October 2001

BROADCASTING/CABLE
First LPFM Stations launch! (MAP)
AOL Gains Cable Rights in China by Omitting News, Sex and Violence
(NYT)

INTERNET
Most Schools Are Wired (NYT)
Net-porn Law Applies Deadline Pressure (CNET)
After Billion-Dollar Build-Up, Broadband Plans Are Put Off (WSJ)
Wayback Goes Way Back on Web (Wired)

MERGER/ANTITRUST
GM Agrees on Sale of Hughes, DirecTV Units to EchoStar (WP)
Leading Consumer Watchdogs Urge Strong Remedy in Antitrust Case
(CFA)

BROADCASTING/CABLE

FIRST LPFM STATIONS LAUNCH!
Issue: Radio
Low Power Radio, community-based radio on the FM dial, is on the air. After
years of effort at the FCC by a coalition of public interest groups
including the Media Access Project, the Low Power Radio Coalition and
others, Low Power FM has launched.
Formats are as varied as the community imagination itself. Churches, social
service
agency, and interested community groups that have successfully made it
through the
FCC's application process and are now beginning to use this part of the
public airwaves.
[SOURCE: Media Access Project]
(http://www.mediaaccess.org/programs/lpfm/Update.PDF)
See Also:
NO POWER TO THE PEOPLE
[SOURCE: Scientific American, AUTHOR: Mariama Orange]
(http://www.sciam.com/2001/1101issue/1101scicit4.html)

AOL GAINS CABLE RIGHTS IN CHINA BY OMITTING NEWS, SEX AND VIOLENCE
Issue:
Acquiring an unlikely mantra of "no sex, no violence, no news," AOL Time
Warner Inc. has gained a foothold in the world's most populous country. Last
Monday, the company AOL signed a deal with the Chinese government allowing
it to broadcast one of its cable channels in southern China. The agreement,
under which AOL will expand its Mandarin-language channel, China
Entertainment Television (CETV), into the mainland, is the first time a
foreign broadcaster has won the right to distribute programming on cable
television systems in China. CETV is already available in some Chinese homes
from cable operators who distribute it illegally. It has survived this
nebulous status by steering a cautious course through China's political
shoals - avoiding sex, violence, and, most of all, news coverage. There are
also signs that, even as Beijing opens up its market, it is seeking to
tighten its control in other ways. The government has asked all foreign
cable channels to transmit their signals through a single, Chinese-owned
satellite, rather than through private satellites.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Mark Landler]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/29/business/media/29CHIN.html)
(requires registration)

INTERNET

MOST SCHOOLS ARE WIRED
Issue: ED Tech
New statistics compiled by Quality Education Data, a market research firm,
indicate that 97 percent of America's public schools are now connected to
the Internet, while 84 percent of public school classrooms are online.
Jeanne Hayes, president of the research company, attributed the high
connection rates to the federal E-rate program, which provides money to wire
schools in part through fees assessed on consumers' phone bills. ''An
infusion of $2.25 billion has had a tremendous impact, especially in the
poorer schools,'' she said. The data also indicated that the average ratio
of students-per-computer was 5-to-1 in the 2000-2001 school year. Ms. Hayes
said 22 percent of the districts surveyed said they were supplying hand-held
computers to staff members, most frequently to technology coordinators or
principals. But she said she also expected those devices to become more
common in classrooms.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Susan Stellin]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/28/technology/29DRILL.html)
(requires registration)

NET-PORN LAW APPLIES DEADLINE PRESSURE
Issue: Internet
Sunday, October 28 was the deadline for schools and libraries to show proof
of adequate steps taken to block access to online pornography on public
computers. At risk was thousands of dollars in federal E-Rate funding. An
element of the law known as the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA),
the requirement had already met with resistance earlier this year. Signed
into law by President Bill Clinton, CIPA requires schools and libraries to
block visual depictions of pornography, obscenity or other material deemed
offensive to children in order to qualify for funds set aside by the
government to help pay for computers and Internet access. CIPA is being
challenged in the courts by the ACLU and the American Library Association
(ALA) on the grounds of First Amendment violations and the ineffectiveness
of filtering software. The hearing is scheduled for February. The schools'
and libraries' deadline for complying to the law was yesterday.
[SOURCE: CNET News.com, AUTHOR: Gwendolyn Mariano]
(http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-7671482.html)

