Web-based communications [Guest editorial]

Communication is an intensely social activity. Not only do human beings engage in it, but all manner of species depend on communicating intent and information with each other. However, human beings are unique in that we have evolved communications to travel over very long distances. Technology has helped us, from communicating our thoughts on a written medium (papyrus, first manufactured in Egypt as far back as the third millenium BC) to scattering our voice and the written word through ether and light fibers. This, in turn, has enabled us to build special networks optimized for communications. Currently, we are in the throes of a monumental migration in the means of communications, as the incumbent technology (circuit-switched networks that formed the backbone of the public switched telephone network) gives way to a new contender (packet-switched network, or the Internet) [1]. Today, the Internet is the dominant technology over which we communicate our voices, our words, and our images.