As is usual, this issue of the IJCIM contains a mix of technical and managerial-oriented articles. This mixture is an essential part of the journal and allows fulfillment of its mission. The promise of information technology can only be fulfilled if those on the business end are aware of technical progress, and current limitations, and those on the technical end are aware of business procedures and needs. I imagine that few of our readers examine every article in full detail, but by skimming each article, and reading carefully those which are directly relevant to his or her interests and work, a professional on either end of the management-engineering divide can keep current on what is going on in the entire field. Hold on to past issues, however; in this field something that seems not very important to you today can become vitally important tomorrow.

O. C. Akinyokun and F. M. E. Uzoka of Federal University of Technology in Akure, Nigeria examine the use of information technology as a means of integrating the varied functions of human resource departments. The use of IT in this area can be expected to greatly increase the productivity of human resources departments and the authors demonstrate this in detail in an examination of an IT-based procurement system.

Productivity is also at the heart of P. W. Khong's study of project management. Professor Khong, who is from the Nanyang Technological University of Singapore, investigates the role of project management technology in assessing quality control through the use of the systems dynamics approach.

Norhashimah Morad of the Universiti Sains Malaysia brings the concern for productivity to the floor of the industrial shop in his article on the use of genetic algorithms in the very design of such floors. By properly placing the machines in the factory it is possible to minimize material handling costs. Such placement is not, however, a trivial matter and Professor Morad brings sophisticated technical techniques to bear on the problem. This article provides a strong example of a technical topic that will be of great interest to managers of industrial firms.

Neural net technology has many applications and in his article M. Y. Mashor of the University Science of Malaysia examines the nuts and bolts of radial basis function networks (RBFs) in relation to issues of system identification. Although at the technical and theoretical end of the spectrum, the article certainly has implications for the work of those who are less technically inclined.

Pham Hong Hanh and Pratit Santiprabhob of Assumption University also provide an analysis of a topic that is strongly mathematical and technical in their consideration of interval-valued numbers. The techniques they investigate concern the representation of numbers whose exact value is not known. This concern for approximation in areas where exact knowledge is not available will certainly strike a chord among managers, who are in such a situation in much of their work.

Our last article, by Srisakdi Charmonman and Kanokwan Wongwatanasin of Assumption University goes beyond the technical- and business- orientations in its consideration of the history of computerization in Thailand and the effect that the Internet will have on all elements of the culture of the new millennium. It is, after all, human culture, and the needs and desires that are associated with it, that the businesses and the engineers serve. Unless we try to understand developments in broad perspective we will not understand our changing world or guide the changes into ways that will enhance human life. Such enhancement is, after all, the ultimate goal of any technology.

Prof. Dr. Srisakdi Charmonman
Editor-in-Chief