COMMUNITIES & INFORMATION
Report Says Poor Areas Lack Information (NYT)
Few and Far Between (B&C)
Latinos Satisfied, Dissatisfied with TV (B&C)
Speech: Hispanic National Bar Association (FCC)
FIRST AMENDMENT
UPN Show Draws Fire From L.A. (B&C)
LEGISLATION
Supreme Court Docket Mixes Old and New (NYT)
The Certainty of Reform (NYT)
ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
Patents: Software that Tracks Web Usage (NYT)
Citibank Sets New Online Bank System (NYT)
Are Online Bargains Here to Stay? (CyberTimes)
INFRASTRUCTURE
Control of Domain Names Draws Alternative Proposal (NYT)
Small Network Consultant Prospers on Backs of
Technology Giants (NYT)
Attention Focuses on AOL for Acquisitions, Alliances (WP)
AOL Builds Toward Broadband Competition (B&C)
Advanced Services Technical Roundtables (FCC)
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
The Next Voice You Hear (WP)
ANTITRUST
Microsoft Case: Tapes, E-Mail and Meetings (WSJ)
Why We're Suing Microsoft (WSJ)
=========================
COMMUNITIES & INFORMATION
=========================
REPORT SAYS POOR AREAS LACK INFORMATION
Issue: Low Income Communities
A new report from the World Bank, Knowledge for Development, stresses that
access to financial, technical and medical knowledge is crucial to improving
health and living standards. "In our enthusiasm for the information
superhighway, we must not forget the villages and slums without telephones,
electricity or safe water, the primary schools without pencils, paper or
books," wrote James Wolfensohn, the president of the bank, in an
introduction to the 1998-1999 World Bank Development Report. "For the poor,
the promise of the new information age -- knowledge for all -- can seem as
remote as a distant star." The bank recommends that developing countries
invest in education and technical training and maintain a trading regime
that is open to outside ideas. [For a look at information access in low
income communities in the US, see Losing Ground Bit by Bit: Low-Income
Communities in the Information Age http://www.benton.org/Library/Low-Income/]
[SOURCE: New York Times (C12)]
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/worldbank-report-afp.html
FEW AND FAR BETWEEN
Issue: Minorities/Ownership
"You would think in this era of unprecedented growth and prosperity in the
(Broadcast) industry we would see more growth in and prosperity among
minority stations," said Federal Communications Chairman William Kennard
last month in a speech to the National Association of Black-Owned
Broadcasters. "But we're seeing fewer people who own broadcast stations, and
we're not seeing new faces and new voices coming on the scene," he observed.
While overall minority ownership of stations remains frozen at 3%, the
number of African-American owned outlets has dropped from 213 in 1994 to
only 190 today. There are two factors that have negatively impacted on
minority ownership in the past few years. One is the growing trend of
consolidations and mergers that has priced out many one and two station
owners, the group to which most minority owners belong. The other factor is
the elimination of almost all of the FCC's minority ownership programs.
Although Chairman Kennard has announced plans to revamp FCC minority
programs and commission studies on female and minority access to the
industry, his efforts received criticism from all corners. Conservatives
argue that it is not the FCC's job to encourage minority ownership, while
minority owners say they are still waiting for the offensive to begin.
[SOURCE: Broadcasting & Cable (p28), AUTHOR: Bill McConnell]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/
LATINOS SATISFIED, DISSATISFIED WITH TV
Over 60% of Hispanics report that there are no Hispanic anchors or
newscasters on the English-language news programs they watch most, according
to a study by University of Illinois for the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute.
And while nearly 42% of Latino viewers say that they never see Hispanic
characters on the English-language entertainment programs, Latinos also say
that they are general satisfied with what they see on TV and how they are
represented. One major concern expressed among Hispanics is the lack of
educational programming on Spanish-language TV.
[SOURCE: Broadcasting & Cable (p47), AUTHOR: Elizabeth A. Rathun]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/
SPEECH: HISPANIC NATIONAL BAR ASSOCIATION
Issue: Ownership/Broadcasting
October First Remarks of Commissioner Gloria Tristani before the Hispanic
National Bar Association: "We in the Hispanic community are very much tuned
in. More than 99% of us have TVs in our homes. And over 64% of us watch
those TVs more than 4 hours a day, compared with less than 45% who watch
that much TV in Anglo households. The impact of that constant barrage of
images -- especially on our children -- is well-documented, and I won't go
into it here. Suffice it to say that TV is not only a reflection of public
values, it also is one of most powerful instruments for shaping and changing
public values in our culture. When it comes to the broadcasting business,
one of the keys is who actually owns the station, and therefore ultimately
controls the editorial content. The numbers in this area are disturbing. In
1996, minorities owned only 3.1% of the broadcast properties in the U.S.
That number has now dropped even lower, to 2.9%. Among Hispanics, the
figures are even worse -- one half of one percent of the full power TV
stations and just over one percent of radio stations are Hispanic-owned. The
high prices being paid for stations in today's market means that it's
tempting for existing minority broadcasters to sell out, and that it's tough
for new minority broadcasters to replace them."
