INTERNET
Data Basics: African Americans Closing Divide (WP)
Painting a Portrait of Dot-Camaraderie (WP)
Web Site Counters Draw Fire Over Wide Discrepancies (SJM)
Your PC Can Turn Radio Active (USA)
TELEPHONY
News Analysis: AT&T Realigns Its Planets (NYT)
RADIO
LPFM Advocates Send Letter to Pres. Clinton (MAP)
PRIVACY
Computer-Crime Treaty Evokes Criticism From U.S. Tech Firms,
Civil-Rights Groups (WSJ)
Privacy Tops Concerns About Going Online (SJM)
MERGER
Disney Says Time Warner-AOL Won't Open Interactive-TV Access (WSJ)
WIRELESS
Public Meeting on Third Generation Wireless Systems (NTIA)
INTERNET
DATA BASICS: AFRICAN AMERICANS CLOSING DIVIDE
Issue: Digital Divide
A new report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project finds that more
African Americans use the Internet than ever before, motivated by increased
numbers of women and parents who access the Web. The study finds that more
than 3.5 million African Americans went online for the first time in the
past year; just over a quarter in the past six months, according to the
report. The survey results suggest that more blacks than whites are using
the technology to gather information about jobs and housing, and to do
research for school, as well as to access the Internet for fun or for
religious purposes. Both races are equally likely to seek out the Internet
for banking, stock trades and travel reservations, the report indicates. Pew
researchers interviewed 12,700 adults to prepare the study. Half of them
used the Internet, and a smaller proportion of those were African Americans
who had gone online. The margin of error with respect to black Internet
users is about 5 percent.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E09), AUTHOR: Carrie Johnson]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15309-2000Oct25.html)
PAINTING A PORTRAIT OF DOT-CAMARADERIE
Issue: Internet
A new study concludes that the global networks of the Internet actually
foster friendships and furthers family bonding. The survey of 2,096 homes
nationwide was led by Jeffrey Cole, a professor at the University of
California at Los Angeles who is known for his work on the role of
television in society. The optimism of this new UCLA study starkly contrasts
another large and highly publicized study released earlier this year by
Stanford University professor Norman Nie. Nie found that the Internet is
creating a class of solitary people who work more and spend less time with
family and friends. Cole, however, describes surfing the World Wide Web as a
"shared household activity." His findings indicate that nearly half of users
spend time online each week with someone else sitting next to them.
Moreover, more than a quarter of users said they made online friends that
they have yet to meet in person, and about 12 percent said they encountered
friends in the virtual world that they've since met in the real world. The
UCLA research also finds that the majority of parents felt the Internet has
had little impact, positive or negative, on children's interaction with
friends or on their grades.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E01), AUTHOR: Ariana Eunjung Cha]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15294-2000Oct25.html)
WEB SITE COUNTERS DRAW FIRE OVER WIDE DISCREPANCIES
Issue: Internet
A few months ago, Media Metrix, one of the top Web-traffic measurement
companies, reported that Britannica.com Inc. had 1.5 million "unique
visitors," while Nielsen/NetRatings reported the same site had 2.9 million.
With the recent dot-com downturn, companies like Britannica fear that low or
inconsistent traffic data could harm relationships with advertisers,
investors and potential marketing partners. The discrepancies between the
two highly respected measurement companies seemed "too much to chalk up to
statistical variations; there has to be something else going on," said Kent
Devereaux, senior vice president of product development and editorial at
Britannica. Firms such as Media Metrix, PC Data and NetRatings measure
Internet traffic by monitoring the activities of randomly selected
panelists. Critics said the problem with such panel-based monitoring is that
they are missing certain segments of the population. Britannica, AltaVista
and several other sites, for example, claim that the companies appear to be
underrepresenting their traffic from international users.
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Deborah Lohse]
(http://www0.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/front/docs/hits102600.htm)
YOUR PC CAN TURN RADIO ACTIVE
Issue: Radio
Two start-up companies are trying new ways to bring the radio to the
Internet. A recently launched service, Click Radio, delivers songs to your
hard drive while you're surfing. Gotuit Media's Songcatcher converts songs
played on traditional radio stations into MP3 files and saves them to an
e-mail-like in-box on your PC. Both Click Radio and Songcatcher present
themselves as legal alternatives to Napster, but only Click Radio is paying
royalties, Songcatcher is not. Creighton says that, although most consumers
are unaware of it, recording a song off the radio is not legal, even for
personal use.
[SOURCE: USAToday (3D), AUTHOR: Jefferson Graham]
(http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20001026/2782574s.htm)
TELEPHONY
NEWS ANALYSIS: AT&T REALIGNS ITS PLANETS
Issue: Telephony
AT&T should work as hard at telecommunications engineering as it does at
financial engineering, because the newest breakup of AT&T is little more
than a desperate effort to make Wall Street happy. AT&T chairman and chief
executive C. Michael Armstrong is betting that the stock prices of the
companies will be higher when they are separated than when they are
together. "I am personally convinced this will add tremendous value," he
said. Of course, what he didn't talk about was how having all these
companies separate, or sort-of separate, will improve operations and
business directly. And thus far, the deal hasn't done anything for the
shareholders. AT&T shares fell $3.81, to $23.38, leaving the stock, adjusted
for the last AT&T split-up in 1996, barely above where it was in 1989. The
fall, which is also related to the decline in the consumer long-distance
business, reflects the complexity of this deal and the fact that it won't be
completed until 2002. When the dust settles, AT&T will have saved a good
portion - it won't say how much - of the $3.3 billion it now pays out in
shareholder dividends. The consumer company will pay dividends - Mr.
