YEAR IN REVIEW 1996: COMPUTERS-AND-INFO-SYSTEMS

Computers and Information Systems Two forces dominated developments in the computer industry in 1995--the arrival of Microsoft Corp.'s new Windows 95 personal computer (PC) operating system and the overnight ascendancy of the Internet (see SPECIAL REPORT) and the World Wide Web, a subset of the Internet designed for multimedia use. Events in 1995 drew so much attention to both Windows and the Web that by year's end the computer mouse had become almost as well known to the world's population at large as the television set remote control. In fact, the trends that played out during 1995 led many to argue that a computer mouse might soon be used as much as the TV remote control to call up everything from computer-served movies on demand to news stories and E-mail from friends and families. The decline of the well-known supercomputer company Cray Computer Corp., which filed for bankruptcy in March, was further evidence of the growing dominance of the PC industry. Windows 95, which made its world debut on August 24 accompanied by a $300 million global advertising campaign, was a major overhaul of Microsoft's Windows operating environment, which added a "point-and-click" operating system known as a graphic user interface, or GUI, to the text-based disk operating system, or DOS, used in most PCs. The graphic World Wide Web evolved in academic computer laboratories during the early 1990s as software originally developed by the European particle physics consortium CERN, headquartered in Geneva, was adapted to allow people using the global Internet computer network to use the same sort of graphic manipulations available in systems such as Microsoft Windows and Apple Computer, Inc.'s Mac OS. Until the Web appeared, the Internet itself had been used virtually exclusively by business, scientific, government, and academic professionals rather than by the public at large. Both Windows 95 and the Web were mileposts on what clearly emerged during the year as the road toward something that industry analysts started calling "convergence." The term pointed toward the coming integration of all forms of information from simple text to moving video as digital data that could be processed, stored, and manipulated by computers using a graphic interface. By year's end it was clear that PC operating systems, led by Mac OS and Windows 95, had evolved into easy-to-use tools capable of working with converging audio and video material, as well as with the text and photographic images of the past. It also was clear that in the future the medium of exchanging digital information ranging from grocery lists sent via E-mail to full-length Hollywood-type motion pictures would be the World Wide Web. Thus did convergence cross the divide between prediction and reality. Encyclopdia Britannica, Inc., was one of many companies that joined the rush toward convergence in 1995 when it announced that the entire text of its reference work would be available to individual subscribers through the Web, as well as in its 32-volume print set and in a new CD-ROM version. Businesses such as computing network giants Oracle Systems Corp. and Novell Inc. began adapting the networks used in corporate computing enterprises to use the same software and communications protocols that made convergence with things such as digital movies possible at the home-entertainment level. Executives and computer scientists at both of these companies, as well as their counterparts all across the industry, increasingly adapted business computer enterprises to operate under the Internet-developed procedures known as Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), which was the key technology needed to bring about convergence across computer networks. TCP/IP can convert any type of data moving from computer to computer via long-distance communications lines into small packets of data that can be transmitted in quick bursts over whatever communications line is available at any given time. For example, one packet, or part of a computer file, might be transmitted from New York City to London by undersea cable, while a second packet is sent via microwave to Los Angeles, Singapore, and Paris before reaching London, depending upon the traffic patterns on the Internet. TCP/ IP thus allows computers to communicate easily, regardless of geographic distances. Seizing on this power, companies such as Oracle began setting up TCP/IP networks for their business clients to allow customers to reach into the companies' databases from remote points as part of the course of doing business. Such links would allow a company to set up databases to handle product-support calls and to establish systems that would allow remote customers to scan data banks showing what products are in stock and to order them on-line, as well as to perform numerous other efficiencies. Oracle executives noted that the company also set up TCP/IP networks that would allow customer companies to handle their own internal affairs, such as in-house messaging, publishing training materials, and tracking everything from