of quality. This reminds me of Claire McGuinness’ contribution in the column Comment in a recent issue of Information World Review (October, 2000, p. 10). Under the title, Can students navigate the information universe? she asked the following critical questions: How much evidence is there that educational institutions are integrating information skills programmes into their curricula: Is it still at the theoretical stage, where solutions are proposed but not delivered? How can we measure ’information literacy’ in a graduate? Read the articles in the Student Work section and decide how ‘information literate’ the authors are – they are all enrolled for the Postgraduate Diploma in Information Management (see more detail at www.rau.ac.za/dept/infosci). Pieter van Brakel Editor Disclaimer Articles published in SAJIM are the opinions of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Editor, Board, Publisher, Webmaster or the Rand Afrikaans University. The user hereby waives any claim he/she/they may have or acquire against the publisher, its suppliers, licensees and sub licensees and indemnifies all said persons from any claims, lawsuits, proceedings, costs, special, incidental, consequential or indirect damages, including damages for loss of profits, loss of business or downtime arising out of or relating to the user’s use of the Website. ISSN 1560-683 Published by InterWord Communications for the Centre for Research in Web-based Applications, Rand Afrikaans University