Abramson, T. (1999). The editor's pulpit: In retrospect. HyperNexus: Journal of Hypermedia and Multimedia Studies, 9(4), 2.

As the millennium approaches, we tend to become sentimental and reflective. This issue marks the end of five volumes under my editorship as well as five very dynamic years in technology-supported learning. In April 1994, as an invited speaker at State University of New York, Plattsburg, I presented an historical overview of technology in education. The theme of the conference was "Mapping Our Way on the Information Superhighway: Using Technology in Education". Mosaic was a reality and Netscape was on the drawing board. Education seers recognized that the web browser was about to do for the Internet what the Mac interface and Windows had done for desktop computing. What we did not realize was the enormity of the latest phase of the computer revolution.

HyperNexus premiered in Summer 1990 with Annette Lamb as Publishing Editor. Annette held this position through the Spring 1994 issue at which time, she handed the responsibility over to me. Early articles featured HyperCard applications on the Mac soon to be followed by Linkway ones on the PC. The pool of contributors was never very large but, as I have learned, there has always been, and continues to be, an international group of readers with common interests and goals.

Five years ago, many of us realized the enormous potential of hypermedia and multimedia in the learning process. Discussion of whether videodisc or CD-ROM would be the mass-storage software medium for education was virtually over. CD-ROM, probably because of the size of the disk and the footprint (the amount of desk space required), was the declared winner. Desktop computers began to appear with internal CD-ROM drives. HyperNexus published articles that extolled the virtues of hypermedia and multimedia products, those created by teachers and students and those purchased as interactive learning resources across the grades and subjects. Paola Williams, HyperSIG chair introduced our readers to the use of the Internet as a classroom learning resource. Over the years, the number of web-based articles proliferated and eventually took over. Today, hypermedia and multimedia in education means world-wide-web (WWW) to many people in many places.

It is kind of ironic that technology changes so quickly and everything that one does well takes a great deal of time. (Maybe in my next life I will be a virtual person with super-human processing powers.) Looking back over the five years and the changes made during this time, there are features that have endured and others that have faded. Volume five was my "getting up to speed" initiative, beginning as co-editor. It took a while to set editorial policy, build an editorial board, respond to contributors whose work had piled up, etc. Half way through volume six, I instituted this editorial column under the heading The Editor's Pulpit through which readers were given glimpses into my current perspectives of the changing technologies. Also introduced were an annual index and a letters column. The index was a success; the feature was picked up by other SIG journals. The letters column became a sometimes feature based upon the receipt of letters that could be published. Attempts were made to include a product or book review in each issue.

For the past three years, HyperSIG has sponsored a hypermedia/multimedia production contest whose winners were featured at NECC and in the pages of this journal. In year one, contributing editor, George Fornshell and I ran the contest. In years two and three, Paola Williams, SIG Chair and Caroline McCullen, contributing editor, have run the contest through Caroline's excellent website, Midlink Magazine. See the ISTE website for an announcement of next year's contest.

Five years at the helm of HyperNexus have been challenging and fulfilling but it is time to move on. None of the contributing editors is able to assume the editorship. Dear reader, the opportunity is yours. If you are interested in becoming editor of HyperNexus, please write to me at abramson@scis.nova.edu.