The ship has left the Miraflores Locks, let loose from the 'mules' run by the crews of the Panama Canal Commission. She has picked up speed while passing under the Bridge of the Americas which links de facto the Northern and Southern parts of the continent, and has headed resolutely towards the Pacific Ocean waters along the rows of boats of all kinds waiting to cross the Canal in the other direction. Through a layer of tropical clouds, the setting Sun is bleakly illuminating the tall white highrises of Panama City on the port side. It took a full day to cautiously move through the whole system of locks and cuts. Back in the stateroom, I open again a working copy of this book and type down this foreword on the pocket computer. The last chapter was received the day before while speeding through the Caribbean Sea and my main work as Editor is now over. It has been a real pleasure and a great honour to be given the oppor­ tunity of compiling this book and interacting with the various contributors through the latest technologies while being sometimes in geographically very different places. The quality of the authors, the scope of experiences they cover, the messages they convey make of this book a unique and timely publication. The reader will certainly enjoy as much as I did going through such a variety of well-inspired chapters from so many different horizons.

- Electronic Publishing in its Context.- The Impact of Information Technology and Networks: New Perspectives for Scientific, Technical and Medical (STM) Publishing.- Advanced Multimedia Publishing: Where does Europe Stand in the Wired World?.- The Technologies which Underpin Electronic Publishing.- Electronic Publishing: The Role of a Large Scientific Society.- The AAS Program of Electronic Publication.- The Project of Electronic Publication of 'Astronomy and Astrophysics'.- The ACM Electronic Publishing Plan.- The ACM Interim Copyright Policy.- The ICSU Press Programme on Electronic Publishing in Science.- Electronic Publishing: Economic Issues in a Time of Transition.- Rights Management in Electronic Environments.- Protecting Published Science.- Bits and Bytes and Still a Lot of Paper: Astronomy Libraries and Librarians in the Age of Electronic Publishing.- The Role of Data Centres in the Era of Electronic Publishing.- The Digital Library of the Astrophysics Data System.- Electronic Yellow-Page Services: The Star*s Family as an Example of Diversified Publishing.- Electronic Publishing at Institute of Physics.- Ideal and Appeal: A Model for Consortium Licensing of Electronic Journal Collections.