INTERNATIONAL
UN Pledges Digital Divide Fight (SJM)
U.S. Firms Silent Over Chinese Net Arrest (SJM)
French Cinemas Defy Ban (WP)
ECOMMERCE
The New Economy's 'Network Society' Plays by
Old-Economy Rules (NYT)
Focus Groups Go Online To Measure The Appeal of Web Sites (NYT)
A Bevy of Experts With Soapboxes, and Sites to Fill (NYT)
E-Merchants Pulling Plug on Ad Deals (WP)
Web Start-Ups Target Latin American Women (WSJ)
INTERNET
Millions Phoning Online, Finding Price Is Right
Even If Quality Isn't (NYT)
New York's Chaos Inspires Web Art (CyberTimes)
Museum of the Moving Image Tries Next-Generation Guides (WSJ)
MERGERS
Analysts Missed Call on Merger (WP)
JOBS
TV News Is Diversifying (B&C)
PHILANTHROPY
New Philanthropists Put Donations to Work (NYT)
INTERNATIONAL
UN PLEDGES DIGITAL DIVIDE FIGHT
Issue: Digital Divide
To combat the digital divide between rich and poor countries, the World
Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Trade
Organization (WTO) joined the United Nations (UN) on Wednesday in pledging
to spread information technology and E-commerce profits to the developing
world. Countries without communications bear the "cost of isolation and
marginalization, at a time when there is already a growing gap between the
rich and poor within and among nations," said Eduardo Aninat, IMF deputy
managing director. The World Bank will launch a Global Development Gateway
-- an information base that would join international organizations,
governments and grassroots groups. A ministerial declaration is to be adopted
Friday at the end of the three-day meeting.
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury, AUTHOR: Harmonie Toros]
(http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/ap/docs/167110l.htm)
U.S. FIRMS SILENT OVER CHINESE NET ARREST
Issue: International
U.S. Internet companies have responded with "resounding silence" to an
urgent call for help from a human rights group in China. New York-based
Human Rights Watch asked foreign companies involved in developing China's
Internet to protest the detention of Huang Qi, who faces a long prison term
for posting on his Web site information that offended the government.
Before his arrest on June 3, Huang ran a Web site in the southwestern city
of Chengdu that posted unauthorized articles about government corruption and
human rights violations in China, including the 1989 massacre of
pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square. He is awaiting trial for
"subverting state power," and faces a prison sentence of 10 years or more.
Though the industry often cites free speech as a byproduct of information
technology, a [San Jose Mercury] check with a dozen American
Internet-related businesses failed to find a single one willing to comment
publicly. Huang, who opened China's first human-rights Web site, said that
he had no intention of provoking the government. At 5:15 p.m. June 3, with
the police at his door, Huang posted his last message. "Thanks to all who
make an effort on behalf of democracy in China," he wrote. "They have come.
Goodbye."
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury, AUTHOR: Michael Dorgan]
(http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/top/docs/china070600.htm)
FRENCH CINEMAS DEFY BAN
Issue: Censorship
Last week, France's Council of State voted to ban a current film from the
country's mainstream movie theaters. The movie, which follows the sexual and
violent exploits of two women, has been exiled to X-rated theaters. Two
mainstream distributors defied the ban by showing the movie to adult
audiences, risking large fines. Movie distributors Marin Karmitz told French
media that he would not be muzzled by far right groups and would reject the
ban. "I'm continuing to show the movie because the council's decision
undermines freedom of expression and could have serious consequences, not
only for the French cinema, but for the arts in general," he said. The film
had received very little attention until a citizens' group with links to the
far right began to complain it was unsuitable for minors.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (Online), AUTHOR: Marilyn August]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52134-2000Jul5.html)
ECOMMERCE
THE NEW ECONOMY'S 'NETWORK SOCIETY' PLAYS BY OLD-ECONOMY RULES
Issue: Ecommerce
Today's "networked society" and the effects of "positive feedback loops" are
compared to traditional economies of scale. Huge companies dominated their
markets since the late 1800s and we're seeing the same thing in the new
economy: Microsoft, Cisco, America Online, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, Dell,
eBay and so on. All enjoy economies of scale based on standardized products.