Armstrong promised it would be "a high-yield entity" - but the broadband and
wireless companies will not pay dividends. It is not clear whether the AT&T
Business operation will pay dividends. It will be interesting to compare
AT&T's dividend savings to the fees it will spend for investment banking and
legal services in connection with all these deals. But it appears likely
that profits will come in spite of this strange deal, not because of it.
[Source: New York Times (C1), Author: Floyd Norris]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/26/business/26FONE.html)
(requires registration)
RADIO
LPFM ADVOCATES SEND LETTER TO PRES. CLINTON
Issue: Low Power Radio
In response to reports that an anti-low power FM rider has been attached to
the about the Commerce-Justice-State appropriations bill, a group of low
power advocates sent a letter to President Clinton encouraging him to oppose
the effort to overturn the FCC's low power initiative.
[SOURCE: Media Access Project]
(http://www.mediaaccess.org/programs/lpfm/clinton.PDF)
PRIVACY
COMPUTER-CRIME TREATY EVOKES CRITICISM FROM U.S. TECH FIRMS, CIVIL-RIGHTS
GROUPS
Issue: Privacy
The Justice Department helped write a computer-crime treaty for 41 European
nations that is deemed controversial by U.S. technology companies and
civil-rights groups. Although the department has conceded that some of the
provisions of the treaty for the 41-nation Council of Europe seem too
onerous, it may be too late to make major changes to the treaty, according
to disclosures made at a Group of Eight meeting this week in Berlin. U.S.
executives arranged a White House meeting Thursday to complain about the
drafting procedures and specific provisions. Among their biggest complaints:
Internet-service providers could be required under a court order to conduct
real-time surveillance of customers - similar to the FBI's Carnivore e-mail
surveillance system -- and the treaty doesn't explicitly exempt ISPs from
liability if illegal material flows through their systems. Another provision
outlaws possession, in some circumstances, of network-security tools that
experts typically use to diagnose computer systems; authorities fear those
tools could be used by hackers. The treaty also would require citizens to
disclose passwords or unscrambling keys to unlock data police seize in
criminal cases. If the treaty is approved by other nations, it would
pressure the U.S. to go along, and U.S. firms doing business abroad would
almost certainly fall under its provisions--one of which makes it easier to
extradite crime suspects.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal Interactive), AUTHOR: Ted Bridis]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB972513664729505289.htm)
(Requires subscription)
PRIVACY TOPS CONCERNS ABOUT GOING ONLINE
Issue: Privacy
While two-thirds of Americans use the Internet, and more than half of those
have made purchases online, a study by the University of California-Los
Angeles released Wednesday reported that most users and non-users alike
believe going online puts their privacy at risk. Internet shoppers cited
privacy as the biggest discouragement to future online purchases, the study
found. The survey gives ammunition to consumer groups like the Electronic
Privacy Information Center that
are urging Congress to consider Internet privacy legislation next year. Over
the next 10 to 15 years, UCLA plans to evaluate the impact that the Internet
is having on the lives of everyday citizens by surveying the same 2,096
households across the United States. The research will look beyond the
narrow concerns of e-marketers and examine the broad behavioral and social
changes caused by the Net.
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Heather Fleming Phillips]
(http://www0.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/front/docs/study102600.htm)
MERGER
DISNEY SAYS TIME WARNER-AOL WON'T OPEN INTERACTIVE-TV ACCESS
Issue: Merger
In its latest attack on the proposed merger of America Online and Time
Warner, Walt Disney filed a complaint with the Federal Communications
Commission, which says the two companies are trying to keep exclusive
control of their interactive-television services. Disney charges that the
companies are trying to keep their interactive-TV services on their cable
lines, where they can decide what appears onscreen and keep rival
programmers off. TV becomes interactive when a program is sent to a viewer's
set and a "return path" -- usually a phone line -- allows the viewer to send
information in response, perhaps to a Web site selling a shirt shown on a TV
program. While phone lines are much slower than cable lines, Disney said AOL
and Time Warner wouldn't give rival programmers fair access to those return
paths along the merged company's cable. AOL and Time Warner have assured
regulators that they have no intention of blocking consumers' access to
programming provided by rivals. AOL and Time Warner have said that their
agreement with the FCC to grant rivals access to cable lines doesn't include
access to the set-top boxes through which the merged company would deliver
AOLTV. They have said they were open to "discuss business arrangements" with
any companies interested in providing services through the boxes.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B18), AUTHOR: Jill Carroll]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB972526436799848668.htm)
(requires subscription)
WIRELESS
PUBLIC MEETING ON THIRD GENERATION WIRELESS SYSTEMS
Issue: Wireless
The NTIA will host a series of public meetings
to discuss the deployment of third generation (3G) wireless systems in the
United States. The first meeting will be held from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.,
Thursday, November 2, 2000.
[SOURCE: NTIA]
(http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/threeg/3gfrnotice.htm)
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