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This paper reports on the results of a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) usability study, which consists of a survey, an evaluation of two UK WAP portals and an experiment that was carried out between November 2001 and February 2002. A number of usability issues, which prevented the users from completing basic and common tasks, were identified. For instance, 70 per cent of the users were not successful in searching for a textbook on the Amazon.co.uk WAP site. Additionally, even experienced users were not immune to these problems. The general conclusion of the study is that WAP usability remains poor. We argue that this could have a negative effect on the future of WAP and m‐commerce. Finally, we propose a set of ten principles, which are based on the findings of this study, and we believe will aid towards the development of more usable WAP and m‐commerce services.

J. Peter Grace was interviewed in September at his company headquarters in New York by PR's editors Robert J. Allio and Robert M. Randall. The questions were selected from several sets prepared by senior NASCP planners. After forty years of interviews, Grace has mastered the art of counterpunching, and his interrogators better be in top shape to go 15 rounds with him.

I suppose that most noticeable of all the changes in our profession since I came into it has been the multiplicity of the methods by which one can become a librarian. A. E. Standley says in a recent article in the L.A.R., in 1970: “The term librarian includes the Library Association chartered librarian, the graduate with a degree in librarianship, the scholar librarian, the information and intelligence officer, the translator, the abstracter, the non‐library‐qualified subject expert”.

Eighteen executives from industry take time off to shoot rapids, climb mountains and go skin diving. It all sounds a bit gimmicky — a sort of adventure playground for adults. But after spending a week on the course — devised by Bulmers' chairman, Peter Prior — and speaking to the men taking part, Leslie Kenton reports that the idea is a valuable means of developing a manager's leadership qualities. Not to mention his physique.

The profile of a competitive company in the 1990s can be defined in two words: focus and flexibility. Companies should concentrate on what they know best, have reduced structures, and the results of any sudden changes in the environment should be as simple as possible. That these tendencies have already become a reality is confirmed by the increasing interest in outsourcing, defined as a “managed process of transferring activities to be performed by others”. In Brazil, some companies are having success with the implementation of this strategy. It is an adequate strategy for the country since its utilization is directed towards the improvement of quality in productivity and attaining competitiveness of products and services. Analyses the fundamentals, the advantages, and the disadvantages which outsourcing might bring to companies, and presents a guide to the implementation of the programme.

Consumers’ trust in food systems is essential to their functioning and to consumers’ well-being. However, the literature exploring how food safety incidents impact consumer trust is theoretically underdeveloped. This study explores the relationship between consumers’ expectations of the food system and its actors (regulators, food industry and the media) and how these influence trust-related judgements that consumers make during a food safety incident.

In this study, two groups of purposefully sampled Australian participants (n = 15) spent one day engaged in qualitative public deliberation to discuss unfolding food incident scenarios. Group discussion was audio recorded and transcribed for the analysis. Facilitated group discussion included participants' expected behaviour in response to the scenario and their perceptions of actors' actions described within the scenario, particularly their trust responses (an increase, decrease or no change in their trust in the food system) and justification for these.

The findings of the study indicated that food incident features and unique consumer characteristics, particularly their expectations of the food system, interacted to form each participant's individual trust response to the scenario. Consumer expectations were delineated into “fundamental” and “anticipatory” expectations. Whether fundamental and anticipatory expectations were in alignment was central to the trust response. Experiences with the food system and its actors during business as usual contributed to forming anticipatory expectations.

To ensure that food incidents do not undermine consumer trust in food systems, food system actors must not only demonstrate competent management of the incident but also prioritise trustworthiness during business as usual to ensure that anticipatory expectations held by consumers are positive.

It is generally recognised and accepted that the fundamental role of a manager is “to get things done”. At times the manager has to make quick decisions about what has to be done and how. What is more, the decisions often have to be taken before all the relevant information is to hand. This is where so many fail. A good leader is prepared to make decisions on inadequate and incomplete information, realising that no decision is perfect and that an imperfect decision is far better than no decision at all. The best indication of a good leader is that people around him or her are enthusiastic and excited, preferring to work where they are than anywhere else.

The European Alpine region is an important tourism destination that at the same time faces environmental challenges. In aiming for a sustainable development of Alpine tourism, tourism boards and municipalities of 22 villages cooperate in the Alpine Pearls (AP) association. The main goal of the AP association is to develop an integrated, continuous passage for sustainable tourism mobility, which improves the possibilities for environmentally friendly travel to, between, and in the Alpine Pearls villages. This paper aims to focus on whether and how this “passage” enables tourists to travel smoothly, problem‐free and environmentally friendly to and in the Alpine region.

To analyse the Alpine Pearls holiday, the authors use a theoretical framework based on the social practices approach (SPA), which offers a contextual approach to consumption behaviour. The dynamics between travellers and providers of sustainable tourism and travel services along the passage of the Alpine Pearls holiday are the main interest. Data have been gathered through participant observation and interviews with informants.

The research points, among other things, to the fact that the creation of a passage for environmental‐friendly Alpine holidays is complicated by the nationally organised railway infrastructures and the sectorially organised tourism industry.

Evaluating sustainable tourism mobility passages on the level of holiday practices is a new contextual approach that can be of value to both tourism scholars and the tourism industry.

‘We are all born into a particular tribal culture. Beginning life as part of a tribe, we become connected to our tribal consciousness and collective willpower by absorbing its strengths and weaknesses, beliefs, superstitions and fears. Through our interactions with family and other groups, we learn the power of sharing with other people. We learn how painful it can be to be excluded from a group and its energy. We also learn the power of sharing a moral and ethical code handed down from generation to generation.’ (Myss, 1997)We are all aware that, since time immemorial, there has been world‐wide stigma and discrimination against those unfortunate enough to suffer from mental ill health. Governments, as well as their electorates, have stigmatised and discriminated against those who suffer most.Many of those who have been entrusted with the care and support of mentally ill people have all too often taken a discriminatory line in their approach, which has not aided patients' recovery. Clergy of all faiths and beliefs have very often been at the forefront, receiving calls for help from families in despair, unable to cope with a son, daughter, husband or wife suffering from a mental illness. Yet they are often ill‐equipped and untrained in how to respond appropriately.