A practical, no-nonsense roadmap for people who want to champion Intranet development within their organizations, this book works from the premise that a successful Intranet is one that becomes essential to the way a company does business. The CD-ROM contains a demo version of Wisdom Link's Intranet-based groupware application and a collection of worksheets, templates, and project management flowcharts.

Many situations we encounter in daily life force us to recognize that we already live in the age of the information-oriented society. We also hear future prospects for life and society discussed in terms of expected advances in information and communications technologies. However, in these rapidly changing technologies, two weeks is a very long time and anything going back two years is almost a fossil. For instance, the word 'Internet' was little used two years ago, but now it attracts intense worldwide attention. This makes it very difficult to read the future with any degree of confidence. Generally, the key to creating new products and new markets is thought to lie in fostering market-oriented development. Today, though, when it is hard to grasp changes in the market place, we need to consider the case for basing our suggestions for new products and markets on readings of the future that reflect a proper understanding of the nature of technology, later 'brushing up' these suggestions with user- and market-oriented improvements. This book adopts the latter method. The book is divided into three parts. In the first, for technologies that promise to make great future advances, current efforts and achievements are described along with the directions in which these technologies are headed. In the second part of the book covers the development and production technologies that will be needed to bring new products to market. Finally, the third part explores systems based on these products and technologies, and share our practical vision of what the advanced information-oriented society will be like. Readers: engineers and technologists, IT-experts.

The intranet is among the primary landscapes in which information-based work occurs, yet many info pros continue to view it with equal parts skepticism and dread. In Intranets for Info Pros, editors Mary Lee Kennedy and Jane Dysart and their 10 expert contributors provide support and encouragement to the information professional responsible for implementing or contributing to an intranet. Chapters demonstrate the intranet's strategic value, describe important trends and best practices, and equip info pros to make a key contribution to their organization's intranet success.

I am honored to chair this International Workshop on Functionally st Graded Materials in the 21 Century: A Workshop on Trends and Forecasts, and would like to first express my sincere gratitude to everyone participating. The Mechanical Engineering Laboratory and the Japan International Science and Technology Exchange Center (JISTEC) have co-organized this workshop with the sponsorship of the Science and Technology Agency of Japan and the cooperation of the Association of Mechanical Technology. This workshop is an international conference to focus on functionally graded materials and the aim is to provide an overview of the present global technical trends and the future development of functionally graded materials over the next 10 years. I am very happy to see many researchers meeting together here - including seven researchers invited from abroad. During the three-day oral sessions, 36 research reports will be presented, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who is very anxious to hear and participate in the upcoming interesting discussions. At present, the Mechanical Engineering Laboratory is conducting fundamental and ground-breaking research in such major areas as materials science and technology, bioengineering, information & system science, advanced machine technology, energy technology, manufacturing technology and robotics. In particular, we consider research on materials science and technology to have the highest priority for the 21st century. and since 1996 have participated in the US-Japan joint research project, Precompetitive Processing and Characterization of Functionally Graded Materials.

This guide examines the use of technology for sharing information, both within an organisation, and between companies and their clients and customers. It looks in particular at the use of push/ pull technologies for delivering current awareness services. The guide also discusses the pros and cons of the technology, particularly information overload, and suggests a number of ways of minimising the problems. The guide contains a useful list of books, reports, journals and other information sources. Contents: Introduction; Intranets; Extranets; Groupware; Case studies; Push/pull technologies; Information overload; Key players; Useful information sources; References; Further reading.