Communications-related Headlines for 7/2/98
Access Issues
Refocusing Our Youth: From High Tops to High-Tech (NTIA)
Plugging In to the Internet: Many Paths, Many Speeds (NYT)
Internet/InfoTech
The Blossoming of Internet Chat (NYT)
Direct Hit Uses Popularity to Narrow Internet Searches (WSJ)
Taking on New Forms, Electronic Books Turn a Page (NYT)
Mergers
In AT&T-TCI Deal, Cost and Logistical Problems (NYT)
Arts
Artists See No Decency In Ruling On Grants (NYT)
Seeking Digital Art in Siberia and Beyond (NYT)
Journalism
Freedom-of-Press Defense Ruled Out in Porn Case (WP)
Advertising
Looking Beyond June Cleaver (NYT)
** Access Issues **
Title: Refocusing Our Youth: From High Tops to High-Tech
Source: NTIA
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/new.html
Author: Larry Irving
Issue: Access
Description: Remarks by Larry Irving at the National Urban League and the
National Leadership Council on Civil Rights Urban Technology Summit, June
26, 1998. "I'm delighted to be here to talk about a subject that is
particularly important to me: the impact of communications technology in our
urban communities. I want to commend the National Urban League for holding
this conference on this topic - one that should be of paramount concern to
all of us. In particular, I'd like to thank Hugh Price and Keith Fulton for
their efforts in launching this conference. For those of you who don't know,
Keith is already practicing what we are preaching today. His Technology
Access Centers make information technology and services available to four
underserved communities. I'd also like to thank Wendy Petties of the Urban
League, not only for her efforts in this conference, but also for her
excellent work moderating a panel at the White House Content Conference in
California two weeks ago.
Title: Plugging In to the Internet: Many Paths, Many Speeds
Source: New York Times (D11)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/07/circuits/howitworks/02plug.html
Author: Peter Wayner
Issue: Internet Access
Description: A comparison of the many ways to connect to the Internet...from
56k modem to ADSL to my favorite T1 lines. Also includes the "Less-Traveled
Roads to Cyberspace" -- various wireless services that are close to Dave
Hughes' heart.
** Internet/InfoTech **
Title: The Blossoming of Internet Chat
Source: New York Times (D1)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/07/circuits/articles/02chat.html
Author: Michel Marriott
Issue: Internet
Description: A recent poll of America Online subscribers found that these
users spend 19% of their online time in "chat rooms." Chatting or instant
messaging is catching on as a business and education tool. "Until now, chat
was something my aunt used to talk to her friends about making doll-house
clothing," said Marty Focazio, director of strategic services at Spiral
Media, an Internet development company based in New York. "But I use it
basically for fast, tactical communication, whether I'm in or out of the
office." "Right now, chat is the easiest and most reliable way to
communicate over the Internet in real time," said James P. Tito, president
and chief executive of Eshare Technologies, a major provider of chat
technology to companies like Merrill Lynch, 1-800-Flowers, Mail Boxes Etc.
and AT&T Worldnet Services. The company, based in Commack, N.Y., also
provides chat services to 100 universities, including Yale and Cornell, so
they can stretch physical classrooms into virtual ones by offering distance
education. [Chat with me on PAL Excite]
Title: Direct Hit Uses Popularity to Narrow Internet Searches
Source: Wall Street Journal (B4)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Ross Kerber
Issue: Internet
Description: Direct Hit Technologies Inc. methods of searching the Internet
has recently been drawing attention. Direct Hit's searching software
organizes Internet search results by using the more "traditional" means. And
then, in an effort to provide better results, it looks at how often
identified Web sites have been previously visited by other search engines.
"Enough people are searching on the Internet every day so that anytime you
do a search, there's a likelihood that somebody else has already found what
you're looking for," says Gary Culliss, founder and chairman of Direct Hit
Technologies. By keeping track of the outcome of previous searches, "we're
basically creating a market for the information." Culliss says that he has
signed agreements with two major search engine-companies that will being
using his software to organize search results over the next month.
Title: Taking on New Forms, Electronic Books Turn a Page
Source: New York Times (D1)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/07/circuits/articles/02book.html
Author: Peter Lewis
Issue: InfoTech
Description: Electronic books will be hitting stores soon. The Softbook, for
example, will cost $299+$9.95 monthly fee to connect via modem and download
public domain and special publications. Copyrighted material can also be
downloaded for another fee. The idea that electronic books may replace paper
books is in fashion again. "Like a comet on some weird, loopy orbit, this
idea comes around every 10 years or so," said Paul Saffo, a director of the
Institute for the Future, a research group based in Menlo Park, Calif. Texas
is considering replacing textbooks with computers. Speaker Gingrich has said
that replacing books with computers should be a goal of the Federal Government.
