DIGITAL DIVIDE
President Shrugs At The Digital Divide
INFRASTRUCTURE
Bracing for the Storm
The Quest For A New Golden Age
TECH POLICY
Why e-Voting is a Bad Idea
The World According to Gates
EPIC: DRM Anti-Consumer, Threatens Privacy, Free Speech, Fair Use
DIGITAL DIVIDE
PRESIDENT SHRUGS AT THE DIGITAL DIVIDE
[Editorial] Following the February release of the Commerce Department's
report, ''A Nation Online,'' the Bush administration proposed cutting
federal efforts that help underserved communities get online. The 2003
budget called for the elimination of programs in the Education Department
and the Commerce Department that helped low-income communities use computers
and the Internet for education, adult literacy, and job training. The
Commerce Department's report concluded: ''With more than half of Americans
using computers and the Internet, we are truly a nation online." But Derrick
Jackson points to a Ford Foundation-funded report, released this month by
the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the Benton Foundation, that
reveals that Internet use by low-income people is still at very low levels.
Although the data is the same that was used in the Commerce Department's
report, the Bush administration says it is time to scale back investment,
which leads Jackson to question "how much of the nation the government truly
wants or needs to be ''online.'"
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Derrick Z. Jackson]
(http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/198/oped/President_shrugs_at_the_digital_
divide+.shtml)
INFRASTRUCTURE
BRACING FOR THE STORM
Many companies have emergency plans in place in case of natural disaster,
but now they are seriously considering contingency plans in the event that
service is disrupted because of financially strapped telecom providers. "We
talk about natural or financial disasters and don't necessarily distinguish
between the two," said eBay spokesman Kevin Pursglove. It isn't the only
company to equate telecom provider crises with capricious acts of nature.
With the recent collapse of giants such as WorldCom and Global Crossing,
companies around the world are moving to spread out important applications
and find plenty of backup providers. Executives in North America are closely
monitoring the situation in Europe where KPNQwest's bankruptcy is
threatening to disrupt one-quarter of the region's Internet protocol data.
In the U.S., FCC chairman Michael Powell added to the anxiety this week when
he stated that the industry was in a state of "utter crisis" and that he was
bracing for more bad news.
[SOURCE: CNET News, AUTHOR: Rachel Konrad]
(http://news.com.com/2100-1033-945047.html?tag=fd_lede)
THE QUEST FOR A NEW GOLDEN AGE
[Speech] In a keynote address at the Media Institute in Washington DC,
Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information, Nancy
Victory, spoke of the importance of the transition to digital television and
radio. "Promoting advanced services and ensuring efficient spectrum
management," said Victory, "are among the highest priorities for the
Department of Commerce." Victory commended the leadership of House Energy
and Commerce Committee Chairman Billy Tauzin and FCC Chairman Michael
Powell, in working in tandem to move the transition along.
[SOURCE: NTIA]
(http://www.ntia.doc.gov/new.html)
TECH POLICY
WHY E-VOTING IS A BAD IDEA
Robin Cook, Leader of the House of Commons in the United Kingdom, has
released a Green Paper outlining ways the Internet could be used to improve
political life. The government is looking for ways in which new
technologies, specifically the Internet, can make democracy "more real and
relevant in everyday life." Although few could fault the lofty goals of
enhancing political participation and electronic voting, the paper seems to
be written by well-meaning people who do not know very much about the real
world or people's daily lives. Ignored in the paper is the underlying truth
that people don't just want a new way to engage with an old and discredited
system - they want alternatives to the structures and systems that they have
lost faith in. Instead, the paper focuses, not convincingly, on the goal of
creating a secure and trustworthy network architecture for e-voting by the
year 2006.
[SOURCE: BBC News, AUTHOR: Bill Thompson]
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_2135000/2135911.stm)
EPIC: DRM ANTI-CONSUMER, THREATENS PRIVACY, FREE SPEECH, FAIR USE
On July 17, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) filed comments
with the Department of Commerce Technology Administration. At issue is the
matter of digital rights management (DRM) that is currently being advocated
by the entertainment industry. EPIC argues that the DRM technologies being
considered protect copyrighted materials do so at the expense of consumers'
rights to privacy, freedom of expression, fair use rights and the promotion
of science and the useful arts. Says EPIC in its comments, "Far from
creating positive conditions for commerce, DRM subsidizes inefficient
channels of content-delivery in the face of more efficient and more
equitable systems of distribution."
[SOURCE: Electronic Privacy Information Center]
(http://www.epic.org/)
See Also:
US TECH COMPANIES BACK EU APPROACH TO DIGITAL COPYRIGHT
[SOURCE: Computer Weekly]
(http://www.cw360.com/bin/bladerunner?REQUNIQ=1027090356&REQSESS=8xKGH361&RE
QHOST=site1&2131REQEVENT=&CARTI=114279&CCAT=2&CCHAN=28&CFLAV=1)
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GATES
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has decided to start penning a newsletter on
the company's views of technology and public policy. The public policy
newsletter will not come out on a fixed schedule, but will publish whenever
Gates or his executives feels "a burning issue is afoot." The first volume
of the newsletter, penned by Gates himself, dealt with Microsoft's
Trustworthy Computing initiative. Gates gives an overview of the initiative
(made a top priority for the company after its Windows operating system was
found to be lacking in essential security features) and provides tips on how
companies can make their networks more secure.
[SOURCE: CNET News, AUTHOR: Michael Kanellos]
(http://news.com.com/2100-1001-945031.html?tag=fd_top)
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