inventory to vacation schedules. Meanwhile, with Internet computers pervading traditional corporate business environments, 1995 saw a marked acceleration of a trend that surfaced in 1994 as many of the world's leading media companies, including Time Warner Inc., Viacom Inc., and the Walt Disney Co., began forging alliances and consummating mergers with enterprises in the computer and telecommunications industries. Driving the mergers was the clear need of companies with one part of the convergence formula to join forces with companies owning other parts. In each case the combined enterprise was positioned to seize on the opportunities inherent in reducing the totality of the world's information, education, and entertainment content into computer-ready digital form and then selling it through distribution channels pegged to the GUIs of PC operating systems and of the Web. The largest of the 1995 convergence-related mergers linked the Walt Disney Co. with Capital Cities/ABC, Inc., a $19 billion acquisition plan geared toward a marriage of Capital Cities' holdings in television networks, television stations, cable television systems, newspapers, and radio stations with the huge studios and cable networks used by Disney to produce and sell programming. Shortly after the Disney-Capital Cities merger was announced, Time Warner announced it would acquire Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., owned by the media magnate Ted Turner. (See BIOGRAPHIES.) Time Warner combined the largest magazine publishing company in the U.S. with Warner Bros. Inc., the world's top producer and distributor of movies and TV programming. Subsidiaries included a major music recording company, book publisher Little, Brown & Co. Inc., and Home Box Office, the largest cable TV movie provider. Time Warner also owned cable television systems that reached nearly 15 million households by the end of 1995. Turner Broadcasting owned the worldwide CNN news organization along with four cable television entertainment networks in the U.S. and four others in Latin America, Asia, and Europe. Turner also had formed a strategic relationship with the world's leading maker of PC microprocessor chips, Intel Corp., to provide television programming to desktop computers equipped with television circuit boards built by Intel. In November Intel announced that its new chip, the Pentium Pro, would include the ability to serve as a digital television set within the circuitry of every PC equipped with the chip. The merger mania extended from the media giants into the more traditional computer industry, which saw a wave of mergers, acquisitions, and consolidations that dramatically altered the industry's power structure and dynamics. Apple Computer, which faced increased competition from Windows 95 and from newly released Macintosh clones, remained the subject of takeover rumours. By far the largest of the completed mergers involved the $3.5 billion acquisition of Lotus Development Corp. by IBM Corp., an alliance that most analysts viewed as a strategy to position IBM, the world's largest computer company, as a participant in the same convergence linking the media companies. The chief asset of Lotus was an Internet-capable computer networking package called Lotus Notes, designed to let businesses move digital data across multiple types of machines, including IBM's large mainframe computers, mid-range business computers such as IBM's AS/400 and RS/ 6000 lines, and PCs using Windows, Mac OS, IBM's competing OS/2 GUI operating system, and the UNIX operating system long in use by business and academic computing experts. By acquiring Lotus Notes, which worked across multiple computing platforms and was capable of handling the full range of digital content being developed elsewhere, IBM hoped to counter Microsoft, which reigned as the world leader in personal computing, both with its Windows operating system and with a number of projects under development designed to use desktop computers as servers capable of sending cable television programming and movies on demand to other computers linked via the World Wide Web. Oracle, which previously had focused much of its enterprise toward huge business networks running databases for Fortune 500 companies, took steps to put the company into position as a server of the digital data, such as movies and archived television programs, that the media mergers were geared toward developing and marketing. In order for virtually all of the other developments to work, however, computers would have to be linked by much faster data-transmission links than the telephone lines that accounted for the great bulk of on-line traffic. There was a strong consensus that achieving this speed was only a matter of time because the technology for the speed needed to send movies along with text down a wire already existed in the form of cable television systems and the fibre-optic cables that phone companies installed in much of the U.S. In fact, much of the merger activity of the year involved owners of these high-bandwidth transmission facilities (such as Time Warner and Capital