** Mergers **
Title: In AT&T-TCI Deal, Cost and Logistical Problems
Source: New York Times (C1)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/07/biztech/articles/02phone.html
Author: John Markoff
Issue: Mergers
Description: The promise of the AT&T-TCI merger is high-speed Internet
access, video, and low-cost phone calls over the same wire. But that vision
will take some time to become reality. TCI must invest $1.8 billion to
upgrade its ageing infrastructure and then another $10 billion or more must
be invested in the network. Early estimates of the costs are $750 per
customer. There will also be logistical problem such as the one wire will
arrive on a set-top box that usually resides in the living room -- what
about the other rooms? "Our guys have crawled all over the cable networks,
and the problems are very solvable," an AT&T exec said. In the near-term,
there will be cable TV. "One of the secrets of this whole deal," said an
industry analyst, "is that AT&T is going to make a bunch of money offering
traditional cable television."
** Arts **
Title: Artists See No Decency In Ruling On Grants
Source: New York Times (B1)
http://search.nytimes.com/search/daily/bin/fastweb?getdoc+site+iib-site+62+
0+wAAA+gussow
Author: Mel Gussow
Issue: Arts
Description: Reaction from the art community on the Supreme Court's ruling
that the National Endowment for the Arts may consider decency as criteria
for funding art. Performance artists vigorously condemned it while the
reaction from playwrights ranged from the embattled to the accepting. Some
were confused by the vagueness of the ruling. Here are some quotes: "I hope
those who'll be making the 'decency' decisions aren't anything like my
grandpa, or else it'll be Lawrence Welk for the rest of my life." "If Jesse
Helms can decide whether or not Karen Finley can bathe herself in chocolate
on our dime, perhaps your local town council can decide that your band is
just a little too radical to play the Fourth of July gig in the town
square." "To my knowledge, there is nothing about public standards of
decency in the Constitution. But there is a great deal about civil
liberties. This incredible decision is a victory for those who want to
control freedom of expression for their own ends, and that's an obscenity."
Title: Seeking Digital Art in Siberia and Beyond
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/07/cyber/artsatlarge/02artsatlarg...
Author: Matthew Mirapaul
Issue: Art
Description: Barbara London, associate curator of film and video at the
Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), is documenting her month-long voyage across the
former Soviet Union on InterNyet, an area of the museum's Web site. During
her trip, London in looking for up-and-coming artists in her realm of
expertise, including digital art. London intends to use InterNyet to expose
people to the first stage of the curatorial process before it moves into
"cluttered museum offices and sterile meeting rooms." In an interview before
her departure London acknowledged that "an artist getting into a show or the
(museum's permanent) collection takes time. It is a slow process, but the
Web adds a sense of immediacy. People can be there with me." In addition to
this unique and valuable use of cyberspace to look behind the curatorial
curtain, London also hinted that MOMA is considering the aquisition of
Web-based art, perhaps as early as this fall. The artwork would presumably
be accessible via the museums Web site. You can access the MOMA's InterNyet
site at: http://www.moma.org/internyet
** Journalism **
Title: Freedom-of-Press Defense Ruled Out in Porn Case
Source: Washington Post (D1,D4)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-07/02/214l-070298-idx.html
Author: Ruben Castaneda
Issue: First Amendment
Description: A U.S. District judge has ruled that Larry Matthews, a veteran
journalist, charged with 15 counts of receiving and sending child
pornography over the Internet -- in what Matthews maintains was done in
pursuit of a story -- cannot use the First Amendment as a defense in his
trial to begin next week. In a case that has drawn attention from First
Amendment scholars, civil rights lawyers and reporters groups, U.S. District
Judge Alexander Williams Jr. tore down Matthews central defense when he said
that "the law is clear that a press pass in not a license to break the law."
"It's dismaying," said William Van Alstyne, a constitutional law professor
at Duke Univ. who has written extensively on the First Amendment. "If the
judge intended that the statute allows no exceptions [to the child
pornography law] at all, and moreover finds that the First Amendment itself
does not create any sort of defense, whether for a journalist or academic,
then I think he is bound to be reversed. if he's not, then I think the First
Amendment is in serious difficulty."
** Advertising **
Title: Looking Beyond June Cleaver
Source: New York Times (C6)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/women-ad-column.html
Author: Dana Canedy
Issue: Advertising
Description: Women are becoming an increasingly lucrative consumer market
and companies are beginning to target to them ads once solely aimed at men.
"You look at where the greatest potential growth is, and there is a whole
segment of the population that has not had an interest in things like this
that were thought of being traditionally masculine. Younger women and
working women have a greater range of interests." "Women are buying houses
by themselves, and women are buying all kinds of other products that before
had been sold to a dual audience," said Anne Marshall, a partner at Women
Trend, a consulting firm in Washington that is part of Holman
Communications. Even so, she said, she has a sense that far too many ads are
still right out of the June Cleaver era. "It is not just a matter of putting
women in a spot anymore," Ms. Marshall said. "The point is finding messages
that will resonate with reality and are not condescending. A lot of them are
just plain rude, where they say, 'You are not the bride and you are not
this.' What does that have to do with running shoes?"
*********
...and we are outta here -- and not a moment too soon. We'll be back Monday
with an all-DC crew and a new writer. Have a happy and safe 4th.