TELEPHONY
SBC's Long-Distance Rates For Texas Will Be Set Today (NYT)
Verizon Defends Its Customer Service (WP)
Virgin Passengers Will Have Access to Mobile-Phone Calls (WSJ)
INTERNET
Groups Encourage Democracy in Managing Internet (SJM)
Catholic School Helps Reservation Get Wired To
The Outside World (WSJ)
As Teacher in the Classroom, Internet Needs Fine-Tuning (NYT)
The First Amendment's Limitations on the Use of Internet Filtering in
Public and School Libraries (TX Law Review)
Business Links On Web Raise Antitrust Issues (NYT)
European Parliament Adopts Safe Harbor Resolution (EPIC)
TELEVISION
'Big Brother' Proves Another Hit for CBS (NYT)
iBlast Signs More Broadcasters For Wireless Plan for PC Content (WSJ)
INFOTECH
Curling Up With An E-Book (NYT)
JOBS
Coalition of Black Professionals Frets Over an Influx of
Skilled Foreigners (WSJ)
TELEPHONY
SBC'S LONG DISTANCE RATES FOR TEXAS WILL BE SET TODAY
Issue: Long Distance
The Federal Communications Commission has approved SBC Communications to
offer long distance services in Texas. SBC is expected to announce it rates
today: $0.09/min for all in-state and out-of-state calls anytime with no
monthly fee -- $0.06/min for customers who subscribe to caller ID or call
waiting. Analysts said customers choosing one of SBC's basic plans could
save money because the average per-minute long-distance charge in Texas is
more than 20 cents a minute. Nationwide, long-distance rates are about 20
cents a minute, according to the Gartner Group, a telecommunications
research firm. "We're encouraged to see greater competition with the likes
of SBC moving into long distance," said Susan Grant, vice president for
public policy at the National Consumers League in Washington. "But this type
of thing can be a blessing or a curse, because so many choices can be
bewildering."
[SOURCE: New York Times (C3), AUTHOR: Simon Romero]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/financial/070700sbc-rates.html)
VERIZON DEFENDS ITS CUSTOMER SERVICE
Issue: Telephony
Complaints are being heard from basic telephone customers across the nation
who feel that customer service has suffered as a result of their local
companies' increasing preoccupation with mergers and new technologies. More
than 1,000 complaints were logged with the Federal Communications Commission
during a customer service study launched by the Commission in May. Forty-one
percent of the callers said they received inaccurate information, 16 percent
said customer service failed to respond to the trouble, and 8 percent
reported frustrating hold times. Agency records suggest that some repair and
installation services have slipped in recent years for most Bell companies,
including Bell Atlantic. Officials from Verizon Communications, Bell
Atlantic's new identity after its purchase of GTE Corp, defend their
commitment to customer service. "Traditional basic telephone service is the
way we touch most customers and it remains the core of the business," said
Eric Rabe, a company spokesman. "Nobody here is confused about that. And
service is the key to our success in that business."
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E1), AUTHOR: Peter S. Goodman]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59391-2000Jul6.html)
VIRGIN PASSENGERS WILL HAVE ACCESS TO MOBILE-PHONE CALLS
Issue: Telephony
Virgin Atlantic said it will be the first airline to allow passengers to
receive phone calls via their mobile telephone numbers while flying. The
service, dubbed "Earth Calling," requires mobile-telephone customers to
receive special cards from their mobile-phone service providers. When they
board an aircraft, passengers who wish to use the service will swipe the
cards through the phone at their seat and dial a registration number.
Participating mobile-telephone operators -- via their satellite networks
-- will then forward the customer's calls to the aircraft, billing the
customer for the cost of the call to the aircraft. The calls will be
delivered silently via the carrier's on-board seatback telephone terminals,
which will serve essentially as mobile proxies. Because of the success of
mobile telephones, many carriers have already taken on-board telephones off
their airplanes. Virgin Atlantic, echoing moves already made by aircraft
manufacturers and rival carriers, said it is developing an on-board e-mail
system to allow travelers to send and receive messages while flying.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Paulo Prada (paulo.prada( at )wsj.com)]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB962916383301822487.htm)
INTERNET
GROUPS ENCOURAGE DEMOCRACY IN MANAGING INTERNET
Issue: Internet
Public advocacy organizations have launched a campaign to raise public
participation in decisions effecting the management of the Internet.