Cities) joining forces with content providers. Companies producing the software needed to manage the developing digital communications networks when, and if, they became a reality also benefited from this dynamic. The most visible players were a pair of competing companies, Netscape Communications, Inc., and Spyglass, Inc., both producers of the software called Web servers and Web browsers needed to let people actually use the digital data that came in over their wires to the World Wide Web. Early in 1995 Microsoft licensed Spyglass' Web browser, Mosaic; changed its name to Microsoft Internet Explorer; and made it the centre of the company's own on-line service, the Microsoft Network. The three largest on-line computer services--America Online, CompuServe, and Prodigy--charged that this Microsoft business initiative gave the company an unfair monopoly because the software needed to access the Microsoft Network was built into the Windows 95 operating system itself. Netscape, however, proved to be a hugely popular competitor, more than holding its own against Microsoft as some surveys showed that more than 80% of those using the World Wide Web were using Netscape's browser, the Netscape Navigator. Netscape started selling stock to the public in the summer of 1995, and its shares proved to be one of the hottest issues in the history of trading, which thereby underscored the volatility of 1995 computer industry developments. Netscape shares went on sale below $20 each, and a frenzy of trading drove the new issue well above $80 per share within hours. At the close of trading during its first day on the market, Netscape, which had recorded less than $20 million earnings in its entire history, had a market value above $2 billion. This prompted USA Today's editors to note that thanks to excitement over the so-called information superhighway that dominated the 1995 media business scene, Netscape had risen overnight to the point where its market value was greater than that of Maytag Corp. Late in the year, Spyglass announced a stock split to compensate for the quadrupling of its own share price. (JAMES COATES) This updates the articles computer; information processing. Special Report Cyberspace BY ROBERT EVERETT-GREEN Like the Land of Oz, cyberspace was originally the invention of a writer, the science-fiction novelist William Gibson. While Oz remains the domain of a wizard and a little girl from Kansas, however, cyberspace has leapt off the page to become a subject of wide public interest and debate. As both a dream and a reality, it has sparked renewed discussion about the social and economic assumptions underlying our present means of communication, as well as the role of technology in our lives. By the beginning of 1995, there was a growing consensus that cyberspace had become a region that could significantly affect the structure of our economies, the development of our communities, and the protection of our rights as free citizens. Gibson's cyberspace, as described in his book Neuromancer (1984) and several later novels, was an artificial environment created by computers. Unlike a motion picture, which presents moving images on a flat surface, a cyberspatial environment would convey realistic detail in three dimensions and to all five senses. It would also allow for a degree of face-to-face intimacy between people in remote places. In one of Gibson's novels, for instance, a woman "meets" a mysterious financier outside a cathedral in Barcelona, Spain, though in fact she is sitting alone in an office in Brussels. Research continues into ways of realizing this type of cyberspatial experience, which has come to be known as virtual reality. By 1994 virtual reality machines had begun to appear in amusement parks and shopping malls, though a full experience of Gibson's vision has so far been frustrated by the crude state of the technology and by the physical disorientation, bordering on nausea, that some machines provoke. Moreover, users of virtual reality devices are usually communicating not with others but only with the computer. Cyberspace as a present reality has come to be associated primarily with networks of computers linked through telephone lines. The biggest and most familiar of these, the Internet, was developed in the 1970s to assist U.S. military and academic research. As recently as 1990, the Internet was almost unknown to the general public. By the end of 1995, however, the network had absorbed millions of users with no affiliations to defense institutions or universities. The volume of exchanges between these users, who numbered at least 20 million-30 million in 1995, surpassed 30 terabytes per month, or enough information to fill 30 million books of 700 pages each. For many of those involved in these exchanges--and for millions more who have no experience of computer networks--cyberspace and the Internet have become nearly synonymous terms. The Internet is a hybrid medium, combining aspects of the printing press, the telephone, the public bulletin board, and the private letter. It also permits crude radio, and television transmission without the