AFTER BILLION-DOLLAR BUILD-UP, BROADBAND PLANS ARE PUT OFF
Issue: Broadband
Having sunk billions into efforts to offer fast Internet connections, some
big phone companies are putting the brakes on such broadband lines. In
recent days, both Sprint and SBC announced retrenchments in their flagship
high-speed offerings for consumers and small businesses. AT&T Wireless
Services is shutting down its wireless broadband service. And Excite At Home
Corp., which delivers fast Internet connections to 3.6 million
cable-television subscribers, has filed for bankruptcy. After hitting
quarterly growth rates as high as 50% last year, digital subscriber line
customer growth lowed to 14% in the second quarter of this year. There is
even evidence that as broadband begins to go mainstream, some customers are
canceling. Some mainstream customers realize they aren't taking advantage of
the service. "They're saying, 'I really don't think I need to pay $50 a
month to check my e-mail,' " says Imran Khan, a Yankee Group analyst. To
increase the mass appeal of the service, carriers will need to cut prices.
"But then you're digging the ditches deeper in terms of making your money
back," he says.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Dennis K. Berman and Shawn Young]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB1004305242345271600.htm)
(requires subscription)

WAYBACK GOES WAY BACK ON WEB
Issue: Internet
The Internet Archive (www.archive.org) and Alexa Internet have built a tool
that can bring Web users backwards in time. Sort of. The Wayback Machine is
an archive of Web pages reaching back to 1996. A free service, the Wayback
Machine (http://web.archive.org) is a record of how the Web has evolved over
time. "It's preserving a record of something that otherwise literally
vanishes," said Paul Grabowicz, Assistant dean at University of California
in Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism. "That is one of the
frustrations about the Web." Researchers at Xerox PARC are reportedly using
the archive to study new user interfaces and languages on the Web. The tool
also has potential uses for Web designers (finally your resum

INTERNET & DEMOCRACY
Suppression Stifles Some Sites (WIRED)
Can Congress Convene Online? (WIRED)
Media Group Launches Advocacy Tool (ACM)

CONSOLIDATION
Behind the Telecom Meltdown (CNET)

MICROSOFT
The Gatekeeper: A News.com Special Report (CNET)

E-COMMERCE
You'd Think They'd Learn: Bad Design Kills Web Sites (WP)

INTERNET & DEMOCRACY

CAN CONGRESS CONVENE ONLINE?
Issue: Internet & Democracy
Spooked by anthrax in the Capitol, public officials and opinion makers are
scrambling to figure out how to keep the government running if Congress
can't physically convene. Among the options being considered: having
senators and representatives gather online, in "an electronic Congress." In
an online newsletter article entitled "Legislating By Any Means Necessary,"
the Democratic Leadership Council -- the centrist group once headed by Bill
Clinton -- asserted that a website "could easily be built" that would allow
congress members and their staffs to debate, draft legislation and vote over
the Internet. But don't expect lawmakers to begin voting on their laptops
any time soon, policy analysts caution. Randolph Court, a DLC staffer (and
former Wired News contributor) who helped shape the report, said, "This was
supposed to be a conversation starter. We put this out there not as a
full-baked proposal, not as an end-to-end solution." Currently, the proposal
calls for the site to be open to the public on "a read-only basis, so
citizens could watch their representatives much as they can now on C-Span."
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Noah Shachtman]
(http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,47841,00.html)

SUPPRESSION STIFLES SOME SITES
Issue: Content
Amid the nationalistic furor sweeping the United States in wake of the Sept.
11 attacks, many government and private websites are yanking content that
could be deemed unpatriotic or risky to national security. While the people
pulling the informational plug say their actions are in the country's best
interests, free speech advocates say the trend is chilling and
anti-democratic. Web portal Yahoo has yanked dozens of sites in the Jihad
Web Ring in the wake of the attacks, according to a story in The Wall Street
Journal. OMB Watch, a watchdog group based in Washington, D.C., is keeping a
list of government agencies that have pulled sensitive information from
their websites since the terrorist attack. OMB Watch spokesman Reece Rushing
said his organization has also been pressured to shut down its database of
geographical environmental hazards, which details chemical usage by American
companies. "We live in a democracy that depends on openness, transparency
and accountability. A big part of that is the free flow of information,"
said Rushing. "In the aftermath of Sept. 11, there might be a tendency to
overlook those values."
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Julia Scheeres]
(http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,47835,00.html)

