FROM THE EDITOR

Where in the World is the World Wide Web?

This August the World Congress of Philosophy will convene in Boston, bringing philosophers from many nations into contact. The Computers and Philosophy (CAP) conference will collaborate with the World Congress event. The World Congress 1998 theme is Paidea: Philosophy teaching Humanity. A perennial emphasis at CAP meetings is teaching philosophy via educational technology. These concerns are bound to connect at the Boston meeting and beyond. Educators working with information technology typically see vast potentials for extending the reach of learning and academic philosophy to a general and global population of learners. We can hope that the Boston meeting will result in catalytic moments that may lead to international and intercultural collaborations. In this issue, Bill Uzgalis interviews some key event handlers in the World Congress of Philosophy and CAP, while Computers and Philosophy Committee Chair James Moor reflects on the values this meeting may produce. Herman Tavani's article, Internet Resources for Teaching Computer Ethics, sets an excellent context for thinking about how international philosophy education might proceed using information technology.

This issue seeks to develop a theme of topics relevant to a major international meeting of philosophers. Notably, we have added a Feature Section to carry the theme, in this case, Internet: International or Interventional? To build on this theme we had to actively seek out potential authors from around the world. This turned out to be a difficult and enlightening task. It does appear that the web is genuinely global in scope, but numerous obstacles deter efforts to effect direct communication.

The languages barrier on the web is a problem. Universities typically present their web pages monolingually making even simple navigation difficulty for a English-bound researcher. Several good prospects for contributors were abandoned after some hours spent fruitlessly in web sites I could not read. Interestingly, our investigation of automatic translation software for the internet (see Internet Resources) provided some help in navigating the non-English web. Larry Hinman and Eric Salahub offer reviews of two translationware products.

As ever, we invite proposals, queries, and comments from any anyone with an interest in philosophy and computers. This has become a vast field, what James Moor calls the computational turn, and thus the realm of possible contributions is an open question. We will extend the thematic approach of a Feature Section and related articles in other sections. This approach requires seeking out authors who often do not view themselves as members of this forum. If you know anyone with an interest in how computers are changing philosophy, please let them know we are here and interested in them.

In Fall 1998 we plan to Feature the theme Philosophy, Computers, and the Black Experience. With luck and good scholarship we can provide some history, some social and ethical issues, and some powerful resources for a subject matter on which I have found none thus far. Success will require active participation from our readers. Please send your ideas and queries to us as soon as possible so we may get this next ambitious project underway.

Please note that Robert Causey is maintaining a review of Electronic Journals and we have added an index of Web Site Search reviews from past issues. I hope to see many of you at CAP and the World Congress soon.

In good spirit,

Jon Dorbolo, Editor
dorboloj@ucs.orst.edu

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