Resumen
Just as physical cities emerged over the centuries by creating environments that fostered inhabitants to share and consume a multitude of services, so too are infohabitants being drawn to urban life in the virtual world. The roots of these emerging information cities may not be as deep as their physical counterparts, but eco-environments are once again beginning to sprout. The special section of the February 2004 issue of the periodical "Communications of the ACM" spotlights the working models, technological foundations and design challenges inspired by this movement toward information cities. Guest editors Jakka Sairamesh, Alison Lee and Loretta Mania envision a future where the boundaries between the physical and virtual worlds vanish or exist in harmony, thus creating a new kind of urbanization. Conan C. Albrecht finds the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) may be the primary mechanism for Web services architecture, but may also find itself under scrutiny by security personnel. "Practical Programmer" Robert Glass returns to open source terrain, studying the economic benefits and pitfalls associated with the open source movement