Although the next generation of software promises connections to niche
markets, Madrick predicts profitability will continue to come to the
businesses that sell products with the broadest appeal. Regulators will
still have to weigh the benefits and shortcomings of monopolies. America's
slow economic growth in the 1970s-early 1990s came about because American
businesses could not raise productivity fast enough. In the mid-1990's, that
changed radically, Madrick writes. Business again made standardized products
that corporations and consumers craved in mass volume. For good and ill,
welcome back the old economy.
[SOURCE: New York Times (C2), AUTHOR: Jeff Madrick]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/financial/columns/070600econ-scene.html)
FOCUS GROUPS GO ONLINE TO MEASURE THE APPEAL OF WEB SITES
Issue: Ecommerce
Focus groups have long been a staple of marketers and business planner --
now they moving online as companies test new product names and the
effectiveness of Web sites. The main advantage is speed; the main drawback
is the absence of personal interaction when people communicate online. There
is a subtle difference in how the questions are asked and answered in person
and online, said David Bradford, a vice president and director of The
Virtual Research Room, a marketing research firm, also known as Vrroom, that
is based in New York. "There's a different interface," Mr. Bradford said.
"In a traditional focus group, one person speaks at a time, and sometimes
one person tends to dominate. Online, because everyone is composing his
answer to the moderator's questions simultaneously, everyone has a chance to
speak equally, and they are influenced less by those around them." Can Web
focus groups provide answers that are applicable to more general audiences?
Can the people who use the Internet, which not long ago was a place largely
for young white men who were educated and technologically adept, men, speak
for everyone? "A few years ago, there was more bias in a group of Internet
respondents," said Susan Roth, the director of qualitative research at
Greenfield Online, a marketing research company, "but that's changing. As
more and more people use the Internet, that group is getting closer and
closer to the demographics of the general population."
[SOURCE: New York Times (D8), AUTHOR: Catherine Collins]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/07/circuits/articles/06focu.html)
A BEVY OF EXPERTS WITH SOAPBOXES, AND SITES TO FILL
Issue: Ecommerce
Are you an expert at something and would like to make some cash off of it?
About.com runs a site for you. A microcosm of the Web itself, About.com is a
linked network of 700 Web sites. Called guides by the company, the
Webmasters are independent contractors who have set up their soapboxes under
the company umbrella. They are there because About.com offers something
other sites do not: the chance for the so-called experts, professionals and
hobbyists to make money pursuing their passions. Sometimes, a great deal of
money. "We see a continuum, guides who don't care about the money, and
guides, like our stocks guide, for who it's all about the money," said Scott
Kurnit, the chief executive who founded the company in 1996 as The Mining
Company, changing the name shortly after it went public. "It's a continuum
of passion to greed." The guides run their Web sites as a sideline, working
10-15 hrs.wk on average. They write original articles, scour the Web for the
best links to their topic, are hosts to live chats, manage forums and
publish their own newsletters. Guides must be HTML savvy, adept at
self-promotion and must possess a stick-to-itiveness that keeps their sites
going. Most guides said they had started just because they wanted to share
what they knew with others.
[SOURCE: New York Times (D11), AUTHOR: Bonnie Rothman Morris]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/07/circuits/articles/06expe.html)
E-MERCHANTS PULLING PLUG ON AD DEALS
Issue: Ecommerce
Last year, iParty paid America Online $1.8 million -- nearly 10
percent of its cash on hand -- for a prominent spot on the Internet service's
screens. IParty's chief executive Sal Perisano remembers the move as a
reasonable gamble at the time. After all, AOL is the biggest gateway to the
Internet. If only a small fraction of its more than 23 million subscribers
saw the advertisements and came to iParty.com to buy its paper plates,
pinatas and other celebratory wares, the new company's future would be set.
iParty hardly could afford to pass up the opportunity for fear that the
choice electronic real estate would be snapped up by one of its competitors.
Big sales, though, were not to be. iParty wound up losing $5.5 million in
the most recent quarter. Its stock is down nearly 90 percent from its high
and is now trading at less than a dollar a share. Thousands of other online
merchants, who in the past year together have paid more than a billion
dollars to AOL -- the world's largest
online service -- and hundreds of millions more to its competitors Yahoo, MSN,
Lycos, Excite, Go and other large portals, are in a precarious situation of
breaking the deals they had made with these Internet giants, as the fickle
stock market turns against them
and venture capital becomes more precious.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E01), AUTHOR: Ariana Eunjung Cha]
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52236-2000Jul5.html
WEB START-UPS TARGET LATIN AMERICAN WOMEN
Issue: Ecommerce
With the maturation of Internet market in Latin America, start-ups are
banking on Latina eyeballs with a slew of sites catering to the eight
million-strong female Hispanics online. But there are challenges
that come with such a target audience. From the fully bilingual
twentysomething professional to the older housewife, or the "ama de casa"
figure -- the fragmentation of the audience makes it more difficult for
these start-ups to customize content. "There is no such thing as a
mass-market online," said Ekaterina Walsh, an Internet analyst at Forrester
Research, adding that 80% of traffic online in the U.S. goes to niche sites.