MEDIA GROUP LAUNCHES ADVOCACY TOOL
Issue: Advocacy
Alliance for Community Media has a new online section, the Legislative
Action Center, which allows you to write to your Member of Congress on
legislation, find information about your federal and state
legislators(including who contributed to their campaigns), find the
different news outlets in your media market, send letters to the editor, and
more! This tool can be used for advocating on Public, Educational, and
Government access issues or other issues you may be interested in.
(http://www.alliancecm.org)

CONSOLIDATION

BEHIND THE TELECOM MELTDOWN
Issue: Consolidation
It is apparent now that the telecommunications frenzy could not possibly
have lasted, according to a panel of telecom experts at the second annual
Wharton Finance Conference. Panelists agreed that companies like Verizon
will probably be buying up threatened companies or picking through the
assets of bankrupt ones. "Within 12 to 18 months, the long-distance and
global telecom world will be collapsing into five or six big players," said
Mitchell Theiss, managing director in the global communications investment
banking group at Merrill Lynch. Blair Levin, managing director at Legg Mason
and former chief of staff at the Federal Communications Commission during
the Clinton, predicted that practically every major telecommunications
restriction will be lifted during the Bush administration. "The restrictions
on owning newspapers and broadcast stations in the same market will be gone.
What cable companies can do with broadcast licenses, that will be changed.
What the old Bell companies can do with Internet access and service, that
will be gone. And, most importantly, limitations on how much of the wireless
spectrum can be used for what, those will be gone," said Levin. "Every rule
that has limited integration is already in the courts and it all may become
moot. That will rush the consolidation of companies. I just hope people will
think through the ramifications."
[SOURCE: CNET News.com, AUTHOR: Knowledge( at )Wharton]
(http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1004-201-7647580-0.html)

MICROSOFT

THE GATEKEEPER: A NEWS.COM SPECIAL REPORT
Issue: Microsoft
With the launch of Microsoft's new operating system as a backdrop, CNET's
News.com concludes its seven day investigation of the impact of Window's XP.
Today's feature looks at user response to the operating system. The past
week has covered potential antitrust issues, Microsoft's strategy, the
challenge to AOL, the emerging .Net service, antitrust, and forced software
and hardware upgrades. Each of the seven articles is a fresh take offering
new perspectives on the meaning of Window's XP and its potential to reshape
the communications landscape. Also available as a single .pdf document
[SOURCE: CNET News.com, AUTHORS: News.com Staff Writers]
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-201-7540650-0.html
See Also:
XP PARTNERSHIPS HAVE A FAMILIAR RING
(http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-7647727.html)
CONGRESS MUM ON XP SINCE ATTACKS
(http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-7646319.html)
WINDOWS XP BEING UNVEILED IN N.Y.
(http://www.wired.com/news/reuters/story?story_id=20011025APAP-Windows-XP.ht
mlt)

GROUPS RENEW CALL FOR FTC ACTION ON MICROSOFT XP
Issue: Privacy
EPIC and a coalition of consumer and privacy groups have renewed their calls
for FTC action to protect consumers from the privacy risks associated with
Windows XP and Passport. In a letter sent to the FTC, the groups criticized
the FTC for not upholding its statutory duty to protect consumers in light
of planned release of Windows XP. More information on the groups' previous
FTC complaints is stored on the EPIC Microsoft Passport Page.
[SOURCE: Electronic Privacy Information Center]
(http://www.epic.org/)

E-COMMERCE

YOU'D THINK THEY'D LEARN: BAD DESIGN KILLS WEB SITES
Issue: E-Commerce
Web-design expert Jakob Nielsen is releasing a new book soon. He recently
was in Washington offering design insight to attendees of a Web conference.
Among his tips: spend 10% of the project's budge on studying how people use
the site, offer translations of your site, go sparingly with the graphics,
and move the search engine box to the home page. Nearly 400 people paid as
much as $1,900 and came from all over the country to hear Nielsen announce
the "top 10 Web design mistakes of 2001" and identify new frontiers in Web
development. The worst design mistake Nielsen noted was e-commerce sites
failing to list prices.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E01), AUTHOR: Leslie Walker]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48167-2001Oct24.html)

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