After the Spring Days, how could we not devote an issue to kids and schools and the role they play, both in the ESE research programme and in i3 at large?

ESE - the projects, the working groups, the people, the ideas - generated a wave of enthusiasm at the i3 Spring Days in March, and not only because of the room for play. It is abundantly clear that the research programme breaks new ground, in the innovative quality of its vision but also in the way it brings together the expertise of people from traditionally widely divergent backgrounds. ESE became part of i3 at a later stage than i3’s other research programme, CI (Connected Community and Inhabited Information Spaces), and is carving itself a niche in the larger context of the network. One notable initiative in this respect is the recently established ESE schools web site, set up to establish contact and a true sense of partnership between ESE schools, teachers, children and researchers. Duncan Smith describes the motivation behind the initiative, and explains how the web site also aims to provide a vehicle for the dissemination of ideas and practice throughout the i3 community.

The ESE schools web site will connect today’s schools, and we spotlight two of those. Ulrich Hoppe and Bridget Cooper, in the first instalment of a new series, make the leap to the school of the future, and the radical changes they envision for tomorrow’s classroom.

Apart from ESE-related material, a substantial part of this issue focuses on the very latest about the CI projects: thirteen updates with fresh material capture (some of) the energy and demonstrable results of the CI programme, and are bound to arouse curiosity and interest.

Other features include: what happens if you try to cross borders with a set of deceptively (or sus-piciously) simple-looking boxes, and nobody believes they store memories? We also have the latest information on the i3 annual conference in October, a book and web site review, and more news.

But first of all, back to the Spring Days: an attempt to capture what was memorable about the Sitges conference with a handful of highlights.

What you can use a computer for, by Martin, aged 6 (with thanks to Marina Lundkvist).

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