DIGITAL DIVIDE
Business is 'Robust' for Small L.A. County Firms (L.A. Times)
StarMedia Plans New Spanish-Language Portal (WSJ)
POLITICAL DISCOURSE
Homemade Campaign Sites May Face More Regulation (NYT)
Activists' Web Site Gains Recognition (WP)
WIRELESS
Satellites to Track Cellular 911 Calls (SJM)
MERGERS/ALLIANCES
Motorola Corp. Unveils Deal For $11 Billion (WSJ)
AT&T, British Telecom Form Alliance to Provide Global Wireless
Services(WSJ)
BROADBAND
AT&T to Offer Internet Access Using Speedy DSL Technology (WSJ)
EDTECH
Where Those Who Can. Teach (WP)
How To Turn The Web Into A Real Education (USA)
HEALTH
AOL To Help Doctors Make House Calls (SJM)
DIGITAL DIVIDE
BUSINESS IS ROBUST FOR SMALL L.A. COUNTY FIRMS
Issue: Digital Divide/E-Commerce
A poll sponsored by the Los Angeles Times reveals that while small Los
Angeles County businesses are overall enjoying brisk business, many smaller
minority-owned businesses are finding it hard to integrate e-commerce and
other Internet benefits into their business plans. The Los Angeles Times
surveyed approximately 2000 small-business owners to compile the
statistics. Owners were asked about the current state of their business,
future hiring plans and use of online technologies. While there is ample
evidence of Internet use by minority-owned businesses, the article states
that these Internet users are a "minority within a minority." Additional
links to poll results are available on the Los Angeles Times Web site.
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times (A1), AUTHORS: Marla Dickerson and Don Lee]
(http://www.latimes.com/timespoll)
STARMEDIA PLANS NEW SPANISH-LANGUAGE PORTAL
Issue: International/Internet
StarMedia Network launches a Web portal today aimed at Spanish-speaking
Internet users. The new portal, Periscopio (www.periscopio.com) is unlike
the Starmedia flagship site that focuses on chat, message boards, e-mail,
and the typical community-type content for portals. Periscopio, instead
focuses on news and Web searching. Competitors to the site include a
Spanish-language site by Yahoo! and an anticipated site from AOL.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B10), AUTHOR: Staff Reporter]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB937429938654386619.htm)
POLITICAL DISCOURSE
HOMEMADE CAMPAIGN SITES MAY FACE MORE REGULATION
Issue: Political Discourse
The Shays-Meehan campaign finance reform bill, which passed the House this
week, has indirectly opens up several new ways that individual political
campaign Web sites might qualify as contributions under the rules of the
Federal Election Commission. Web activists, who were already concerned
about possible regulation by the FEC, now fear that almost any activity --
including expressing opinions about candidates online -- could be
considered a donation and would have to be reported to federal regulators.
"At the very least, Shays-Meehan would exacerbate the uncertainty of anyone
wanting to use the Internet," said James X. Dempsey, senior staff counsel
for the Center for Democracy and Technology. "A lot of the very diverse,
individual, non-moneyed activity that the campaign laws are supposed to
promote would be squashed." The bill, which now goes to the Senate, is
intended to ban "soft money" donations to political parties that allow
candidates to circumvent limits contributions campaigns.
[SOURCE: Cybertimes, AUTHOR: Pamela Mendels]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/09/cyber/articles/16campaign.html)
ACTIVISTS' WEB SITE GAINS RECOGNITION
Issue: Political Discourse
The Web site, DC Watch (www.dcwatch.com), has been recognized as one of the
best election Web sites in DC. The site, run by the husband and wife team
of Gary Imoff and Dorothy Brizill, serves as a news site covering local
politics with several articles and a weekly e-mail forum. The couple
started the site in 1997 to keep D.C. residents informed on political and
government news after the D.C. government didn't follow through on plans to
offer a Web site to keep residents up to date on government business. "We
put it up first to post pending bills and government reports that we
thought would be interesting to civic activists," Imoff said. "It was
cheaper to put it up than to Xerox and mail information. Specifically, the
site has been recently recognized by Campaigns and Elections Magazine for
its campaign coverage, including enabling visitors to access campaign
literature--a service no other local site offers. "What we did with
campaign news was something that the government can't do," Imoff said. "We
took every brochure, flier and position paper that any candidate issued and
put it on line. We did it without favoritism and without editing or making
any changes at all. The only thing we didn't put online was requests for
money."
[SOURCE: Washongton Post (DC1), AUTHOR: Yolanda Woodlee]
(http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-09/16/016l-091699-idx.h
tml)
WIRELESS
SATELLITES TO TRACK CELLULAR 911 CALLS
Issue: Safety/Regulation
Yesterday the Federal Communication Commission agreed to let mobile-phone
networks use satellite technology to find callers who call 911. The new
rules are expected
to spur the development of new, location-based services for wireless
subscribers. Previous rules required companies to make expensive
upgrades to networks, putting equipment on each antenna that could
approximate the position of any caller. The new rule allows companies to
convert to new phones that will reveal only the positions of callers' who
use the new phones. The FCC gave the mobile-phone companies more
leeway in meeting the next phase of the