Editorial Pointers
THE WORLD WIDE WEB MAY BRING THE WORLD TO
our fingertips, but for tens of millions, some of the
MAY 2008 VOLUME 51, NUMBER 5
WEB SEARCHING IN A
MULTILINGUAL WORLD greatest wonders of the Web still require proficiency in
TAMINGAGENT REDUCING
ARCHITECTURES INTERNET
AUCTION
HOWINTUITIVE English—the dominant language for information seek-
FRAUD
IS OO DESIGN?
THE ROLE
OF CS IN
SYNTHETIC ing. Progress has been slow building search portals in
BIOLOGY
ACM
ELECTION other languages, but with online populations in some
BALLOT
EMERGING
TRENDSIN regions experiencing triple-digit growth, demand is
M-GOVERNMENT
pushing innovation in a big way.
Wingyan Chung reviews the latest advances in Web search engines in
a multilingual world in this month’s cover story. He examines three prototype Web search portals—in Chinese, Spanish, and Arabic—and
reveals the strengths and weaknesses of each and their potential for
opening up informational treasures like never before. He also offers
valuable guidance on how systems developers and managers, as well as
users, worldwide can best support non-English Web searching.
ALSO THIS MONTH, MANY GOVERNMENTS WORLDWIDE EMPLOY WIRELESS
connectivity to extend their services among the citizenry. Silvana Trimi
and Hong Sheng consider the advantages and implications of m-government, exploring notable projects, and nations, leading the charge.
Dov Dori details a conceptual modeling framework—
Object-Process Methodology—that employs graphics and text to help alleviate
cognitive loads. And Irit Hadar and Uri Leron question the intuitiveness
of object-oriented design, citing research that traces the inevitable clash
between intuitive and analytical modes of thinking.
Auction houses appear to be at a crossroads, with many buyers and sellers losing confidence in the system. Auction fraud is an escalating concern, not only to consumers but to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission
where reports of fraudulent transactions grew from 106 in 1997 to more
than 24,000 in 2007. Bezalel Gavish and Christopher Tucci examine this
trend, focusing on how some buyers are being swindled.
While software configuration management (SCM) practices may not
support change management, Mohan, Xu, and Ramesh report all is not
lost. Their article indicates how to integrate traceability practice with
SCM practice to improve change-management processes in software
development.
In “Viewpoint,” former Communications editor-in-chief Jacques
Cohen urges CS support for the emerging field of synthetic biology,
emphasizing the idealistic goals of the field will not be feasible without
the engaged contribution of computer scientists.
Finally, meet the candidates running for ACM’s 2008 General
Election, beginning on page 22.
EDITOR
DOI: 10.1145/1342327.1342328
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