Communications-Related Headlines for October 30, 2002

DIGITAL DIVIDE
A Lack of Money Forces Computer Initiative to Close
OECD Report on Global Education
Digital Divide Exists among Heart Patients

INTERNET
New Touch Technology is Sealed with a Handshake
Nobel-Winning Economist Hails Internet's Potential

BROADCASTING
NOW Criticizes Television's Distorted Image of Women

DIGITAL DIVIDE

A LACK OF MONEY FORCES COMPUTER INITIATIVE TO CLOSE
The national offices of PowerUp, an organization initiated by executives
from America Online and other high-profile institutions to increase access
to the Internet and skills development for underserved youth, will close by
tomorrow. The nearly 1,000 community technology centers financed by PowerUp
will be left to fend for themselves. Many of the community technology
centers affiliated with PowerUp have been forced to shut down amid decreased
funding to programs and slow economic times. Some projects will continue
providing services to communities with financial support from the Boys and
Girls Club of America and companies such as Microsoft, AOL Time Warner,
Intel and Gateway. "It was never the intention for this to go on"
indefinitely, said Denise Keyes of PowerUp, explaining that the centers
were always supposed to become self-sustaining. "This seems like a natural
transition time."
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: John Schwartz]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/30/technology/30POWE.html)

OECD REPORT ON GLOBAL EDUCATION
Students in Canada -- where schools average one computer for every six
children -- have more access to technology than students almost anywhere
else, according to Education at a Glance 2002, a survey of 30,000 students
in 32 countries by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD). The international average is only one computer for every
13 students. Australia and the United States lead the survey with a
one-in-five ratio. The study also revealed that girls were less likely than
boys to have access to a computer at home in all countries surveyed.
Additionally, only 58 percent of girls said they think computers are
important, compared with 70 percent of boys.
[SOURCE: The Star, AUTHOR: Louise Brown]
(http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Arti
cle_Type1&c=Article&cid=1035773821801&call_page=TS_News&call_pageid=96833218
8492&call_pagepath=News/News&col=968793972154)
(URL may need to be pasted together if broken)

DIGITAL DIVIDE EXISTS AMONG HEART PATIENTS
As cardiologists increasingly turn to the Internet for help providing
information to people who have either suffered from a heart attack or are at
higher risk of developing a heart condition, they are discovering that many
of those patients are older and unfamiliar with computers. "There is a
digital divide between heart patients who use computers every day -- either
at work or at home -- and those who have never used a computer," said Beth
Abramson, a cardiologist and a researcher with the Heart and Stroke
Foundation. According to a new survey, Canadians who have suffered a heart
attack tend to be older, less familiar with computers and less likely to
surf the Internet. The results of the survey, conducted by Dr. Abramson and
her cardiac prevention team at Toronto's St. Michael's Hospital, will be
discussed this week at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress being held in
Edmonton.
[SOURCE: Globe and Mail, AUTHOR: Allison Lawlor]
(http://rtnews.globetechnology.com/servlet/ArticleNews/tech/RTGAM/20021030/w
heart1030/Technology/techBN/)

INTERNET

NOBEL-WINNING ECONOMIST HAILS INTERNET'S POTENTIAL
Despite the bursting of the dot-com bubble, Nobel Prize-winning economist
Michael Spence believes the Internet economy has decades of huge growth
ahead of it. The growth of network-based information technology "will make
the idea of the global economy real" as the basic infrastructure is
increasingly deployed though out the world, he said in a resent presentation
at the Rotman School of Management. Mr. Spence said that the potential of
the Internet is especially important for underdeveloped countries, where
workers were confined to local markets, but can now use information
technology networks to take advantage of a global market through
outsourcing. Spence, who shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in economics with
Joseph Stiglitz and George Akerlof, made important contributions to
economists' thinking regarding "asymetrical information" -- situations in
which markets work improperly because buyers and sellers do not share the
same knowledge.
[SOURCE: Globe and Mail, AUTHOR: Bruce Little]
(http://rtnews.globetechnology.com/servlet/ArticleNews/tech/RTGAM/20021029/w
spen1029a/Technology/techBN/)

NEW TOUCH TECHNOLOGY IS SEALED WITH A HANDSHAKE
A scientist in London and another in Boston shook hands yesterday via the
Internet. The scientists were able to not only to feel the texture of each
other's hand, but also react to the force of each other's grip. New devices
nicknamed phantoms can re-create the sense of touch by sending small
impulses at very high frequencies via the Internet, using high-bandwidth
fiber optic cables. In a similar manner of the brain reinterpreting moving
pictures into still images, the phantoms are integrated to create a
continuous sensation. "You can actually feel the object being pushed against
your hand," stated Joel Jordan of MIT. Among the varied applications of the
new technology is the ability for trainee surgeons to practice operations
via the Internet.
[SOURCE: USA Today, AUTHOR: Reuters]
(http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2002-10-29-net-touch_x.ht
m)

BROADCASTING

NOW CRITICIZES TELEVISION'S DISTORTED IMAGE OF WOMEN
"Television remains very much a man's world, with women serving primarily as
'eye candy,'" according to NOW Foundation President Kim Gandy. The NOW
Foundation has released a report examining entertainment programming on the
six US broadcast networks as part of the Watch Out, Listen Up! media
campaign. "Network programming sends a distorted, often offensive, image of
women, girls and people of color," says Gandy.
[SOURCE: National Organization for Women]
(http://www.now.org/press/10-02/10-28.html)

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