BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

Stephen Burgess (MBus RMIT, PhD Monash) is a senior lecturer in the School of Information Systems at Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia. His PhD is from Monash University, Australia, in the area of small business to consumer interactions on the Internet. His research and teaching interests include the use of IT in small business, the strategic use of IT, B2C electronic commerce and Management IT education. He has recently edited a book through Idea Group Publishing, Managing Information Technology in Small Business: Challenges and Solutions and is track chair in the area of small business and information technology at the IRMA international conference (http://www.irma-international.org). Stephen is a co-founder of the new research group and IRMA Special Research Cluster on Small Business and Information Technology (http://www.businessandlaw.vu.edu.au/sbirit/).

Don Schauder (MA Sheffield, MEd, PhD Melbourne) is professor of Information Management in the School of Information Management and Systems, Monash University, Australia. He is also associate dean (Research) of the Monash Faculty of Information Technology. Dr. Schauder is chair of the Information & Telecommunication Needs Research Group, and of the Centre for Community Networking Research. He has been director of several libraries, most recently RMIT University Library. As one of the pioneers of electronic publishing in Australia, he founded INFORMIT Electronic Publishing (now part of RMIT Publishing). He was co-founder of VICNET: Victoria's Network, based at the State Library of Victoria. Throughout his career, he has maintained an active commitment to information access for people with disabilities. His teaching and research focus on: the development of information products and services that benefit individuals, organizations and society; facilitating the transfer of knowledge among people; and reducing the "digital divide" between information, rich and poor.