'97 in Review
NYT: 1997 Technology Highlights
Telephone
NYT: Phone Companies Race To Find Their Suitors
WSJ: Baby Bells Cautious on Quick Entry To Long-Distance
Market After Ruling
Digital TV
NYT: Questions Over Demand as Digital TV's Network Premiere Nears
Internet
WSJ: Hackers Prey on AOL Users With Array of Dirty Tricks
WP: Ensuring Congress Gets the Word
WSJ: Religious Turf Dispute Extends To New Battleground:
Cyberspace
Microsoft
NYT: Where Microsoft Wants to Go Today
Publishing
NYT: In the Publishing Industry, the High-Technology Plot Thickens
** '97 in Review **
Title: 1997 Technology Highlights
Source: New York Times (D17)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/financial/010598techni.html
Author: New York Times
Issue: Technology
Description: For a look at what the Times considers to be some of the top
technology stories of 1997 click on the above Internet address.
** Telephone **
Title: Phone Companies Race To Find Their Suitors
Source: New York Times (D17)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/financial/010598tele.html
Author: Seth Schiesel
Issue: Telecommunications
Description: 1998 brings promise of more takeovers and mergers in the field
of telecommunications. The three main factors pushing this trend are
1) deregulation, 2) how to offer more services, and 3) how to deal with surging
financial markets. Robert A. Kindler, a partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore,
which advised Worldcom in its bid for MCI, said, "There will be an
unprecedented number of large telecom deals in 1998. By the end of next
year, we likely will see significant transactions by AT&T, GTE, British
Telecom and
several of the regional Bell operating companies."
Title: Baby Bells Cautious on Quick Entry To Long-Distance Market After Ruling
Source: Wall Street Journal (A10)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Stephanie M. Mehta
Issue: Long Distance
Description: Several of the Baby Bells remained cautious about their
chances of early entry into the long distance market despite a federal court
ruling that would allow regional phone companies to do so. AT&T and MCI have
asked the judge to postpone implementation of this ruling pending an appeal
on the decision. The Bells have remained silent thus far as they continue to
methodically seek state and federal regulators' approval to offer long
distance service in their home territories. A spokesman for Ameritech, the
Chicago-based Baby Bell, said, "We're not doing any
high-fives in the end zone...we're still taking a look at the decision."
** Digital TV **
Title: Questions Over Demand as Digital TV's Network Premiere Nears
Source: New York Times (D20)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/financial/010598digi.html
Author: Joel Brinkley
Issue: Digital TV
Description: With the most significant revolution in television since its
invention starting this summer, television manufacturers are wondering about
their market. A variety of surveys and studies are being conducted to
determine what consumers are willing to pay to be hooked up to
high-definition television. While many of the reports seem to reflect the
political positions of their sponsors, some are offering solid consumer
responses. Northwestern University found that random consumers who were
offered a HDTV demonstration reacted favorably and said they would pay about
$1,200 extra to buy an equipped set. While a study conducted by SRI
International concluded that most consumers would initially purchase a
converter box that would enable them to receive digital channels because of
"the high cost of digital TV sets."
** Internet **
Title: Hackers Prey on AOL Users With Array of Dirty Tricks
Source: Wall Street Journal (B1)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Jared Sandberg
Issue: Online Services
Description: Users of AOL have become easy pickings for vandals armed
with a "proggy," a program that can enable vandals to steal passwords.
Hackers post proggies around the Internet and trade them like baseball
cards. They use the programs to harass fellow users, steal their personal
information, and create fake AOL accounts. Roughly a dozen people have been
arrested for stealing credit card numbers from AOL users, but executives say
most of the efforts don't seem highly organized. While ISPs are vulnerable
to break-ins, more hackers have been targeting AOL -- drawn by its sheer size,
as well as its members' reputation as Net novices.
Title: Ensuring Congress Gets the Word
Source: Washington Post (Washtech, p.15)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Author: Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Issue: Media & Politics
Description: Oron Strauss's District-based company, Net.Capitol Inc., is
part of a small but growing cadre of technology firms in the area that are
creating specialized World Wide Web software for "issue advocacy" community.
The company's e-mail software, "CapWeb", is being used by about 40
organizations. It allows people visiting those Web sites to quickly compose
letters to their representatives in Congress. Net.Capitol isn't unique, but
political groups are only recently emerging as a serious market.
Net.Capitol's strategy is to remain focused on the inside-the-Beltway world.
Sarah
Dodge, the director of legislative affairs for the petroleum marketers
association, said, "We think e-mail can be just as effective as other
methods of lobbying." And with posted sales of $120,000 in 1997, that is
exactly the sentiment Mr. Strauss is banking on.
