The next Special Topics Issue of the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (JASIST) is scheduled to come out in 2004 on the topic of "Soft Power: Informational Ambiguities and Asymmetries in the Network Age". The guest editors for this special issue will be Christopher Lueg of University of Technology Sydney, Australia, and Blaise Cronin of Indiana University, USA.

Virtually unlimited access to computers and networks in the age of the Internet and World Wide Web is a double-edged sword, creating both positive and negative externalities, and generating planned outcomes and unintended second order effects in near equal measure. On the one hand, ubiquitous network access provides numerous benefits to business and society; on the other, it has created a host of unforeseen problems and technical challenges for organizations of almost every kind.

So-called information-level threats are based on the active or passive distribution of key information to a large audience. Such information may result from discussions in Usenet newsgroups or they may be created purposefully with a certain impact in mind. Examples of such threats are hoaxes, false rumors, revenge web sites, and joe jobsžspamming under the name of a competitor which has the effect that the competitor is blamed (and punished) for spamming.

Information-level threats need to be distinguished from more technical threats (denial of service, content degrading or destruction). Information-level threats are not targeted at computers and communications networks, but at humans receiving the information: the primary lever of an information-level attack is the content of a message or claim, rather than its form. An implication of this is that information-level threats are less about security in a technical or computational sense than notions of propaganda, opinion formation, and perception management.

Specific topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Identifying information-level activities in networked environments
• Security management, cyber forensics, and counterintelligence
Strengths and limitations of commercially available Internet surveillance technology
• Commercial terrorism through the Internet
• Epistemological and neo-cortical warfare
• Information educationžunderstanding information-based threats
• Digital defamation and free speech
• Journalism in the network age
• Branding in the age of the Internet
• Advertising vs. misinformation

The guest editors are seeking papers that address these and related topics.
Inquiries can be made to:

Manuscript submissions (Word files) should be addressed to:

The deadline for accepting manuscripts for consideration for publication in this special issue is October 31, 2002. All manuscripts will be reviewed by a select panel of referees. Original artwork and a signed copy of the copyright release form will be required for all accepted papers.

A copy of the call for papers will be available on the World Wide Web as is further information about JASIST, at http://www.asis.org/.