Valuing worldwide diversity in a European spirit: being more critical and open

European Journal of Information Systems (2010) 19, 495–500. doi:10.1057/ejis.2010.43 When Ray Paul and Richard Baskerville informed and encouraged me about the possibility to apply for this position of co-Editor at the European Journal of Information Systems, I felt tremendously honored, pleased and enthusiastic, but also incapable of approving. Having, during many years, been an Editor-in-Chief at Systèmes d’Information et Management (Rowe, 2006), I knew that it was also very demanding and did not feel to be up to the task. On the other hand, this was such an opportunity to be serving for a journal we greatly respected and valued – in France it is ranked among the top four journals in IS – that I could hardly refuse. I once thought that the Operational Research Society – a serious academic institution – would choose someone else. But now I have to face it. They gave me five years and I have to replace a very solid colleague – Hans van der Heijden – whom I want to thank for his excellent service in the journal. Fortunately for me, Ray and Richard as well as Sergio de Cesare, our managing Editor, Neela Rungien, our Editorial Administrator in the Brunel office, and Neil Henderson and Sharon Hewins at Palgrave, have sufficient calm and competence to hide my mistakes and continue to lead and do their work bravely. This first editorial is an extraordinary opportunity for me to present some of the ideas I have for EJIS, what it represents and what it could be. I also need to stress that these ideas are personal and that they may not all be shared by Ray and Richard. At least that they would certainly express some of them differently. As Richard told me when I had to present EJIS in South Africa, there is no party line when it comes to EJIS policy. Of course we know it is a half-truth. He probably simply wanted to encourage me to think a bit independently. By the virtue of his short education I will therefore offer of few viewpoints that I constructed based on several insights I found in our preferred press.