UNIVERSAL SERVICE/DIGITAL DIVIDE
Speech: From POTS to PANs With Universal Service (NTIA)
Pushing and Pulling for an Urbane Internet (NYT)
Web Site That Unites Blacks is Big Ambition of Henry Louis Gates
(WSJ)
ED TECH
Online Schoolkids Search, Play All Day (USAToday)
Sites Let Parents Know What Is Going On at School (NYT)
WIRELESS
Cellular Children: Teens Don't Need a Crisis to Call
MEDIA & SOCIETY
Internet Survey Criticized (SJM)
RADIO
Two Rivals Work on Standard For Digital Radio Via Satellite (WSJ)
Low Power Radio Hearing Today (House)
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Media vs. Web in Digital Copyright War (USAToday)
HEALTH
Remote Care Can Come Home (USAToday)
ECOMMERCE
Consumer Protections In E-Commerce "Digital Signatures" Bill (CU)
White House is Moving to Strengthen Protections for
Electronic Signatures (WSJ)
New Battlefield For E-Tickets: Home Printers (WSJ)
U.S. Investigating DoubleClick Over Privacy Concerns (CyberTimes)
UNIVERSAL SERVICE
SPEECH: FROM POTS TO PANS WITH UNIVERSAL SERVICE
Issue: Universal Service
Assistant Secretary Greg Rohde addressed the National Telephone Cooperative
Association's 2000 annual meeting saying it's time for the Federal
Communications Commission and the states to focus on universal service, now
that strides have been made in fostering competition. Telecommunications Act
of 1996 has dual goal of competition and universal service and engine of
universal service has yet to get started. The FCC and states must make sure
rural areas don't fall behind in providing telecom services: "The existing
universal service regime will not sustain the new competitive, changing
environment...The present system needs reform to fulfill the Act's vision.
And the time to reform is now.If we fail to implement a universal service
system consistent with the Act's vision, we will have institutionalized a
digital divide that rural America may never overcome."
[SOURCE: NTIA]
(http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/speeches/ntca21600.htm)
PUSHING AND PULLING FOR AN URBANE INTERNET
Issue: Digital Divide
Darien Dash -- learn the name. He has partied with Puff Daddy and sat for a
briefing with President Clinton -- he's been to Jersey to finance a hit
record single. At age 18 -- in a two week space -- his father died, his dog
died, his stepfather's house burned down, his mother and stepfather
separated, and his girlfriend left him. He went to U.S.C to study Political
Science, then on to Madison Avenue to market a music service. When he
noticed the reluctance to install cable boxes in poor and minority urban
homes he resolved to start a business that wouldn't discriminate. Now, at
28, Dash is worth millions and heads the first-ever publicly traded,
black-owned Internet company -- but Dash is also a missionary. The heart of
his business is providing Blacks and Hispanics Internet access and
customized
content. "Our thing is, get connected, get plugged in, or get shut out,"
says Mr. Dash. On Monday, Mr. Dash announced a partnership with America
Online to start Places of Color, an online service for urban markets. "AOL
was the vehicle that first put 20 million Americans online, and we're like
the urban version of AOL," says Mr. Dash. "We're going after a $700 billion
market that's 75 percent unpenetrated."
[SOURCE: New York Times (Online), AUTHOR: Robin Finn]
(http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/regional/ny-public-profile.h
t
ml)
WEB SITE THAT UNITES BLACKS IS BIG AMBITION OF HENRY LOUIS GATES
Issue: Digital Divide
Africana.com wants to be THE black educational Internet portal. Created by
Henry Louis Gates - and with such notables as Julius Wilson, Charles
Ogletree, Wole Soyinka and Bell Hooks on the board - Africana.com launched
in January of 1999 and has grown ever since. But Africana.com is not alone
in wanting to capture the African-American Internet market, Blackvoices.com
and BET.com are also fighting for what is currently a limited audience.