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, the Electronic Privacy
Information Center, and the American Civil Liberties Union have formed the
Internet Democracy Project as an informational clearinghouse and watchdog
organization. They hope to promote the values of consumers and nonprofit
organizations within Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(ICANN), the organization chartered by the U.S. government and created two
years ago to coordinate the technical management of the Internet. "There is
real need to focus the attention of civil society on the seemingly technical
issues that organizations like ICANN are addressing," said Barry Steinhardt,
associate director of the ACLU. "If our voices are not heard while the
governance structures are being created, it may be too late." ICANN, which
will hold an election for five at-large directors its board in November, has
been criticized for favoring large companies over individuals.
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Associated Press]
(http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/merc/docs/054025.htm)
CATHOLIC SCHOOL HELPS RESERVATION GET WIRED TO THE OUTSIDE WORLD
Issue: Digital Divide
An Internet revolution is quietly taking place at the 80-year-old St.
Peter's mission on the Gila River Indian Reservation, in spite of the
dog-eared books and mismatched school desks that make things look desperate.
Here, nuns carry walkie-talkies to summon each other for phone calls, and
inside one of the mission's classrooms are 25 new IBM PCs made possible by
the generosity of an IBM retiree. Most students at St. Peter's have no
telephone at home. The computer is their sole link to the new Internet universe.
The Gila River community outside Phoenix is also quietly showing a way to
close the Digital Divide without the state's help. St.Peter's data line was
installed by Gila River Telecommunications Inc., an Indian-owned and
Indian-run telephone company known locally as GRTI. "We're an example of
what can be done when you put your mind to it," says Richard Narcia, a
leader of the Pima Indian tribe that has lived in the Gila River area for
more than 2,000 years. It is estimated that less than 10% of Gila River's
20,000 residents had phone service as of the late 1980s. The lack of phones
was a nod to the steep cost of installation back then: $40,000 or more,
according to US West Inc., the local phone company at the time. Although
teledensity has improved, estimated at 51% today in the Gila River area, the
Web remains a nascent concept; there are only about 130 Internet accounts on
the reservation, according to GRTI. The Web access that there is has had the
greatest impact on the kids. All students at St. Peter's mission participate
in mandatory computer classes, with the "Internet" as the most popular
class.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B1), AUTHOR: LESLIE CAULEY]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB962924112271244083)
AS TEACHER IN THE CLASSROOM, INTERNET NEEDS FINE-TUNING
Issue: EdTech
A look at the trial and tribulations of taking online courses. Of the 600
students who enrolled in Advanced Placement courses from Apex Learninf, a
leader in providing AP courses online, two-thirds did not complete enough of
the course work to take the final exam. "This is still pretty new and we are
all learning about it," said Sally Narodick, the chief executive of Apex.
Advanced Placement courses represent one of the first real opportunities to
marshal technology to plug gaping holes in the core curriculums of
financially pressed rural and inner-city high schools that cannot afford
luxuries like college-level courses. Apex charges schools $325 to $400 per
student. Hiring a teacher could cost more than $50,000/year. Apex, one of
the few for-profit ventures in the online Advanced Placement business, has
raised $40 million from investors. Michigan State University, the University
of Nebraska and Johns Hopkins University are also offering college-level
courses to high school students online.
