From th~ Editor-in-Chief Guest Editor°s Introduction Thc Second Intematinnal Confcnmcc on Practical Applications o f Prolog (PAP'94) waa held in London in April, 1994. Thc papcrs included hcrein are zeviscd and c ~ a n d e d v m i n n s of thrco papcrs included in thc Tci~ommunicatiorm and N~works section. The submissiom wcm invited specifically for this spccial issue of ACR. Leon Sterling's special issue on practical applications of lh'olog couldn't be morn appmpristc m the missions of both SlGAPP and ACR. Both are in thc business of prornot/ng the intzmm of tiw computing profassinmda involvod in smuzgic research, tzehnology transfin-, Zxlmrhmmtal computing and, most of all, applying computing I~chno]ogy m solve reel pmblcmx for thc bcoe~ o f mankind. Wc appmciatc this ($/s)tcrling contribution. Whilc ACR's mission will remain unchsng~/, it's format will clumB ncxt year. E/Ycctivc with thc sccond issue of Volumo 3, ACR will change its focus to emphasizc short summarias wilh pointcrs to electronic versions of the full paper, surveys, and tutm'ialx. We cocoumge those of you who have i d c u along thcac lines to submit proposals ASAP. Por thosc who do not have a domestic Ap sUc. wc w i l l al~mpt to provid tip access through ACM.ORG. More information to foUow in the next issue. The first paper is by Yossi N y p t c from AT&T in Columbus, Ohio. It describes ECXpert, a product recently dcvclopcd to help network numagcrs monitor and anaJyzc alarms W allow timely corrective actions. ECXpclrt has been very succossful, generating savings of ~ l l i o n s of dolhtrs for its users. Noteworthy is the fact that Prolog proved far superior to C5, an O i l - l i k e ru]c-bued hmguagc used by AT&T internally, for this application. The second papcr is by Brian Tastcr, Steve Baker and Barry Crabtree of British Tclecom. They dascribe ATMS, an cxpmt s y s t m dcv lopcd in Prolog for seal-tim control of traffic flows in thc UK tclcphony nctwork. ATMS has providcd high pcrfonnancc on large data sets in field trials. Thc third palmr is a col/aboration b e t ~ n unLvecsity and industry. Zita Vale and A.MAchado c Mount of thc University of Porto and M. Fermmda Fcrnandas and Albino Mnrquas of Electricity of Portugal describe SPARSE, an expmt systmn for alarm pmcassing and operator assistance in substations control ccntcrs. SPARSE performs intclfigcnt alarm processing and pmvidas advicc to operators in fault analysis and ~rvice restoration. I would like to tlumk Hal Berghcl for hia cncoumgcmcm to compile this spechd issue, the authors for thcir cooperation. and A] ]Roth for his work in making th scrias of Prolog Appficafions Conferences successful. ~ n Sterling Case Wastcrn Rescrvc Umversity k~onOcas.cwru.edu [Editor's noR: PAP'95, will be held in Paris in April, 9.5. The conference is sponsored by PMG, the Prolog ManaKmn~nt Group which evolved from PVG, the Prolog Vendor's Group. As well u conferenccx, PMG conducts seminars on how to use Prolog in spccific induxt~rias such as finance and manufacturing. The crcalion of thia scri_as of conforcoccx marks a significanttransition in the migration of Prolog use from the isboratorias tn appficafiona.] The rcason for this ckangc is that we arc in the midst of a major rcvolut/on in publishing sciantific and scholarly works. Thc prcssurcs to publish in academe together with the immense interest in technology has spawned literally thousands of outlets for pubfiasfions in compu~ng. Compctit/on has incrcascd m the point whcrc pm6tabili~y is illusive for many of these vanturcs. At thc smnc time networking technology has nutdc it pouiblc to bring information provider and consumcr closer in fimc. The sgc of non-persona~:l hardcopy publieah___~on ia coming to an end. Soon caunera-rcady galleys will be u obsolete u hot kad t3,pcscuing. Asidc from the economics involved, there arc also cultural and ecological reasons for the transition to electronic publication. We are now in an era of what AI Aho calls "write-only" publication where the circle of post-publication infonnation consumers is at best slightly htr'gcr than the propubficafion consumers. Market surveys of technical pubfications reveal that only a small percentage of th material is actually usable to any g/van aubscribcz. These rccessionary times have forced tm to re-cvalualW the importance of these subscriptions. Priorities arc hmnging, resources arc shrinlang and bcing shared, the publisher's hnprimaturs isn't worth what it once was. Each of these phcnomcoa have had the dfect of discouraging our attachment to non-pmmonalizcd hardcopy. ACR recogptizcx these trends and intends to adapt accordingly. Our biggest challenge is not tzclmologiead but cultural u we iwve to convinco managers and administrators to look to the content and pmcoss o f pubfication rather than the medium. Hal Bcrgh l, Editor-in-Chief

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