physical plant required by conventional broadcasting. Indeed, some commentators have predicted that the Internet or a successor network will eventually absorb the functions of television, telephone, and conventional publishing. They speak of an "information superhighway," a term coined in 1992 by then senator Al Gore, Jr., to refer to a unified, interactive system of electronic communication. The prospect of such a system, with the capacity to deliver an unprecedented range of informational services to the home, school, or office, has provoked a flurry of strategic alliances between major commercial interests in the telephone, software-programming, and entertainment industries. By 1995 the business world was beginning to regard the largely noncommercial Internet as the electronic equivalent of China: a huge, ever-growing, and virtually untapped market. For some commentators, however, the social implications of cyberspace far outstrip its commercial potential. Unlike television, which beams its messages to a passive and isolated audience, the Internet depends upon its users to supply and share content and to act cooperatively to aid its dispersal. Since resource sharing and mutual aid are age-old traits of successful social groupings, some Internet advocates argue that the medium may help repair a social fabric badly weakened by television. They claim that cyberspace encourages the formation of "virtual communities," without hindrance from national or geographic boundaries. They also view the Internet as the harbinger of a renaissance in free speech. Since the network gives everyone the tools to become a publisher, they say, cyberspace offers a potent means of freeing public discourse from the control of private newspaper companies and broadcasters. Similarly optimistic predictions have greeted the appearance of every major electronic medium, including the telephone, radio, and television. Often, announcements of the new utopia have proved less correct than the statements of dissenting voices. One of the earliest and most prescient warnings about electronic media was delivered by Fedor Dostoyevsky in his novel The Brothers Karamazov (1879-80). "We are assured that the world is becoming more and more united, is being formed into brotherly communion, by the shortening of distances, by the transmitting of thoughts through the air," he wrote. In the novelist's view, however, the devices responsible for these transmissions would only stimulate "meaningless and foolish desires." Dostoyevsky's novel was published only about four years after Alexander Graham Bell secured his patent on the telephone, which may be regarded as the first instrument of cyberspace. More recent critics have warned that electronic networks, far from creating a true global village, will only exaggerate disparities between rich and poor. Users may turn away from their television sets only to withdraw into narrow communion with other residents of their exclusive "cyburbia." Other commentators have warned of the danger lurking in the great potential for violations of civil and privacy rights through the use of computer networks. As citizens perform more social and commercial transactions in cyberspace, it becomes easier to track their spending habits, private interests, and political beliefs. Advocacy groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation have called for vigorous protection of privacy rights in cyberspace. The U.S. government has proposed that a device known as the Clipper Chip be accepted as a standard means for encrypting and decoding messages on the Internet, which would thus protect privacy. Critics observe, however, that the Clipper Chip would feature a "back door" to which the government would retain the only key, allowing it to intercept and decode private messages at will. Further debate has surrounded the issue of how existing laws affect cyberspace as a public space. A University of Michigan student who published on the Internet a violent rape fantasy in which he named a fellow classmate as his victim was arrested in 1995 by the FBI on suspicion of using interstate communications to threaten another person with injury or kidnap. The charge was eventually dismissed on the grounds that the student's writing did not constitute a threat to do real harm. Some observers regarded the case as an awkward application of a law designed for other, more private media. Fear of a flood of pornographic material cascading onto the screens of young Internet users gripped many a politician and journalist in 1995, even though pornographic images represented less than one-half of one percent of all images on the Internet. Some U.S. legislators proposed new laws requiring strict screening of unregulated computer networks for pornographic materials--a measure critics contended would be comparable to asking telephone companies to monitor their lines for discussions that may assist criminal activity. Perhaps the thorniest legal issue of all is that of copyright, which forbids unauthorized duplication of another's original work. The mere act of viewing a document on the