Another criteria for success is whether the companies will be able to shift
their revenue model from an advertising-oriented one to a more lucrative
e-commerce-oriented one, according to Alejandro Zubillaga, chief executive
officer of e-Quest, an incubator fund. While his fund hasn't yet invested in
a women's Web site, Mr. Zubillaga said if U.S. women's sites are any
indication, the outlook is optimistic. U.S. women's sites have generated
significant traffic, and Internet usage among Latin American women is rising
very rapidly," he said. In Brazil, Latin America's biggest market, women
made up 44% of the country's total "netizen" population in June 1999,
according to Ibope, a local net-ratings agency. The gender divide among
Hispanics in the U.S. is also virtually nonexistent. There are about 34
million Hispanics living in the U.S., representing 12% of the population.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (Interactive), AUTHOR: NAMJU CHO]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB962826654625270935.htm)
INTERNET
MILLIONS PHONING ONLINE, FINDING PRICE IS RIGHT EVEN IF QUALITY ISN'T (NYT)
Issue: Internet Telephony
Nearly two dozen Web-based companies, such as Net2Phone and Dialpad.com,
have begun offering long-distance calls over the Web -- free or
substantially cheaper than otherwise available. According to Jeff Pulver, an
independent analyst of the Web-based voice communication industry, roughly
15 million people in the United States use voice communication over the
Internet, compared with 5 million a year ago. There are also several million
users abroad, where services allowing people to call the United States is
catching on. The combined revenue of Web talk providers is projected to grow
at a compound annual rate of 200 percent a year over the next several years,
to $16.5 billion by 2004 from $208 million in 2000, according to the
International Data Corporation, a research company in Framingham, Mass.
Revenue is expected to come from advertisements on the companies' sites than
from calling fees. The quality of the service ranges from resembling a
choppy cell-phone call to a wobbly walkie-talkie transmission. Regardless
of the current limitations, Internet telephony has attracted the attention
of the major telecommunications companies.
[SOURCE: New York Times (C1), AUTHOR: Simon Romero]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/07/biztech/articles/06call.html)
NEW YORK'S CHAOS INSPIRES WEB ART
Issue: Arts Online
New York, which has long been an inspiration for painters, musicians and
writers, is now inspiring digital artists using the Web's multimedia
capabilities to combine text, graphics, audio and video into interactive
cityscapes. Wednesday the Turbulence.org digital-art site premiered Annette
Weintraub's "Crossroads," an impressionistic version of Times Square.
Scrolling text, animated collages and short films simulate the kinetic
energy and shifting moods of the city. Even though "Crossroads" focuses on
Times Square, Weintraub said, "It's actually a piece about how film has
affected our perception of reality. My memory of the way the city has
appeared in films is very different than what it really was." To make her
point, the site's 15 areas also include audio clips of the filmmaker Lee
Ellickson discussing how movies like "Midnight Cowboy" have affected our
vision of the city. As in her earlier works, "Pedestrian" (1998) and
"Realms" (1995), Weintraub uses New York a focus point for addressing larger
aesthetic issues. Weintraub's 1999 work, "Sampling Broadway," was selected
for the Internet area of the 2000 Whitney Biennial exhibition.
[SOURCE: CyberTimes, AUTHOR: Matthew Mirapaul (mirapaul( at )nytimes.com)]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/07/cyber/artsatlarge/06artsatlarge.h
tml)
MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE TRIES NEXT-GENERATION GUIDES
Issue: Arts Online
The American Museum of the Moving Image in New York is looking to create a
little media history of its own, in addition to its exhibits that chronicle
the history of visual media -- from silent film to video games. It has
embarked on an ambitious project to develop a new kind of digital museum
guide, whereby patrons will use lightweight wireless computer "tablets"
provided by the museum to get supplemental information about exhibits.
