THE INTERNATIONAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ESTIMATED, AND THE ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORTED, that in 1998 as much as 7 percent of world trade was in counterfeit products, a market worth $350 billion [1]. In 2002, $13.08 billion was lost worldwide due to piracy of business software alone, according to a Business Software Alliance commissioned study [2]. Concerns for the manufacture of counterfeit drugs and their distribution across national borders are affecting healthcare administration policy issues at national (study mandated by Congress prior to drafting the new Medicare legislation prescription drug law), state and city levels [3].
Volume 32, Number 1, February 2005
FEATURE ARTICLES
DIGITAL EDITION
DEPARTMENTS 
Inside Story
Software Survey Saga
One of the more labor-intensive editorial exercises we conduct on a regular basis (besides gently arm-twisting the dozens of authors and columnists who graciously and without compensation contribute their time, expertise and writing skills to OR/MS Today) centers around software surveys. The survey process begins with the development of a suitable questionnaire authored by an experienced user with a deep understanding of the type of software to be surveyed. We also ask that same person to author a brief article that serves to both introduce the survey results and to bring our readers up to date on recent trends in the field.
President's Desk
Focus Best Minds on Most Important Problems
The tragedy of the great tsunami of December 2004 fills our minds and hearts as we begin 2005. As your new INFORMS president, I welcome the opportunity to speak with you in these columns. But it is hard to think narrowly of our profession when there is such sadness and suffering in South and Southeast Asia. We are all thinking about how we can help. We can offer cash donations, and many of us, I am sure, have done that.
Issues in Education
The Traveling Teaching Salesperson Problem
“OK, let me ask you a few questions,” I often say to undergraduate and master’s students who come to me for advice about what type of job they might enjoy. “First, what topics interested you the most in your courses?”
INFORMS Online
Does Information Want to be Free?
The advent of electronic access to journal publications provides an opportunity for radical change in the economic model underlying the publishing industry. The development of electronic document distribution outlets has lowered the variable cost of distribution of information of all kinds to near zero – close enough for most music and text, but not quite zero yet for very large files such as movies. This phenomenon has led some open-source and open-access advocates to argue that “information wants to be free.” The reality is, of course, more complex, as this argument does not consider the cost of content creation.
Was It Something I Said
Why Some Stop Banging the Drum
When I started at San Francisco State, my old friend and new colleague Robert Saltzman advised me to treat each course as a Continuous Improvement Project. This has proven to be good advice, for I’m always amazed, in retrospect, about how little I had actually known before teaching a class for the first time. Looking forward to the new semester, I’m inspired to get back to it, to strive for success, to go deeper into the mystery of how a teacher connects with and contributes to the students’ experience (what my friend Rich Murphy has dubbed “The Calculus of Intimacy”[1]). I feel lucky to have the chance to do it all over again.
Viewpoint
Caution: Bottoms-up Work Ahead
INFORMS President Richard Larson “looks to integrate his plan to bolster INFORMS membership through nonPh.D.s” (OR/MS Today, “The Science of Better Synergy,” December 2004). With a lead-in like that, my interest was aroused immediately. Not only do I not have a Ph.D., I work in industry, have no academic or government ties, and just attended my first INFORMS annual meeting.
ORacle
Napoleon’s Parable
The junior O.R. analyst was troubled and frustrated. “I just don’t see why this model isn’t tracking right,” he sputtered. “I’ve been over the code carefully, half a dozen times. I ran some test cases that came out right. But some of the data points we’re trying to forecast in the holdout sample are just way off. There don’t appear to be coding errors in the data, either – I’ve gone back and checked the bad points against source documents. Help, Carl! What more can I do?”