Internet, however, offends against this principle since the document is literally copied to the viewer's screen. If the document is then copied onto a storage device such as a floppy disk, the viewer may alter the document and republish it in a form that may not be readily distinguishable from the work of the original author. Some writers and artists have greeted this situation as a new impetus for collective creativity, but for defenders of intellectual property rights it is a problem of unprecedented scale. Some have suggested that the very notion of copyright, which was unknown before the invention of printing, may not survive the advent of cyberspace. The most intriguing aspect of cyberspace, however, may have more to do with the evolving relationship of humankind with its technologies. At the root of Gibson's notion of computer-simulated worlds and electronically assisted experience is the prospect of a meeting of machine and human at a near-organic level. Some commentators have spoken of a coming "bionic convergence" through which we may all someday be fitted with computer implants that shunt messages directly to and from our brains and that may have the capacity to stimulate electronically our creativity or our response to pleasure. At that level of cyberspatial experience, to borrow a phrase from media theorist Marshall McLuhan, "man becomes, as it were, the sex organs of the machine world." Whether we shall be content with that status, if indeed it becomes ours, remains to be seen. Robert Everett-Green is senior features writer and Internet columnist of the Globe and Mail, Toronto. Contributors Abramson, Gary. Reporter on Spain for Business Week, the Chicago Tribune, and the Associated Press. WORLD AFFAIRS: Spain Adams, Andy. Editor and Publisher, Sumo World. Author of Sumo and Sumo World Record Book. SPORTS AND GAMES: Judo; Wrestling: Sumo Alder, Phillip. Syndicated Bridge Columnist. Author of Get Smarter at Bridge; Contributor to the Daily Bridge Calendar. SPORTS AND GAMES: Contract Bridge Allaby, Michael. Writer and Lecturer. Author of Ecology Facts; A Guide to Gaia; Facing the Future. THE ENVIRONMENT: Environmental Issues; International Environmental Activities; Sidebar Allan, J.A. Professor of Geography, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Coauthor of The Nile: Sharing a Scarce Resource. WORLD AFFAIRS: Libya Amirouche, Hamou. Former Consultant, the Algerian Institute for Strategic Studies. WORLD AFFAIRS: Spotlight: The Berbers of North Africa Andrades, Jorge Adrin. SPORTS AND GAMES: Equestrian Sports: Polo Archibald, John J. Retired Feature Writer, St. Louis (Mo.) Post Dispatch; Adjunct Professor, Washington University, St. Louis. Member of the American Bowling Congress Hall of Fame. SPORTS AND GAMES: Bowling: U.S. Tenpins Arnold, Guy. Freelance Writer. Author of Modern Nigeria; Aid in Africa; and others. WORLD AFFAIRS: Botswana; Burundi; Cape Verde; Chad; Comoros; Djibouti; Equatorial Guinea; Gambia, The; Ghana; Guinea-Bissau; Lesotho; Liberia; Madagascar; Maldives; Mauritius; Nigeria; Rwanda; So Tom and Prncipe; Seychelles; Sierra Leone; Swaziland Arnold, Mavis. Freelance Journalist, Dublin. WORLD AFFAIRS: Ireland Arrington, Leonard J. Formerly Church Historian, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. RELIGION: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Atkinson, Peter J. Conservation Information Officer. THE ENVIRONMENT: Botanical Gardens Austin, Cherry. Associate Editor, The Brazil Handbook; South American Handbook. WORLD AFFAIRS: Uruguay Bacani, Cesar. Senior Editor, Asiaweek magazine. WORLD AFFAIRS: Malaysia Bahry, Louay. Adjunct Professor of Political Science. WORLD AFFAIRS: Iraq Bakker, Martinus A. Professor of Germanic Languages, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Mich. Editor of Studies in Netherlandic Culture and Literature. LITERATURE: Netherlandic Balaban, Avraham. Professor of Modern Hebrew Literature, University of Florida. Author of Between God and Beast: An Examination of Amos Oz's Prose. LITERATURE: Jewish: Hebrew Ballentine, Jane Coyle. Director of Public Affairs, American Zoo and Aquarium Association. THE ENVIRONMENT: Zoos Barford, Michael F. Editor and Director, Tabacosmos. BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY REVIEW: Tobacco Barlow, Margaret. Freelance Writer. Associate Editor, Woman's Art Journal; Editor, Florida Architect. NOBEL PRIZES (in part) Barrett, David B. Research Professor of Missiometrics, Regent University, Virginia Beach, Va. Author of World Christian Encyclopedia; Schism and Renewal in Africa. RELIGION: Tables Barrett, John C.A. Headmaster, the Leys School; Secretary, British Committee, World Methodist Council. Author of Family Worship in Theory and Practice. RELIGION: Methodist Churches Bass, Howard. Journalist and Author; formerly Editor, Winter Sports; Ice Hockey Correspondent, Daily Telegraph; Skiing and Skating Correspondent, Daily Mail. Author of 17 books on winter sports. BIOGRAPHIES (in part); SPORTS AND GAMES: Ice Hockey: International; Ice Skating; Skiing Beckwith, David C. Director, Government Affairs, EDS Corp. WORLD AFFAIRS: United States: State and Local Affairs Belaski, Ann M. Copy Editor, Encyclopdia Britannica. BIOGRAPHIES (in part) Berfield, Susan. Staff Writer, Asiaweek magazine. WORLD AFFAIRS: Indonesia Bernstein, Barton J. Professor of History, Stanford University. LIBRARIES AND MUSEUMS: Sidebar Bickelhaupt, David L. Professor Emeritus, Fisher College of Business, Ohio State University. BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY REVIEW: Insurance Bilgrami, Akeel. Professor of Philosophy, Columbia University. Author of Belief and Meaning. WORLD AFFAIRS: Spotlight: Secularism in South Asia Binczewski, George J. Principal Technical Adviser, S.C. Systems, Moraga, Calif. BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY REVIEW: Materials and Metals: Light Metals Bird, Thomas E. Director, Council for the Study of Ethics and Public Policy, Queens College, City University of New York. LITERATURE: Jewish: Yiddish Bisman, Ronald W. North Island Editor, New Zealand Harness Racing Weekly. Author of Cardigan Bay; Salute to Trotting. SPORTS AND GAMES: Equestrian Sports: Harness Racing Bleibtreu, Hermann K. Professor of Anthropology, University of Arizona. ANTHROPOLOGY AND ARCHAEOLOGY: Anthropology: Physical Boddy, William C. Founder and Editor, Motor Sport. Full Member, Guild of Motoring Writers. SPORTS AND GAMES: Automobile Racing: Grand Prix Racing Boden, Edward. Publications Adviser, British Veterinary Association; formerly Editor, Veterinary Record. HEALTH AND DISEASE: Veterinary Medicine Booth, John Nicholls. Lecturer and Writer. Author of The Quest for Preaching Power; Psychic Paradoxes. RELIGION: Unitarian (Universalist) Churches Boswall, Jeffery. Senior Lecturer in Biological Imaging, University of Derby, Delaware. LIFE SCIENCES: Ornithology Box, Ben. Editor, Trade and Travel Handbooks (South American Handbook and others). WORLD AFFAIRS: Peru Boye, Roger. Formerly Coin Columnist, Chicago Tribune. ART, ANTIQUES, AND COLLECTIONS: Numismatics Boylan, Patrick J. Professor and Head, Department of Arts Policy and Management, City University, London. Author of Museums 2000: Politics, People, Professionals and Profit and others. LIBRARIES AND MUSEUMS: Museums (international) Bradsher, Henry S. Foreign Affairs Writer. WORLD AFFAIRS: Philippines Braidwood, Robert J. Professor Emeritus of Old World Prehistory, Oriental Institute and Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago. Author of Prehistoric Men. ANTHROPOLOGY AND ARCHAEOLOGY: Archaeology: Eastern Hemisphere Brant, Sara N. Yearbooks Assistant, Encyclopdia Britannica. BIOGRAPHIES (in part); BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY REVIEW: Games and Toys: Sidebar Brazee, Rutlage J. Geophysical Consultant. EARTH AND SPACE SCIENCES: Geophysics Brecher, Kenneth. Professor of Astronomy and Physics, Boston University. Coauthor and coeditor of Astronomy of the Ancients. EARTH AND SPACE SCIENCES: Astronomy Brokopp, John G. Specialist in publicity, public relations, and writing about equestrian racing. SPORTS AND GAMES: Equestrian Sports: Thoroughbred Racing (U.S. and Canada) Brooks, Tony. Retired Secretary-General, International Table Tennis Federation. SPORTS AND GAMES: Table Tennis Brown, Bess. Journalist; Formerly Senior Research Analyst, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Institute. WORLD AFFAIRS: Kazakhstan; Kyrgyzstan; Tajikistan; Turkmenistan; Uzbekistan Brown, Maggie. Media Editor, the Independent Newspapers. MEDIA AND PUBLISHING: Magazines (international); Newspapers (international) Brown-Humes, Christopher. Stockholm Correspondent, Financial Times. WORLD AFFAIRS: Sweden Burdin, Joel L. Director, Florida Institute of Education. Author of Diversity and Leadership in Education. EDUCATION (U.S.) Burks, Ardath W. Professor Emeritus of Asian Studies, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J. Author of Japan: A Postindustrial Power. WORLD AFFAIRS: Japan Burns, Erik. Freelance Writer; Correspondent. WORLD AFFAIRS: Portugal Butler, Frank. Formerly Sports Editor, News of the World. Author of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: A Story of Boxing. SPORTS AND GAMES: Boxing Cafferty, Bernard. Associate Editor, British Chess Magazine; Chess Columnist, the Sunday Times. SPORTS AND GAMES: Chess Cameron, Sarah. Freelance Writer and Editor, Trade and Travel Handbooks. WORLD AFFAIRS: Bolivia; Costa Rica; Cuba; Dominican Republic; Ecuador; El Salvador; Guatemala; Haiti; Honduras; Nicaragua; Panama Campbell, Robert. Architect and Architecture Critic. Author of Cityscapes of Boston; Coauthor of American Architecture of the 1980s. ARCHITECTURE AND CIVIL ENGINEERING: Architecture Carter, Robert W. Journalist, London. SPORTS AND GAMES: Equestrian Sports: Show Jumping and Dressage; Steeplechasing; Thoroughbred Racing (Europe and Australia) Chapman, Kenneth F. Formerly Editor, Stamp Collecting and Philatelic Magazine. ART, ANTIQUES, AND COLLECTIONS: Philately Chappell, Duncan. Research Fellow, United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute. LAW, CRIME, AND LAW ENFORCEMENT: Crime; Law Enforcement Chapple, Abby. Writer and Consultant, Consumer