Editor's note.

Editor's note. Anthropological Quarterly first conceived of this special issue asa way to address two related questions: first, what is so new aboutcomputers; and second, what have they changed about the practice andsubject-matter of anthropology? After all, computers appear increasinglyin both the public and private domains in which anthropologistswork--examining rooms, refugee camps, rodeo rings, and classrooms.Moreover, computers are playing a more important role in the way weconduct our research, write about it, teach about it, and administer theinstitutional structures that support it. All these intensifiers are still very much with us as we go topress, and they coalesce around a central concern: we are so frequentlybombarded by the ostensible novelty of digital gadgetry and itsomnipresence in our scholarly affairs that it becomes challenging for usto conceive of what about computers in the 21st Century--ifanything--might be continuous with previous modes of practice. How didwe live without the digital? And how should we continue to live with it? The three articles published here address these questions, and Ileave their detailed introduction in the capable hands of ChristopherKelty. However, I would like to point to two sign-posts. First, thereader should be prepared to encounter the durability of longstandingmodes of practice: plus ca change. Second, there will be quite a bit ofactual newness that emerges at the end of all this ethnography, but itwill look somewhat different from what the reader expects: we'renot in Kansas anymore. By collecting these three pieces, we hope to advance the empiricaland theoretical analysis of the digital and also encourage others to doso; we look forward to ethnographic explorations of the simultaneouslyshifting and perduring aspects of what is increasingly coming to beknown as this digital age. Finally, Anthropological Quarterly would like to recognize the hardwork and patience of the contributors, and of assistant editor BonnieDixson, who was central to the conception and execution of thiscollection. Alexander S. Dent George Washington University