DIGITAL DIVIDE
'Digital Divide' Less Clear
Ugandan Women Farmers Go Hi-Tech
BROADBAND
Cities, Feds Force Firms To Pay For Rights-Of-Way
Administration's Broadband Policy Would Destroy Competitive Internet
Marketplace
INTERNET
Internet To Blame For Shriveling Corporate Profits?
ANTITRUST
Official Cautions Microsoft on Plan
DIGITAL DIVIDE
'DIGITAL DIVIDE' LESS CLEAR
Several recent studies indicate that what was once a clear 'digital divide'
is now becoming murky. According to researchers at the University of
California at Los Angeles, the gap between those with Internet access and
those without is closing when measured by the degree of education computer
users have attained. A government report showed the gap between urban and
rural users disappearing. A third report from the Pew Research Center
indicated that the gap between whites and African Americans is narrowing.
Based on analysis like this, the Bush administration has proposed
elimination of two key programs from the fiscal year 2003 budget. However,
groups trying to save the government programs argue that the digital divide
is not disappearing, it is changing. Norris Dickard, a senior associate at
the Benton Foundation, points out one new divide that emerging between those
with high-speed Internet access and those with slower dial-up access.
Jeffrey Cole, head of the UCLA study, believes that access issues may be
getting better, but that there is significant divide in how people use the
Internet and what their Internet skills are.
[SOURCE: The Washington Post, AUTHOR: Ariana Eunjung Cha]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63831-2002Jun28.html)
UGANDAN WOMEN FARMERS GO HI-TECH
Thanks to an interactive CD-Rom, Ugandan women are becoming better farmers.
The CD-Rom project evolved at the Nakaseke Telecentre where the original
idea was to use e-mail and Internet to access information for farmers.
"But," says coordinator Rita Mijumbi, "there wasn't much content relevant to
the rural people on the Internet. We had an information gap and this is how
the CD-Rom project came into being." The CD-Rom has been very successful
because it does not rely only on reading skills. Women who cannot read can
still learn to use the disk and listen to the audio information. One of the
center's stars is 70 year old Anastasia Namisango who has benefited greatly
from the ideas she learned from the CD-Rom program. "I had one chicken and
one pig," she said, "but when I read how to build on what you have, I
decided to become patient and rear that one chicken that I had. Now I have
20 chickens and five pigs."
[SOURCE: BBC News]
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_2078000/2078444.stm)
BROADBAND
CITIES, FEDS FORCE FIRMS TO PAY FOR RIGHTS-OF-WAY
While glut of capacity and huge debt is to blame for many of the telecom
industry's woes, the phone companies are saying that government officials
and federal agencies are making the situation worse. They maintain that
local and state governments are forcing the phone companies to pay excessive
fees to gain access to streets, waterways and poles. Slow bureaucracies can
slow down wire projects for years resulting in service delays, fewer service
providers and higher prices for consumers. Russell Frisby, president of the
Competitive Telecommunications Association said that the 10% of
uncooperative government entities are "...slowing down the buildout of
broadband at a time the industry can't afford delays."
[SOURCE: USA Today, Author: Paul Davidson]
(http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2002/07/02/telecom.htm)
ADMINISTRATION'S BROADBAND POLICY WOULD STRANGLE ISPs, DESTROY COMPETITIVE
INTERNET MARKETPLACE
The Consumer Federation of America (CFA) and the Texas Office of Public
Utility Counsel released a study criticizing the Federal Communications
Commission's (FCC) broadband proposals. According to Mark Cooper, CFA's
Research Director, "This report demonstrates that independent ISPs and their
customers are being driven from the marketplace not by competition, but by a
ruthless and deliberate denial of competition." The study, "The Role of ISPs
in the Growth of the Commercial Internet", concludes that the current FCC
approach to broadband will allow major cable and telephone companies to deny
access to telecommunications networks thus damaging the competitive
environment and threatening consumer interests. The full text of the study
can be found online at:
http://www.consumerfed.org/backpage/ispstudy070102.pdf.
[SOURCE: Consumer Federation of America]
(http://www.consumerfed.org/backpage/070102_broadband_release.html)
INTERNET
INTERNET TO BLAME FOR SHRIVELING CORPORATE PROFITS
Edward Leamer, author of "Anderson Forecast" and an economist at the
University of California, Los Angeles has said that the Internet may be "one
of the most important profit-killing innovations" we have seen in years. He
agrees that the Internet has boosted productivity, but suggests that the
abundance of Internet discounts is reducing business income. Leamer points
to the hotel, airline, car, PC and wireless industries as examples of
sectors that suffer when forced to compete at deeply discounted rates. "This
is a unique event in history in terms of affecting the competitive
landscape. Any enterprises that are competing on the Web have tremendous
pressure on them to compete pricewise." Leamer goes on to say that "If firms
don't make profits, they don't invest. If you don't get the investment, you
don't get growth in the economy." Many economists do not accept Leamer's
theory and say that while the Internet may hurt some sectors, others profit
by productivity gains. Firms can use the Internet to personalize products,
compete in a large geographic area, and increase their customer base quickly
through e-marketing.
[SOURCE: USA Today, AUTHOR: Reuters]
(http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/invest/2002-07-01-net-economy.htm)
ANTITRUST
OFFICIAL CAUTIONS MICROSOFT ON PLAN
The European Union's new antitrust enforcer said Monday that Microsoft
should be careful that its new software security plan doesn't shut out
competitors. Palladium, Microsoft's new security product, would use Windows
operating system and custom computer chips to encrypt data, like documents
or music files, so that only the intended recipient could use them.
Technologists and consumer advocates are concerned about whether a file
encrypted using Palladium would be accessible on computers running Apple's
Macintosh operating systems or the free Linux operating system. '' Philip
Lowe, who will start work as the EU's Director General for Competition on
Sept. 1 said that the European Union will ``ensure that competitors have the
capacity to offer the range of services they want to provide, including
security." European officials have their own antitrust investigation pending
against Microsoft, which focuses on whether Microsoft has illegally changed
commonly used industry standards in order to shut out competitors.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Associated Press]
(http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-Microsoft-Antitrust.html)
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