EDUCATION
Girls Soak Up Technology in Schools of Their Own (NYT)
INTERNET
Free Web Services Challenge AOL's Dominance (WSJ)
FTC Warns of Online Porn Scams (WP)
INTERNET TELEPHONY
Visitalk.com Builds White Pages for Web Phone Calls (WSJ)
EMPLOYMENT
Tech-Worker Shortage Is Probed At Hearings (SJM)
EDUCATION
GIRLS SOAK UP TECHNOLOGY IN SCHOOLS OF THEIR OWN
Issue: Education
The Julia Morgan School and the Girls' Middle School, two girls-only
schools, have opened recently in the San Francisco Bay Area, include
engineering, science, computers and math at the center of their curriculums.
These schools are appearing at a time when applications to girls' schools
are on the rise. These all-girl math and science oriented schools hope to
disprove the notion that women do not belong in technical fields. The new
focus on science and technology at girls' schools comes at a time when high
school girls are said to be catching up to boys in math and science.
However, in 1998 girls made up only 17% of the high school students who took
the advanced placement exam in computer science. Kathleen Bennett, a
54-year-old former teacher and Silicon Valley technical writer, wrote the
business plan for the Girls' Middle School. She drew heavily on research
showing that by sixth grade, as puberty sets in, girls begin to lose the
self-confidence that once helped them excel in math and science. In a
single-sex environment, Ms. Bennett and other proponents of single-sex
education say, girls receive encouragement for what they do rather than for
how they look. Parents seem to agree. Since 1991, after two decades of
decline, the average number of applications to girls' schools each year has
been 32% higher.
[SOURCE: New York Times (E7), AUTHOR: Katie Hafner]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/09/circuits/articles/23girl.html)
INTERNET
FREE WEB SERVICES CHALLENGE AOL'S DOMINANCE
Issue: Internet
AOL's President and Chief Operating Officer, Bob Pittman, said if AOL did
not charge its fees for its Internet service, it would lose money. Such
fees made up about 70% of AOL's revenue in its last fiscal year. Investors
are concerned because AOL shares have tumbled nearly 50% since April, in
part because of anxiety regarding free and cut-rate Internet services
emerging. The largest free ISP, NetZero, has more than 1.7 million
registered users and Freei Networks, as well as others, have begun offering
no-cost access as well. AOL executives and analysts say for the near future
they do not have much to worry about ,as the business model for free ISPs is
questionable because the free ISPs face heavier costs and have no monthly
subscription revenue to cover those costs. But free ISPs say that by
carefully controlling communications costs they will be able to serve
customers at less expense than AOL. Free ISPs also believe they can generate
higher ad revenue than AOL, saying that their users are generally willing to
accept more on-screen ads since they are getting their service without cost.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, (B8), AUTHOR: Nick Wingfield]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB936755551505708177.htm)
FTC WARNS OF ONLINE PORN SCAMS
Issue: Content/Internet
The Federal Trade Commission is on the trail of Web "page jackers," scammers
who trick users into visiting Web sites filled with pornography. Web
scammers in Australia and Portugal copied about 25 million existing
non-pornographic Web pages and inserted fraudulent "meta tags"--hidden
descriptions of the Web page used by search engines to direct Internet users
to those pages. Once visitors found themselves at a pornographic site they
were then "mouse-trapped," or unable to exit from the page. Typing in the
address of a new page, hitting the back button or closing the browser screen
resulted in a series of new browser windows displaying the pornographic site
opening. The scam was intended to inflate the number of visitors accessing
the pornographic site. Commonly, the number of visitors to a Web site is
used in determining advertising prices. The FTC got a preliminary injunction
against the perpetrators of the scam citing the practices as fraudulent and
unfair to consumers. The FTC was able to convince the Australian authorities
to raid the offices of WTFRC PTY Ltd., the Australia base of the scheme. The
FTC is also working with Portuguese authorities. The commission also got
Network Solutions, the company that manages the master directory of Internet
sites, to withdraw the five Web addresses used in the fraud.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (B1), AUTHOR: John Schwartz]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/daily/sept99/ftc23.htm)
SEE ALSO:
FTC CRACKS DOWN ON THREE WEB PORNOGRAPHERS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B12), AUTHOR: John Simons]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB938042472464554993.htm)
Net Sites Co-Opted by Pornographers
[SOURCE: New York Times (A1), AUTHOR: Stephen Labaton]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/09/biztech/articles/23fraud.html)
INTERNET TELEPHONY
VISITALK.COM BUILDS WHITE PAGES FOR WEB PHONE CALLS
Issue: Internet Telephony
Officials at Visitalk.com think they have a solution to one of the biggest
factors holding back the routing of phone calls over the Internet. Even
though it seems pretty basic, assigning a recognizable "phone number"
to a computer -so that users at one machine can call users at other machines
has proved difficult thus far. With computers, getting from
one network to another isn't as easy because networks have
different kinds of addresses, which resemble a long line of
jumbled secret code and often are changed for security purposes. Visitalk.com
will introduce a technology that sorts through all of that and lets users
call one another wherever they are. The technology is called a permanent
Personal Communications Number that will become part of a global directory
for anyone who requests it and the company believes that directory will
become the equivalent of the White Pages for the Internet. The numbers will
be 12-digits number and observers believe the plan holds real promise in
helping
to convert computers into communications devices that can easily handle
phone calls, instant voice mail and messaging, video streaming and text.
"Our directory captures your current IP address, and it updates the
directory. Your number that we give you is universally portable," says
Michael O'Donnell, the company's president. The directory basically
functions as a virtual switchboard that can route free voice calls and video
over the Internet. Next week the company plans to introduce instant voice
messaging, a technology complete with "buddy lists" that company officials
say could rival online instant text messaging. "We think that what people are
doing on the Internet now is not chatting. It's typing," says Mr. Thimmesch.
"We hope to change that."
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, (B10), AUTHOR: Rebecca Blumenstein]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB936721069421101868.htm)
EMPLOYMENT
TECH-WORKER SHORTAGE IS PROBED AT HEARINGS
Issue: Employment
Three days of hearings has lead many members of the National Research
Council's Committee on Workforce Issues in Information Technology to think
that High-tech companies have become so creative in finding ways to fill
highly technical jobs there is no need for government intervention. The
15-member committee is charged with ascertaining whether there's a
high-tech labor shortage and if government policies, such as the H-1B visas
for highly skilled foreign workers, are necessary. "There's no evidence in
the data to think there's a shortage," said Eileen Appelbaum, a committee
member and research director at the Economic Policy Institute. "There's
reason to think that supply is responsive to the demand because companies
are being more creative and flexible in finding and keeping workers." Many
panelists presented views very different from Appelbaum. Representatives
from Silicon Valley companies attempted to impress upon the panel the
severity of the situation and the need to approve more H-1B visas. All
seemed to agree the importance of a good educational system that would
funnel well-educated graduates into the workforce. "There is a huge concern
about the digital divide at the level of K-12 education," said Cecilia
Conrad, a professor of economics at Pomona College in Southern California
and panelist member. "We have to get kids interested and prepared to pursue
high tech jobs. This is the long-term solution."
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: K. Oanh Ha]
(http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/indepth/docs/visas092399.htm)
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