[SOURCE: New York Times (A1), AUTHOR: Jacques Steinberg]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/07/biztech/articles/07class.html)
THE FIRST AMENDMENT'S LIMITATIONS ON THE USE OF INTERNET FILTERING IN
PUBLIC AND SCHOOL LIBRARIES
This article asserts that the First Amendment permits libraries to use
private-sector software to filter Internet access as long as the filters do
not attempt to favor one socio-political viewpoint over another. It
challenges the 1999 federal court's finding in the Loudoun County Library
case that libraries offering Internet access face no economic constraint on
offering unlimited access. It criticizes that decision as faulty economic
analysis as well as disputing the Loudoun court's public forum analysis. The
article contends that librarians may use filters to manage patrons' use of
the library's limited resources to maximize computer terminal availability
for accessing the categories of content chosen by librarians to be in their
collections. Thus, libraries are free to block access to websites providing
material outside that scope, including "protected speech," e.g., shopping
services and non-obscene photos advertised as XXX. Libraries may also use
removable filters to empower parents to diminish their children's access to
adult material. The article argues, however, that the First Amendment
requires libraries using filters 1) to retain "final say" over selection
decisions, 2) to understand the criteria that the filter uses to exclude
content, and 3) to have the resources to correct the viewpoint discrimination
that filters are likely to generate. Furthermore, it concludes that the
issue of library filtering of Internet access is not so much an issue of
cyberspace law as one of the First Amendment's more general limitations on
librarian discretion in the selection of content.
[SOURCE: Texas Law Review (April 2000) AUTHOR: Mark S. Nadel]
(http://papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?abstract_id=230834)
BUSINESS LINKS ON WEB RAISE ANTITRUST ISSUES
Issue: Ecommerce
Take a sip of coffee, clear your head and your desk. Now consider: even as
companies move to adopt online business-to-business exchanges (B2B),
regulators are growing concerned about the new sets of antitrust questions
they will be facing. At the heart of the regulators' concerns is how the
rapid exchange of information on the Web sites will affect the companies'
behavior. B2B Web sites allow companies in the same industry to buy and sell
goods, but the sites are often jointly owned by corporate rivals, who,
through the site, have access to shared data. That could make it easier for
them to coordinate the pricing of goods without ever speaking to each other
about it -- a practice that legal scholars call conscious parallelism.
Antitrust experts say the sites and business practices create opportunities
for collusion and price-fixing that did not exist before. The sites already
account for about
$150 billion in annual sales, significantly more than the better-known
consumer sites like Amazon.com. "We at the F.T.C. are very much in a
learning phase," Sheila F. Anthony, a commissioner, told executives and
lawyers at last week's conference. The Federal Trade Commission last week
hosted a two-day conference on potential ways to regulate B2B marketplaces.
"The promise of huge efficiencies is certainly tantalizing," Ms. Anthony
added. "On the other hand, I can't help but wonder if there might be a
serpent in the garden of efficiencies." The commission is already examining
the Big Three automakers B2B site, Covinsint. Other areas of investigation:
The Department of Justice is investigating a B2B project led by six large
meatpacking companies; the Senate Commerce Committee also plans to hold a
hearing this month on the airline industry's joint Web sites.
[SOURCE: New York Times (A1), AUTHOR: David Leonhardt]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/07/biztech/articles/07trust.html)
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT ADOPTS SAFE HARBOR RESOLUTION
Issue: Privacy
On July 5, the European Parliament adopted a resolution drafted by the
Committee on Citizens' Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs on the
adequacy of Safe Harbor. The report proposes that Safe Harbor include an
individual right to appeal privacy violations, compensation for damages,
clear guidelines for redress, and a review of the system within six months
of Safe Harbor's enactment.