Patrons will be able to use their own mobile phones and Palm devices to get
information on exhibits, something no other
museum is believed to be doing. A proto-type of E-Docent, the museum's
wireless content-delivery system will connect patrons to a central database
containing information about many of the museum's 85,000 artifacts -- pieces
of film-making equipment, fan memorabilia and other cinema curios. Patrons
will receive a one-to-two-pound flat computer known as a PC tablet -- about
the size of a videotape -- to carry through the galleries. When they
approach an exhibit, they'll use the device to call up additional text,
still shots and audio, such as photographs of the inside pages along with
stories about the actors, their films and the photographers who snapped
their pictures. In addition, the museum hopes, visitors using their own
handheld computers will be able to "bookmark" areas of interest that they
can access later from the museum's Web site, or they can register to receive
the information by e-mail. According to studies done in other museums in
the country, visitors prefer to tailor their own museum tours with digital
multimedia guides than be restricted to static, prepared tours. "What's
marvelous about this is it's as if a curator were taking you on a tour of
the museum," said Rochelle Slovin, founding director of Moving Image.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (Interactive), AUTHOR: JENNIFER L. REWICK]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB962396567433447528.htm)
MERGERS
ANALYSTS MISSED CALL ON MERGER
Issue: Mergers
Now that the merger WorldCom and Sprint merger has collapsed under the
opposition from Justice Department and European Union antitrust authorities,
several analysts say their miscalculations reflect an over-reliance on the
merging companies themselves for insights. Most analysts had assumed that
the companies would overcome regulatory skepticism with their arguments that
there are plenty of different players in the long-distance market. Jack
Grubman, of Salomon Smith Barney, which is WorldCom's investment banker,
released a report in February that minimized many of the signs from
regulators. "Justice was likely to clear the Sprint deal by June." He urged
investors to buy WorldCom stock and said "the regulatory process is far less
onerous than investors think, especially with the European Union likely not
even to review the transaction." Last week, the Justice Department filed a
lawsuit to block the merger, and the EU's European Commission voted to
reject it as well.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E1), AUTHOR: Peter S. Goodman]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52252-2000Jul5.html)
See Also:
WORLDCOM AND SPRINT ARE SAID TO BE SET TO CANCEL DEAL
[SOURCE: New York Times (C6), AUTHOR: Sorkin & Romero]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/financial/070600sprint-worldcom.html)
JOBS
TV NEWS IS DIVERSIFYING
Issue: Diversity
An annual Ball State/Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA)
study released last week shows that while women and minorities have reached
record levels of employment in local TV news, minorities have actually
decreased as a percentage of the workforce in radio news. According to the
study, minorities in 2000 hold an all-time high of 21% of "all jobs in
television news" and have also made strong gains in management -- 14% of news
directors are now minorities. Fox affiliates and independent stations in
general were singled out as responsible for a large part of the increase in
the number of minority news directors. In radio, however, minorities
represent 10% of the total workforce, down from 11% in 1999. Women
represent 40% of the workforce in TV news, up slightly from 39% in 1999.
Twenty-four percent of TV news directors are women, up 4% from last year.
RTNDA President Barbara Cochran called the employment gains "cause for
celebration" but said that there is still need for more training and
retention efforts. "It is in the best interest of the industry to support
efforts to increase diversity at every level."
[SOURCE: Broadcasting & Cable (pg.4), AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
(http://www.broadcastingcable.com/top/top_article.asp?articleID=692245758)
PHILANTHROPY
NEW PHILANTHROPISTS PUT DONATIONS TO WORK
Issue: Philanthropy
Today's new philanthropists, many of whom created their wealth through the
Internet, are looking for more direct role and demanding that charities show
they can produce the kinds of specific results familiar to those in the
business world but not always prized in the past by charitable
organizations. "There is a return to the Carnegie philosophy -- getting
engaged while you're alive," said Eugene R. Tempel, executive director of
the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy. Among the changes, he added,
is a shift away from gifts to established charities as the public has become
increasingly skeptical of these organizations. Paul Schervish, director of
the Social Welfare Research Institute at Boston College, helped conduct a
new study on wealth and philanthropy. Findings include: 1) the wealthy are
convinced of the importance of giving, 2) they prefer giving through their
own foundation, 3) some wealthy people see philanthropy primarily as a
social milieu (i.e. sitting on a board), but 4) increasingly, people are
more interested in taking an active role in their charity.
[SOURCE: New York Times (C1), AUTHOR: Reed Abelson]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/financial/070600rich-philanthropy.html)
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