African-Americans with Internet access are even more of a minority than they
are in the population as a whole. And while the proportion of black
households with Internet access is supposed to jump 10% this year to 33%
overall, a black web site needs about one million visitors a month to turn a
profit. Blackvoices.com, the most visited African-American site, gets about
150,000 visitors a month. Africana.com seeks to go beyond the chat groups
and job referrals offered by other sites and offer African news, entries
from Encarta Africana and lesson plans for teachers.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (A1), AUTHOR: Daniel Golden]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB950748839354782122.htm)
SEE ALSO:
AFRICAN-AMERICAN SITES LOOK BACK AND FORWARD
[SOURCE: New York Times (E12), AUTHOR: Eric Copage]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/02/circuits/articles/17down.html)
ED TECH
ONLINE SCHOOLKIDS SEARCH, PLAY ALL DAY
Issue: Ed Tech
A new study by N2H2, a maker of filtering software for schools, suggests
that school children may be using the Internet more to have fun than to do
schoolwork. The most popular sites visited are portals/search engines (~36%)
followed by entertainment sites (20.7%), educational sites (15.5%) nd
commercial sites (11.3%). Half of all school-based traffic goes to just 100
Internet sites and the top 2,000 sites account for 80% of the data traffic.
More details will be released by N2H2 at an ed tech conference March 1.
[SOURCE: USA Today (3D), AUTHOR: Karen Thomas (kthomas( at )usatoday.com)]
(http://www.usatoday.com/)
SITES LET PARENTS KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON AT SCHOOL
Issue: EdTech
Since the children often perform better in school the more parents are
involved in their education, the better the, it is important to keep
communication flowing from school to home. Many schools have discovered that
the Internet is a useful way to keep parents up to date on homework
assignments, their children's latest work and check the results of recent
tests. Still, the presents and quality of schools Web sites is inconstant at
best. Peter Grunwald, a EdTech consultant, says that educators
"underestimate the degree to which it's labor intensive to put up and
maintain the information on a Web site even if the site sits somewhere
else." Few teachers have time to keep a Web site current, said Barbara Stein
a senior policy analyst at the National Education Association. She also
noted
that nearly eighty percent of teachers are not comfortable using computer
technology, according to a 1998 survey on professional development and
training conducted by the United States Department of Education.
[SOURCE: New York Times (E9), AUTHOR: Bonnie Rothman Morris]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/02/circuits/articles/17scho.html)
E-MAIL FLOOD FROM PARENTS TO TEACHERS HASN'T ARRIVED
Issue: EdTech
Educators have placed much hope in the Internet's ability to revitalize
communication between parents and teachers. But neither parents nor teachers
have rush to email on another. While many teachers have been quick to supply
their e-mail addresses to students and parents, parents have not been using
them. Barbara Stein, a senior policy analyst at the National Education
Association, suggests that one reason may be that parents who did not do
well in school may feel intimidated. Teachers might also be concerned that
technology will infringe on their autonomy "A lot of educators still have
some doubts as to how closely they want to be communicating with parents,"
said Peter Grunwald, president of Grunwald Associates, a consulting firm in
San Mateo, Calif.
[SOURCE: New York Times (E9), AUTHOR: Bonnie Rothman Morris]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/02/circuits/articles/17mail-sema.htm
l)
WIRELESS
CELLULAR CHILDREN: TEENS DON'T NEED A CRISIS TO CALL
Issue: Wireless
Cellular phones, once the toy of the rich business executive, are becoming a
standard amenity for many teenagers and even preteens. The phones are
marketed aggressively to a young audience. Industry experts estimate that 5
percent of teenagers own a cellular phone, and one recent survey found that
28 percent of parents with teenagers plan to buy a cell phone for their
child within a year. However, parents and teens, often disagree about how
the phone should be used. Ron Parver, who gave his 17-year-old daughter,
Allison, a cell phone about a year ago, said "It's for emergencies. Mostly,
it should be used for calling home." Allison has other ideas. "My phone is
for calling my friends 24-7," said the High School senior, "I know where
everyone is all the time." Despite these differences of opinions, and
mounting phone bills, parents still like the contact that the phones allow
them with their kids. Some parents say they were motivated to get their
teens a phone after seeing coverage of students huddled under desks during
the shootings at Colorado's Columbine High School, calling police on their
portable phones.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (A1) AUTHOR: Emily Wax]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/metro/A60603-2000Feb16.html)
INTERNET
INTERNET SURVEY CRITICIZED
Issue: Internet
A new study released Wednesday by researchers at the Institute for the
Quantitative Study of Society that shows increased Internet use causes
decreased face-to-face social interaction was roundly criticized by
detractors as non-science. Howard Fienberg, a research analyst with the
Statistical Assessment Service in Washington, D.C., said that a more random
selection of survey respondents studied over a longer period of time would
produce more accurate indicators of Internet use and social effects. The
study included 4,113 American adults in 2,689 households, who were provided
with free Internet access and WebTV connections to facilitate the survey.
