The publication of this third issue marks one year since the first appearance of UOC Papers, the UOC’s e-journal on the knowledge society. In this issue, you’ll find the journal’s now traditional structure: a main article, the miscellaneous section, the reviews and the selection of news.

The principal new feature in issue number 3 is the nature of the central article, which is the inaugural lecture of the 2006-2007 academic year, given by Professor Mustapha Cherif from the University of Algiers, entitled “Apprendre à vivre ensemble”, and which is presented by Rector Imma Tubella. Professor Cherif’s text represents a departure from our normal line as, moving away from the more academic contributions of research into the knowledge society which have been common to the works that we have presented to date, it tackles a number of permanent, and very up to date, problems of the human condition and the process of civilisation from the instruments of philosophical thought, and represents an impassioned and lucid cry for mutual knowledge between peoples and cultures in the quest for a dialogue that makes us open up to others. To begin this dialogue, we have asked lecturer and philosopher Xavier Rubert de Ventós, who has recently joined the university, for a counterpoint to the text, which sets out to highlight the acceptance of Professor Cherif’s invitation.

As regards the articles in the miscellany, the work by Martínez Usero, Lara Navarra and Beltrán, entitled “The influence of the knowledge society on the modernisation of the Public Administration”, analyses how the new society and the new economy have affected the Public Administration insofar as it is an intensive information manager. In the same field, the work by José Ramon Rodríguez, entitled “The Barcelona model of e-administration: adoption and institutionalisation”, focuses on the case of Barcelona City Council, which had already been analysed by Professor Castells and Professor Ollé as part of the Projecte Internet Catalunya (2004). Based on the study of the period from 2003 to 2006, Rodríguez concludes that during this time Barcelona has entered a new cycle of development of its e-administration model.

Similarly, in the work entitled “Does persuasive communication constitute the communicative paradigm of the knowledge society?” Ferran Lalueza reflects on the transformation undergone by advertising and public relations as a result of the eclosion and consolidation of today’s information technologies and shows us how many features that appear in the new communicative paradigm have been around for decades in persuasive communication. Also, Inma Rodríguez analyses the phenomenon of online shopping in the article “Optimum surfing and online shopping experiences: a look at Internet consumer behaviour through the flow concept”, in which she identifies the specificity of this type of Internet consumption and its strategies. And finally, in their article “The 2.0 Teacher: teaching and research from the web”, Peña, Córcoles and Casado offer an interesting analysis of the uses of the Web 2.0 in teaching and research and how the tools offered by this can increase collaborative work in the classroom and the capacity for dissemination of the results of laboratory research.

This issue is completed with the review section, where Eduard Aibar tackles one of the most recent contributions of Bruno Latour, Reassembling the Social. An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory, and Salvador Climent analyses the work On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins and Sandra Blakeslee.

I would not like to miss the opportunity to mention here that right from the very start we at UOC Papers set as a priority aim that the publication should be found in the leading directories and databases of academic journals from the first issue. To appear in these directories, a set of formal requirements (the standards set out for scientific journals) and of adequacy to the digital medium have to be met, and we have taken a great deal of effort to ensure that we fulfil all of them. One year after the first issue, and to name only the most important, UOC Papers can now be found in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory, Dialnet, REBIUN (directory of the Spanish University Libraries Network) and RACO (Catalan Journals with Open Access), as can be seen in the list included in the Indexing button.

Finally, we should stress that the level of acceptance and following of the journal has greatly flattered us and encourages us to work with even more drive and rigour than ever. To date (September 2006) and with just two numbers online, UOC Papers receives more than 11,000 PDF downloads and has almost a thousand subscribers.

Joan Fuster Sobrepere
Director of UOC Papers