INTERNET
Excess Haunts Internet Sector
Reality Bytes
Independent Label Waives Web Radio Fees
DIGITAL DIVIDE
Digital Age Reaches Melbourne's Poor
TELECOM
Chairman Powell's Testimony to Senate Commerce Committee
INTERNET
REALITY BYTES
The global non-profit, One World International, has just launched it's own
version of reality TV. OneWorld TV, available on the Internet, features
short contributions from film-makers, from around the world. Subjects range
from Aids and global warming to the conflict in the Middle East. In a unique
twist to the reality genre, OneWorld TV also allows visitors to upload their
own films to the site, either beginning new strands or adding to other
people's stories. "Our aim was to reinvent television for the web," explains
OneWorld International director, Peter Armstrong. "There is no point in
trying to broadcast 30-minute documentaries over the web, and we didn't just
want to drop clips into a database, which would have been really boring.
Because it's interactive, people can take the story in whichever direction
they want, and can even become part of the storytelling process themselves."
Like an internet bulletin board, contributions to the site are overseen by a
moderator.
[SOURCE: The Guardian]
(http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,7558,764719,00.html)
INDEPENDENT LABEL WAIVES WEB RADIO FEES
Artemis Records said on Monday that it would waive Internet radio station
fees for music played from the independent label's catalog for one year.
"We're a small company with a lot of music that doesn't get played on
commercial radio," Artemis chief executive Danny Goldberg said. "I
appreciate the Webcaster. In terms of the future, the diversity they offer
is valuable to a label like ours. I wanted to make a gesture of support."
Johathan Potter, director of Digital Media Association praised Artemis,
saying that "Danny Goldberg is ahead of his time in every way. He recognizes
that Internet radio listeners are more intense music fans and they buy more
music than traditional music fans." The Recording Industry Association of
America has no objection to Artemis' move.
[SOURCE: CNET News, AUTHOR: Reuters]
(http://news.com.com/2100-1023-947055.html?tag=fd_top)
EXCESS HAUNTS INTERNET SECTOR
[Comentary] The crisis now facing the Internet sector, with the bankruptcies
of giants like WorldCom, and Global Crossing, has been compared to the fate
of the road industry following it's boom in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries. But the scope of overbuilding in the Internet sector far
surpasses the railroads. In the past four or five years, telecom companies
easily built 20 times the capacity of what could be economically sustained.
In the 1990s, it was predicted that millions of Americans would upgrade to
''broadband'' home Net connections, but today only about 13 million homes
have signed up. With Hollywood and the music industry failing to figure out
how to sell movies and music over the Net without engendering massive
piracy, millions of Americans see no compelling reason to spend the $40 or
$50 a month for broadband - leaving the prospect of a near-term,
consumer-driven solution to the Net glut remote.
[SOURCE: Boston Globe, AUTHOR: Peter J. Howe]
(http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/210/business/Excess_haunts_Internet_secto
r+.shtml)
DIGITAL DIVIDE
DIGITAL AGE REACHES MELBOURNE'S POOR
Thanks to a local initiative called Reach For The Clouds, things are
changing for residents in a Melbourne, Australia public-housing estate. The
project is hoping to deliver to each of the 770 homes a free refurbished
computer and the chance to get online. Residents will be able to use e-mail
and a community intranet service free, but will pay to connect to the Web.
The project, run by the nonprofit, Infoxchange, has already wired the entire
community with an ADSL broadband system. Although the Linux operating system
was considered for the computers, Microsoft won out in the end for long-term
practicality. Microsfot's operating system handles human languages better
than Linux and it ties in with what residents are likely to encounter
elsewhere. Two massive hurdles for the project are the A$4 million
(approximately US$2 million) price tag and the complications arising from
the fact 38 languages are spoken in the community. Infoxchange is hoping to
use the lessons learned from this first project to tackle Melbourne's 13
other public-housing developments.
[SOURCE: BBC News, AUTHOR: Andrew Webster]
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2153643.stm)
TELECOM
CHAIRMAN POWELL'S TESTIMONY TO SENATE COMMERCE COMMITTEE
Today, FCC chairman Michael Powell has issued a statement before the Senate
Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. The statement, "Financial
Turmoil in the Telecommunications Marketplace: Maintaining the Operations of
Essential Communications," outlines the FCC's six-step program for recovery
from the recent telecommunications crisis. Chairman Powell's six steps are:
1) protect service continuity, 2) root out corporate fraud, 3) restore
financial health, 4) acknowledge prudent industry restructuring, 5) provide
new revenue through new services, and 6) reform economic and regulatory
foundations. In the statement, Powell requests that "Congress also assist us
in our efforts by providing the Commission with more tools to protect and
promote the public interest." Specifically, Powell asks Congress to "extend
and clarify [the FCC's] section 214 discontinuance authority" which he feels
is "at best unclear and, at worst, does not extend to certain critical
services such as the Internet backbone." Secondly, Powell asks for an
increase in the maximum allowable fines for illegal activity. Lastly, Powell
urges Congress to implement the "right regulatory environment" for broadband
services as broadband, he states, is very likely to be the key for long-term
recovery of the telecommunications industry and for national economic
growth.
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission]
(http://www.fcc.gov/)
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