"Presenting it as a scientific study is a bit of a reach. It's preliminary
work and it doesn't tell us much," said Fienberg. Other critics questioned
the study's definitions of human contact. "You could have had some other
report a hundred years ago that said the telephone would cause a loss in
social relations and human contact," Internet use expert Jakob Nielsen. "The
big problem is that the definitions do not hold in the new human experience
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Ron
Harris](http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/ap/docs/220845l.ht
m)
FOR PHONE COMPANIES WIRING THE WEB, A SURPRISING SPEED BUMP
Issue: Infrastructure
Phone companies are banking on digital subscriber-line technology, known as
DSL, as their ticket to high-speed Internet access while at the same time
spending billions to upgrade old Bell System phone networks. But they are
hitting a snag: the two technologies are incompatible. The phone companies
now face the Shakespearean challenge of trying to marry the two
technologies, different as oil and water, even as they try to compete
against cable companies for the high-speed market. The competition is
already fierce, some experts say that the cable companies have a two-year
lead on DSL. The Bells' brought out DSL, a technology that had been sitting
on the shelf for 15 years, to compete, even though they knew there would be
problems. Still, they didn't have much of a choice. The phone companies
needed the capacity that fiber optics provide, but they also couldn't see
losing out to the cable industry with huge amounts of money at stake. Now
those huge amounts of money might have to be spent to provide a happy
ending.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B1), AUTHOR: Leslie Cauley]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB950742184197517660.htm)
RADIO
TWO RIVALS TO WORK ON STANDARD FOR DIGITAL RADIO VIA SATELLITE
Issue: Radio
XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio, two rivals, agreed to
cooperate in developing a standard on how to deliver digital radio via
satellite. The digital radio systems are supposed to do for car radios what
cable did for television, providing as many as 100 channels of CD-quality
audio nationwide. Both companies had spent the last year lining up
exclusive deals with auto makers. XM Satellite has agreements with General
Motors and Sirius Satellite has agreements with Ford, DaimlerChrysler and
Bayerische Motoren Werke. Without the agreement, some had thought that
there would be a version of the VHS-Betamax battle that occurred in the
videotape industry. "We're going to stop bashing each other," said David
Margolese, CEO of Sirius. "The opportunity is too big to make this an us
vs. them."
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B13), AUTHOR: Gregory White]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB950742184197517660.htm)
LOW POWER RADIO HEARING TODAY
Issue: Radio
A Review of the FCC's Spectrum Management Responsibilities in addition to
H.R. 3439, the Radio Broadcasting Preservation Act will be webcasted today
at the URL below. The hearing broadcast will begin at approximately 10:00 am
Eastern Time.
[SOURCE: House of Representatives]
(http://com-notes.house.gov/cchear/hearings106.nsf/12b6a0781fa86e88852567e50
07558f4/0741ee9cd1a2ff2a85256885007b6f80?OpenDocument)
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
MEDIA VS. WEB IN DIGITAL COPYRIGHT WAR
Issue: Copyright
The creation of the Copyright Assembly at a Congressional hearing yesterday.
Members will include CBS, NBC, ABC/Disney, MGM, Paramount, Sony, Time
Warner, Universal, the Directors Guild of America, the Writers Guild of
America, the NBA, the NFL, NHL, Major League Baseball, the NCAA, and NASCAR.
"We are deeply concerned about the future of creative works," said Jack
Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America. The
Assembly is seeking protection from what it calls digital piracy. The House
Commerce Committee hearing was convened to address iCraveTV, a Canadian Web
site which rebroadcast TV programming over the Internet until shut down by a
federal judge.
[SOURCE: USA Today (1A), AUTHOR: Mike Snider]
(http://www.usatoday.com/)
See Also:
Video on the Internet:
iCraveTV.com and Other Recent Developments in Webcasting
[SOURCE: House of Representatives]
(http://com-notes.house.gov/cchear/hearings106.nsf/12b6a0781fa86e88852567e50
07558f4/bd180ea23b07fe3f85256885007b3abe?OpenDocument)
HEALTH
REMOTE CARE CAN COME HOME
Issue: Health Online
On Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration approved Kodak's Care Station
-- a combination videophone and medical station -- that may start delivering
on the promise of telemedicine to an estimated 2 million homebound patients
across the country. Telemedicine monitoring care cost ~30/day compared to a
nurse's home visit at $74/day, nursing home care at $100/day and hospital
in-patient care at $820/day. Kodak's home monitors cost $3,000.
