DIGITAL DIVIDE
Blind May Get Look at Digital Pictures
INTERNET
Study Tallies Sites Blocked By Google
Last Bell Tolls For Online School
JOURNALSIM
NAACP President Blasts Papers On Minority Hiring
OPEN SOURCE
Lawmaker at Center of Open Source Software Fray
DIGITAL DIVIDE
BLIND MAY GET LOOK AT DIGITAL PICTURES
The National Institute of Standards and Technology unveiled an appliance
yesterday that could help blind people "see" digital images. The device
translates the images from a computer to a grid of 3,600 pins, which rise
from a level position into a copy of the image, and users can "read" that
pattern with their fingertips. The National Federation of the Blind, a
50,000-member advocacy group based in Baltimore, will spend a year testing
the device. Deputy Commerce Secretary Sam Bodman, noting that 70 percent of
Americans with disabilities are unemployed, said tool has "the potential to
change the income pattern of this sector of society." The device may also
help ensure that children in schools for the blind are not left behind the
digital learning curve.
[SOURCE: The Washington Post, AUTHOR: Mike Musgrove]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13851-2002Oct24.html)
INTERNET
STUDY TALLIES SITES BLOCKED BY GOOGLE
A study released by Ben Edelman and Professor John Zittrain of the Berkman
Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, cites more than 100
web sites blocked by the French and German version of Google's index. Many
of the sites blocked include content related to Nazism and white supremacist
philosophy. In a statement released yesterday, Google said that it removed
sites "that may conflict with local laws" from the German and French
versions of its index "to avoid legal liability," and that it did so case by
case, after receiving notices or complaints from "partners, users,
government agencies, and the like," taking action only after careful
consideration. Google's actions reflect increasing efforts by national
government to filter or block Internet traffic. Professor Zittrain
expressed concern about the way that Google's silent blocking leaves users
with no indication of what information is being withheld,: "People don't
know what they don't know." View the report:
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/filtering.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: John Schwartz]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/25/technology/25GOOG.html)
LAST BELL TOLLS FOR ONLINE SCHOOL
Einstein Academy Charter School, one of the first online schools in the
State of Pennsylvania to receive a charter, is scheduled to shut down
because financial discrepancies, poor management, and its failure to provide
services to special education students who can't participate in public
education. Board President Ken Junkins said, "We felt that the problems with
the school were so great that the education of these students was imperiled.
There was more danger to these children from attending the school than not
attending." Nevertheless, Junkins said, he believes that "cybereducation has
great potential for the commonwealth."
[SOURCE: Wired News, AUTHOR: John Gartner]
(http://www.wired.com/news/school/0,1383,56002,00.html)
JOURNALSIM
NAACP PRESIDENT BLASTS PAPERS ON MINORITY HIRING
Kweisi Mfume, president and CEO of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), accused newspapers of not doing
enough to recruit and retain minorities. During the annual Associated Press
Managing Editors conference, he urged editors to "support opportunity" for
minority journalists. Mfume cited statistics from the American Society of
Newspaper Editors, pointing out that minorities make up only 12% of newsroom
employees. Only nine of the top 100 dailies have minority representation
equal to their circulation area's population, according to data recently
reported by The Boston Globe, he said.
[SOURCE: Editor & Publisher Online, AUTHOR: Joe Strupp]
(http://editorandpublisher.com/editorandpublisher/headlines/article_display.
jsp?vnu_content_id=1747988)
OPEN SOURCE
LAWMAKER AT CENTER OF OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE FRAY
Representative Adam Smith (D-WA) has come under fire for an attack on the
free software movement that may have been motivated by a key constituent.
Smith, whose biggest political contributor is Microsoft, added comments to a
letter drafted by a bipartisan coalition in Congress urging President Bush's
computer security advisor to fund software projects. When circulating the
letter to fellow Democrats, Smith added that the open source philosophy is
"problematic and threaten(s) to undermine innovation and security." The
letter contained no prior mention of open source software. Microsoft has
recently lobbied against the open source movement, claiming that it erodes
intellectual property rights.
[SOURCE: USA Today, AUTHOR: Associated Press]
(http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2002-10-24-open-source_x.htm)
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