So, how are kairos and technology related? And why is kairos such an appropriate term for this hypertextual journal?

Simply put, technology has both sped up and changed written communication, opening up new senses of context and timeliness for writers. As numerous scholars (Hawisher, Selfe, Moran, Johnson-Eilola, Doherty, et al) have noted, e-mail and other online writing present both writers and readers with unique new rhetorical contexts:

• We read screens differently than we do paper, so presentation must be adjusted accordingly.
• The speed of sending e-mail or "publishing" a Web document allows for exciting immediacy and currency of content.
• The writing/reading act becomes more interactive with the ease of e-mail response.
• Hypertext and multimedia allow for a larger view of "composition."
• The social dynamics of the writing/reading act are changed when more people consider themselves to be "writers" or "authors." The nature and ease of "publishing" adds to these changes.

But what exactly does Kairos have to do with kairos?

This new journal has a great deal to do with kairos, particularly in terms of its appropriateness and timeliness in our field at this time. As we are discovering the value of hypertextual and other online writing, it is not only important to have a forum for exploring this growing type of composition, but it is essential that we have a webbed forum within which to hold those conversations. With this journal, the Kairos staff and authors intend to push many envelopes--of theory and pedagogy, of technology, of composition, and of professional scholarship--at a time when these efforts are vital to continued growth of our field. In essense, we've tried to make this the most kairotic journal we could.