[SOURCE: USA Today (10D), AUTHOR: Dan Vergano]
(http://www.usatoday.com/)
ECOMMERCE
CONSUMER PROTECTIONS IN E-COMMERCE "DIGITAL SIGNATURES" BILL
Issue: Ecommerce
With a new session of Congress underway, congressional leaders say that one
of their top priorities is an electronic commerce bill that would give
computer-generated digital signatures the legal weight of ink-and-paper
signatures. The bill is the most far-reaching legislation to deal with
e-commerce ever considered by Congress. It would allow consumers to use
personal signatures in electronic form to authorize on-line transactions,
such as automobile purchases, home loans, and stock market investments.
There are two different versions of the digital signatures bill, a House
version (HR 1714) approved on November 9 and a Senate version (S. 761)
approved on November 19. Lawmakers are now working on a compromise version
of the bill. "Both versions of the bill need work, but the House bill is
particularly lacking the kind of protections that consumers need," said
Frank Torres, legislative counsel for Consumers Union, the publisher of
Consumer Reports magazine.
[SOURCE: Consumers Union]
(http://www.consumersunion.org/finance/digidc200.htm)
WHITE HOUSE IS MOVING TO STRENGTHEN PROTECTIONS FOR ELECTRONIC SIGNATURES
Issue: Ecommerce
Separate "digital signature" bills passed by wide margins in the House and
Senate yesterday and the administration is negotiating with Congress to
increase protections for financial transactions that would use electronic
signatures as an alternative to hand signing documents. The House voted to
send its legislation to a House-Senate panel to reconcile the differences
between the bills and send the final measure to the president. Electronic
signatures would be used for stock trading, bank loans and federal tax
filing that occurs over the Internet. "A good digital signature bill will
ensure that consumer protections in the electronic world are equivalent to
those in the paper world," said Gary Gensler, Treasury's undersecretary for
domestic finance.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (A2), AUTHOR: Michael Schroeder]
http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB950745103117673461.htm
NEW BATTLEFIELD FOR E-TICKETS: HOME PRINTERS
Issue: Ecommerce
You can already buy tickets over the Internet, but with the help of
Ticketmaster.com, Tickets.com and Admission Networks, soon you'll be able to
print the tickets you buy on your home printer. For fans of Cirque du
Soleil, the option of printing out their tickets has been available since
November. Bar codes are printed out on the 8.5-by-11 inch tickets and
electronically scanned at the arena to verify the ticket's validity. "It
has really been very simple," says Charles Fitzpatrick from Admission
Networks. There is a huge market for printing tickets at home. Of the 3
billion tickets sold in the U.S. last year, 10% were sold online. "I would
anticipate that within the next 12 to 24 months between 70% and 75% of the
tickets purchased over the Internet will be bar-coded e-tickets," predicts
Mr. Fitzpatrick. EncrypTix seems to be the leading bar code technology
being used for printing tickets. Its two-dimensional bar code encryption
has passed rigorous security tests by the U.S. Postal Service.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B1), AUTHOR: Rhonda Rundle]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB950738580166799948.htm)
U.S. INVESTIGATING DOUBLECLICK OVER PRIVACY CONCERNS
Issue: Privacy
The Federal Trade Commission and the New York State Attorney General's
office said that they were opening separate investigations into
DoubleClick's privacy practices. The investigations were confirmed less two
days after DoubleClick sought to stem criticism with a privacy-awareness
campaign, and less than a week after a privacy group complained to the FTC
about DoubleClick's practices. DoubleClick has been accused of amassing data
on consumers and then selling the data to advertisers. DoubleClick is able
to do this because of its acquisition last fall of Abacus, a direct
marketing company. By merging its existing database with Abacus', the
company has created a massive collection of data on consumers. The
investigations come as concern grows over the lack of laws to protect
privacy online. William E. Whyman, an Internet analyst with Legg Mason's
Precursor Research Group in Washington, called the concern a "backlash." He
added, "People are re-evaluating this industry self-regulation. I think they
are saying, 'Is this the fox guarding the hen house?'"
[SOURCE: New York Times (CyberTimes), AUTHOR: JERI CLAUSING]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/02/cyber/articles/17doubleclick.html
)
SEE ALSO:
DOUBLECLICK'S DATA-COLLECTION PRACTICES ARE INVESTIGATED BY FTC, NEW YORK
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B4), AUTHOR: Jerry Guidera]
http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB950726866496675565.htm
DOUBLECLICK IS PROBED ON DATA COLLECTION
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E1) AUTHOR: Caroline E. Mayer]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/business/A59767-2000Feb16.html)
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