[SOURCE: Electronic Privacy Information Center]
(http://www.epic.org/)
TELEVISION
'BIG BROTHER' PROVES ANOTHER HIT FOR CBS
Issue: Television
The trend towards "reality" television imported from Europe got another
boost as CBS' "Big Brother" enjoyed high ratings during its first episode
Wednesday. The show drew more than 22 million viewers -- more than rivals
NBC and ABC combined. [Hard to believe that 22 million people did not have a
softball game to play]
[SOURCE: New York Times (C1), AUTHOR: Bill Carter]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/financial/070700cbs-brother.html)
See Also:
VOYEUR OF THE CRAMMED: 'BIG BROTHER' PROFFERS HOURS OF GUILT-FREE SNOOPING
[SOURCE: New York Times (B20), AUTHOR: Julie Salamon]
(http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/arts/tv-bigbrother.html)
iBLAST SIGNS MORE BROADCASTERS FOR WIRELESS PLAN FOR PC CONTENT
Issue: DTV
iBlast Networks Inc., an entity created to help television-station operators
provide content to personal computers through a wireless distribution
network, has signed seven more big broadcasters. In 1998 the
Federal Communications Commission gave broadcasters some
flexibility in how they used "digital" spectrum, in return for a piece of any
non-HDTV revenue generated, such as pay-per-view TV or data services. In
signing the new broadcasters, iblast boosts its plan to distribute content to
consumers using part of the digital spectrum that the government is
allocating to broadcasters for new technologies. Ken Solomon, president of
iBlast estimates that by the end of this year, about 60% of iBlast stations
will have their digital channels operating, transmitting a one-way signal
that can be received locally and nationally on PCs equipped with a special
antenna.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B6), AUTHOR: JOE FLINT]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB962928190517007874.htm)
INFOTECH
CURLING UP WITH AN E-BOOK
Issue: Publishing
[Op-Ed] Les than a year ago, there were only a few thousand e-books
available. Today, there are tens of thousands available in different formats
for different devices. The Association of American Publishers has created a
task force for e-book standards, some major publishers are launching e-book
initiatives and almost all of our university presses have experimented with
the technology. One of our key national booksellers is leading in the
selling of e-books. But the sense of urgency should be greater -- not only
for the sake of the book business, which must adapt to the digital world,
but also for readers. With a device weighing just a couple of pounds, you
can carry ~50 pounds of books in electronic format. Connecting to the
Internet, you could have access to whole libraries of books. And with its
possibilities for links to other information, like reference books and maps,
as well as to sound and animated diagrams, the e-book is a challenge to
authors and publishers, as well as readers, to master words, sense and form
in a new way. Bolick concludes: Like the personal computer before it, the
e-book opens a world of possibilities. It is not necessarily better than
printed books, nor need it supplant them. But its time is here.
[SOURCE: New York Times (A19), AUTHOR: Robert Bolick, VP at McGraw-Hill]
(http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/oped/07boli.html)
JOBS
COALITION OF BLACK PROFESSIONALS FRETS OVER AN INFLUX OF SKILLED FOREIGNERS
Issue: Jobs
Black engineers, scientists and computer specialists have made the charge
that politicians of both parties are scrambling to satisfy high-tech
industry demands for more skilled foreigners, while minority Americans are
being excluded from well-paying technical and scientific jobs. If they
follow up their charges, Congress faces a lobby effort to block measures
aimed at nearly doubling special high-tech visas. The group, called the
Coalition for Fair Employment in Silicon Valley, is lobbying against pending
bills that would raise the annual limit on so-called H-1B visas, under
which high-tech workers from India, China and elsewhere are streaming into
the U.S. Democrats and Republicans have proposed competing bills that would
nearly double the current annual limit of 115,000 H-1B visas. The group put
an ad in Roll Call, a newspaper closely read on Capitol Hill, that, in part,
said, "there are already far more qualified Americans to fill existing
high-tech jobs than we need, many of them African-American and other
minorities." They also charge that the H-1B visa program takes jobs from
Americans and reduces overall pay levels by allowing employers to hire
foreigners willing to work for lower wages. "It's disturbing to me when I
see the universities and corporations manipulating the immigration laws in
order to facilitate the importation of low-cost foreign tech workers and not
expend the same resources to develop scientific talent in the
African-American and Hispanic communities," says Keith Jackson, one of two
black physicists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories, an arm of
the Energy Department in Berkeley, Calif.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (A2), AUTHOR: MARJORIE VALBRUN]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB962928359548877667.htm)
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