Dear Readers,

You may think it just as irrelevant to produce an issue focusing on communication as we did at first. What has communication got to do with a journal like »gate« of all things? We in the editorial office weren't the only ones to baulk at the idea when the suggestion was first made, long before it became a reality. Other people baulked at it too, people we contacted to ask them to contribute to this issue.

The reason for their reluctance wasn't hard to find: What everyone said amounted to this: "Your business is AT. . . and you want to do a number on communication ? But communication is all high-tech stuff. . ." That was the kind of reaction we got. And to be honest, we found it hard at first too. Because like the others we asked ourselves what communication had to do with AT.

We don't have to look very far: after all, what is the phone, if not an aid to communication? Or telex, or telefax, or the terminals that make almost instantaneous communication possible - electronic mailing ? When we speak of communication today, books, newspapers, and magazines are the last thing we mean. Quite a few other examples could be added to the list without anticipating the articles in this issue.

There is one thing, though, that we ought not to forget: without communication or - if you prefer- the passing-on of information, nothing is possible. And that applies not just to AT, but to everything else, too.