Title: E-Mail Invades Consumer Electronics Show
Source: New York Times/CyberTimes
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/010598pda.html
Author: Marty Katz
Issue: Information Technology
Description: This year's Consumer Electronics Show, an annual product
showcase in Las Vegas, will focus on the Internet and electronic organizers
that can receive email more than the traditional TV's, stereos and microwave
ovens. The show, which will start Thursday, has become increasingly lively
as consumer goods go digital. The main products of interest this year are
predicted to be the pocket PC, a hand-held computer device, that allows the
user to perform activities such as sending and receiving email, digital
video palmcorders and still cameras.
Title: Religious Turf Dispute Extends To New Battleground: Cyberspace
Source: Wall Street Journal (B1)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Rebecca Quick
Issue: Religion
Description: "Jews for Jesus", a nonprofit religious group, was
powerfully perturbed when it learned that the Internet address
"www.jewsforjesus.org" had been registered by a follower of Outreach
Judaism, a group that tries to bring Jews back into the fold. The site links
to the home page for Outreach Judaism, where the teachings of Jews for Jesus
are disputed. Jews for Jesus, whose Web site address is
"www.jews-for-jesus.org", learned of the new site when people trying to
reach its real home page stumbled across the impostor. Associate executive
director of Jews for Jesus, Susan Perlman, said, "It was a sneaky thing for
someone to do. It is deceptive and counter to everything Torah Judaism
teaches---they should be ashamed of themselves." Steven Brodsky, the owner
of the other site, has received a cease and desist letter warning him that
the name violated the group's trademark. Mr. Brodsky said he started the
site because Jews for Jesus "rubs me the wrong way...They prey on
disaffected and wavering Jews who are confused. They specialize in pouncing
on these people and trying to convert them." But, as to whether or not the
name constitutes an illegal use may have to be determined in court. Jews for
Jesus hopes Mr. Brodsky will take the site down now that he's been warned,
but Mr. Brodsky says he has no intention of doing so, and has even
registered another Internet address: "jews-for-jesus.com."
** Microsoft **
Title: Where Microsoft Wants to Go Today
Source: New York Times (D21)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/financial/010598soft.html
Author: Steve Lohr
Issue: Antitrust
Description: Despite government efforts to regulate Microsoft, the company
has continued to grow and expand in unprecedented ways. As Eric Schmidt,
former chief technology officer of Sun Microsystems Inc. and current
chairman of Novell Inc., put it, "I've competed against Microsoft for years,
but I never quite appreciated how big Microsoft has become, not just as a
company, but as a brand and as part of the national consciousness. It's the
products, the Microsoft marketing juggernaut, Bill Gate's wealth, all those
magazine cover stories. It's everything." In 1998, analysts talk of three
trends for the company. "First, the company wants to go further into the
industrial-strength heart of corporate computing with its Windows NT
operating system and server software. Second, Microsoft is investing to
extend its reach further into American households. The new frontier for
distributing Microsoft software is television or some future variant of
television. And the third big trend seems to be a retooling of its media
strategy. The emphasis will now be more on online commerce, like its
popular Expedia travel site, and less of producing online programming. In
short the new Microsoft approach will be more software and less
entertainment, or content." (Did someone say anti-trust?)
** Publishing **
Title: In the Publishing Industry, the High-Technology Plot Thickens
Source: New York Times (D18)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/financial/010598book.html
Author: Doreen Carvajal
Issue: Publishing
Description: The publishing industry is hoping that high technology
electronic sales and good old-fashioned writing will provide some relief to
their two year slump of declining sales and heavy returns of unsold titles.
Some of the top publishing executives have been making quiet visits to
Amazon.com, partly out of curiosity and partly out of expectations that 1998
could prove to be a critical year for Internet commerce. After a visit to
Amazon.com's headquarters in Seattle last year, John Sargent, the chief
executive of St. Martin's Press, said, "I'm a believer in online book
selling. The interesting thing to watch for next year is the rate of growth.
How long will they be able to maintain it?" Jack Romanos, president of the
consumer group at Simon & Schuster, thinks that publishers are getting a lot
smarter about what they can and cannot publish and acknowledges that Amazon
is topping the list for knowing their consumer. After a meeting with
Jeffrey P. Bezos, Amazon's founder and chairman, Romanos came away marveling
at the potential for the sales of titles on backlists. "What's more
fascinating is that they know who's buying the books and what they like," he
said. "And that's incredibly valuable to us."
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