Communications (Largent, W.Va.) BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY REVIEW: Home Furnishings: Furniture Cheuse, Alan. Writing Faculty, English Department, George Mason University, Fairfax, Va.; Book Commentator, National Public Radio. Author of The Light Possessed and others. LITERATURE: English: United States Chinnery, John. Supervising Copy Editor, Springer International, Berlin. BIOGRAPHIES (in part) Clapham, Christopher S. Professor of Politics and International Relations, University of Lancaster, England. Author of Transformation and Continuity in Revolutionary Ethiopia. WORLD AFFAIRS: Eritrea; Ethiopia Clark, David D. Managing Editor, World Literature Today. LITERATURE: English: Other Literature in English Clark, Martin. Reader in Politics, University of Edinburgh. Author of Modern Italy, 1871-1982 and others. MACROPDIA: Italy: History, Italy Since 1870 Clarke, Douglas L. Captain, U.S. Navy (ret.). Military Analyst. Author of The Missing Man: Politics and the MIA. MILITARY AFFAIRS Clarke, R.O. Lecturer and Consultant on Industrial Relations, London. ECONOMIC AFFAIRS: Labour-Management Relations Coates, James. Computer Writer, Chicago Tribune. Author of Armed and Dangerous. COMPUTERS AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS Cogle, T.C.J. Consultant, Electrical Review. BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY REVIEW: Electrical Cooper, Melanie Anne. Senior Editorial Assistant, Newsweek. MEDIA AND PUBLISHING: Newspapers (U.S.) Corzine, Robert. Oil and Gas Correspondent, the Financial Times. BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY REVIEW: Energy: Alternative Energy; Natural Gas; Petroleum Cosgrave, Bronwyn. Freelance Fashion Writer; Fashion Editor, The European. FASHIONS Coveney, Michael. Theatre Critic, The Observer. Author of The Aisle Is Full of Noises and others. PERFORMING ARTS: Theatre: Great Britain and Ireland Craine, Anthony G. Researcher, Encyclopdia Britannica. BIOGRAPHIES (in part) Crampton, Richard J. Fellow, St. Edmund Hall, Oxford; formerly Professor of East European History, University of Kent at Canterbury, England. Author of Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century and others. WORLD AFFAIRS: Bulgaria Crisp, Jeff. Senior Research Officer, UNHCR, Geneva. Author of The State of the World's Refugees: In Search of Solutions. POPULATIONS AND HUMAN RELATIONS: International Migration Crowell, George T. Senior Writer. WORLD AFFAIRS: Korea, Democratic People's Republic of; Korea, Republic of Crowley, Edward. Journalist; Director, Technical Writing Services. BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY REVIEW: Shipbuilding; TRANSPORTATION: Shipping and Ports Cunningham, Susan M. Economic and Political Analyst; Freelance Writer. Author of Latin America Since 1945 (in preparation). WORLD AFFAIRS: Argentina; Brazil; Mexico Curwen, Peter J. Reader in Business Policy, Sheffield (England) Business School. Author of The U.K. Publishing Industry and others. MEDIA AND PUBLISHING: Book Publishing (international) Cviic, K.F. East European Specialist, Royal Institute of International Affairs, London. WORLD AFFAIRS: Bosnia and Herzegovina; Croatia; Macedonia; Slovenia; Yugoslavia Czerwinski, Edward J. Professor Emeritus of Slavic and Comparative Literature, State University of New York at Stony Brook. Author of A Dictionary of Polish Literature and others. Area Editor, Theater Companies of the World. LITERATURE: Eastern European (in part); Russian (in part) Deeb, Marius K. Professor, George Washington University, Washington, D.C. Author of Political Parties and Democracy in Egypt. WORLD AFFAIRS: Egypt Deeb, Mary-Jane. Editor, The Middle East Journal. Author of Libya's Foreign Policy. WORLD AFFAIRS: Bahrain Deam, John B. Retired Technical Director, AMT--The Association for Manufacturing Technology, McLean, Va. BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY REVIEW: Machinery and Machine Tools de la Barre, Kenneth. Director, the Bridge Group. WORLD AFFAIRS: Arctic Regions Deletant, Dennis J. Senior Lecturer in Romanian Studies, University of London. Author of Studies in Romanian History; Colloquial Romanian; and others. WORLD AFFAIRS: Moldova; Romania Denselow, Robin. Rock Music Critic, The Guardian; Current Affairs Reporter, BBC Television. Author of When the Music's Over: The Politics of Pop. PERFORMING ARTS: Music: Popular (international) de Puy, Norman R. Minister, American Baptist Churches; Editor and Publisher, Cabbages and Kings newsletter. BIOGRAPHIES (in part); RELIGION: Baptist Churches Dicks, Geoffrey R. U.K. Economist, NatWest Markets. Author of Sources of World Financial and Banking Information. BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY REVIEW: Introduction Dirnbacher, Elfriede. Austrian Civil Servant. WORLD AFFAIRS: Austria Dixon, Bernard. Science Writer; Consultant. European Editor, Bio/Technology; Editor, Medical Science Research. Author of Health and the Human Body and others. HEALTH AND DISEASE: Medicine (international); Mental Health; HEALTH AND DISEASE: Sidebar Dizard, John W. Columnist, National Review. ECONOMIC AFFAIRS: Banking (in part) Dooling, Dave. Consultant and Writer, D2 Associates. EARTH AND SPACE SCIENCES: Space Exploration Earp, John H. Director, Halcrow Fox and Associates. TRANSPORTATION: Introduction; Freight and Pipelines; Intercity Rail; Roads and Traffic; Urban Mass Transit Ehringer, Gavin Forbes. Rodeo Columnist, Western Horseman. SPORTS AND GAMES: Rodeo Ellis, Roger. Editor, Mining Journal, London. BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY REVIEW: Mining Everett-Green, Robert. Senior Features Writer, the Globe and Mail. SPECIAL REPORT: Cyberspace Fagan, Brian. Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara. Author of Time Detectives. ANTHROPOLOGY AND ARCHAEOLOGY: Archaeology: Western Hemisphere Farr, D.M.L. Professor Emeritus of History, Carleton University, Ottawa. WORLD AFFAIRS: Canada Fendell, Robert J. Columnist, Sport Scene Florida. Author of How to Make Your Car Last and others. SPORTS AND GAMES: Automobile Racing: U.S. Racing Finkelstein, Ellen. Copy Supervisor, Electronic Products, Encyclopdia Britannica. BIOGRAPHIES (in part) Flagg, Gordon. Senior Editor, American Libraries. LIBRARIES AND MUSEUMS: Libraries (U.S.) Flanders, Douglas L. Director of Education and Information, the United Church of Canada. RELIGION: The United Church of Canada Fletcher, Charmaine. Media and Press Officer, the Salvation Army. RELIGION: Salvation Army Fletcher, Matthew. Staff Writer, Asiaweek magazine. WORLD AFFAIRS: Brunei Flores, Ramona Monette S. Professor, University of the Philippines; Editorial Consultant, Masks and Voices. MEDIA AND PUBLISHING: Radio (international); Television (international) Follett, Christopher. Denmark Correspondent, The Times; Danish Correspondent, Radio Sweden; Newscaster, Radio Denmark; Freelance Correspondent, Reuters. Author of Fodspor paa Cypern. WORLD AFFAIRS: Denmark Forss-Scott, Helena. Lecturer in Swedish, University College, London. Editor of Textual Liberation. LITERATURE: Swedish Fossli, Karen L. Oslo Correspondent, Financial Times. WORLD AFFAIRS: Norway Foye, Stephen. Project Coordinator, Center for Strategic and International Studies. BIOGRAPHIES (in part) Frank, Steven. General Editor, Asiaweek magazine. WORLD AFFAIRS: Vietnam Freeman, Laurie. Freelance Writer and Editor. BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY REVIEW: Advertising Friday, Elbert W., Jr. Assistant Administrator for Weather Services, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. EARTH AND SPACE SCIENCES: Meteorology and Climate Fridovich, Irwin. James B. Duke Professor of Biochemistry, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C. LIFE SCIENCES: Molecular Biology (in part) Fridovich-Keil, Judith L. Assistant Professor, Department of Genetics and Molecular Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine. LIFE SCIENCES: Molecular Biology (in part) Friedrich, Mary Jane. Associate Editor, Encyclopdia Britannica. BIOGRAPHIES (in part) Friskin, Sydney E. Hockey Correspondent, The Times. SPORTS AND GAMES: Billiard Games: Snooker; Field Hockey Fuller, Amanda E. Assistant Editor, The Great Ideas Today, Encyclopdia Britannica. BIOGRAPHIES (in part); BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY REVIEW: Advertising: Sidebar Fuller, Elizabeth. Senior Research Analyst, Open Media Research Institute. WORLD AFFAIRS: Armenia; Azerbaijan; Georgia Gaddum, Anthony H. Chairman, H.T. Gaddum and Co.; Deputy Vice President, International Silk Association. BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY REVIEW: Textiles: Silk Galbraith, John Kenneth. Emeritus Paul M. Warburg Professor of Economics, Harvard University. Author of Journey Through Economic Time; and others. COMMENTARY: The Outlines of an Emerging World Ganado, Albert. Lawyer. Coauthor of Malta in British and French Caricature 1798-1815. WORLD AFFAIRS: Malta Garrod, Mark. Golf Correspondent, PA Sport, Britain. Contributor to Golf World and Amateur Golf magazines. SPORTS AND GAMES: Golf Gaughan, Thomas. Former Editor, American Libraries. LIBRARIES AND MUSEUMS: Libraries (international) Gibbons, Anne R. Freelance Writer. LIFE SCIENCES: Entomology Gibbons, J. Whitfield. Professor of Zoology, Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, University of Georgia. Author of Keeping All the Pieces. LIFE SCIENCES: Zoology Gill, Martin J. Editor, World Fishing magazine. AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SUPPLIES: Fisheries Girnius, Saulius A. Senior Research Analyst, Open Media Research Institute. WORLD AFFAIRS: Latvia; Lithuania Glickman, Harvey. Professor of Political Science, Haverford (Pa.) College. POPULATION AND HUMAN RELATIONS: Race and Ethnic Relations Goldsmith, Arthur. Contributing Editor, National Geographic Traveler. ART, ANTIQUES, AND COLLECTIONS: Photography; BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY REVIEW: Photography Gottlieb, Jean S. Freelance Editor; Historian of Science. Author of A Checklist of the Newberry Library's Printed Books in Science, Medicine, Technology, and the Pseudosciences, ca. 1460-1750. BIBLIOGRAPHY Gould, Kira. 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