[SOURCE: FCC]
http://www.fcc.gov/Speeches/Tristani/spgt812.html
=================
FIRST AMENDMENT
=================
UPN SHOW DRAWS FIRE FROM L.A.
ISSUE: First Amendment
Last Tuesday (Sept. 29), the Los Angles City Council passed an unusual
resolution. They called for the debut airing of UPN's "The Secret Diary of
Desmond Pfeiffer," a farce set in the Lincoln White House, to be postponed.
The City Council said the sitcom is "a bad idea destined to fan the flames
of racial discord." UPN Chief Executive Dean Valentine called the measure
"an unconscionable and ill-thought-out attack on the First Amendment."
[SOURCE: Broadcasting & Cable (p84), AUTHOR: Michael Stroud]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/
===========
LEGISLATION
===========
SUPREME COURT DOCKET MIXES OLD AND NEW
Issue: Telecom Act of 1996
Among the cases on the Supreme Court's agenda this year is the Court's first
review of the provisions in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that were
supposed to open local phone markets to competition. AT&T v. Iowa Utilities
Board (No. 97-826) is a group of eight cases that is expected to be so
complex that the Court has scheduled two hours of oral argument instead of
one. The main matter of the case is jurisdiction -- should the FCC or state
regulatory agencies have authority in making important pricing decisions.
Incumbents are siding with the states while new entrants favor the US
Government. Arguments are scheduled for October 13.
[SOURCE: New York Times (A12), AUTHOR: Linda Greenhouse]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/scotus/articles/100598scotus-newter
m.html
THE CERTAINTY OF REFORM
Issue: Campaign Finance Reform
Sure, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott is serving as "executioner in chief"
of the McCain-Feingold campaign reform bill. But the movement will only gain
momentum because in both houses a majority favors change. Washington pundits
have repeatedly declared reform dead, but the issue keeps coming back and
when forced to vote on the issue, Members of Congress realize they cannot
denounce the excess of the '96 election without trying to do something to
prevent it from happening again. "Sooner or later, the elected politicians
will redeem the public's trust and return to the spirit of their democracy.
It is only a matter of time."
[SOURCE: New York Times (A22), AUTHOR: NYT Editorial Staff]
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/editorial/05mon1.html
===================
ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
===================
PATENTS: SOFTWARE THAT TRACKS WEB USAGE
Issue: Advertising
Thinking Media Corporation of New York has patented a method for tracking
how people respond to advertising on commercial websites. "The patent covers
the idea of embedding a little smart piece of software with something sent
out, whether it's a Web page, an ad or other resource, so when it gets to
your machine it gets 'live,' and sends back information." Part of that
information, founder Owen Davis said, is "how much time the client spent on
the Web site; once the Web site is loaded, it starts a timer and it runs."
"We don't know the person, but we know their machine," he added. "We can
look at the time they spend, the cached ads, we can look at the cookie and
the IP, and we can collect environmental variables like the browser type and
the kind of operating system they're on. The value of the cookie and IP
identifiers as we build a profile is that we can know that someone has seen
an ad twice, so we can take them off the list and swap the ad for another
one," Mr. Davis explained. "Now we have real control over the reach and
frequency, and over ads and Web pages." The patented software tracks how
people use commercial Web sites as well. "As someone moves through an ad and
makes use of different 'decision trees,' it allows us to keep track of that
as well," he said. "Say Barnes & Noble has live chats with famous authors
online. As part of their promotional feature, they put up six book covers.
You click on one, see a page of the book, and say 'enroll me in that,' and
24 hours before the event Barnes & Noble sends an e-mail that says 'Don't
forget.' But it's also interesting to Barnes & Noble to know that you looked
at three other books but didn't enroll in the chats," he continued. "Imagine
that you are Coca-Cola and you put a game inside an ad. There's nothing to
sign up for, but somebody might play the game for three minutes. That's
incredibly important information because they had your undivided attention
for three minutes and they need to know that." He added, "Where an ad has
some depth and requires people to move through it, we can capture the time
spent" as well as other statistics about use.
[SOURCE: New York Times (C8), AUTHOR: Sabra Chartrand]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/yr/mo/biztech/articles/05patents.html
CITIBANK SETS NEW ONLINE BANK SYSTEM
Issue: Electronic Commerce
Citibank -- soon to be merged with Travelers Group into a new company called
Citigroup -- is abandoning the computer systems it developed over the past
decade to offer online banking. The company is creating a new retail banking
and investment service on the Internet. Citigroup will have approximately
100 million customers in the US and abroad -- it hopes to have 1 billion by
2010. "Among bankers, Citibank is at the front of the pack" [in terms of
computer infrastructure], said Bill Burnham, an analyst with Credit Suisse
First Boston. "The problem is there are a heck of a lot of new people in the
race, and most of them are in front of the bankers." Burnham estimates there
are three million Internet-based brokerage accounts in the nation and far
fewer online banking accounts. Citibank's plan to discard its existing
systems might be the best way to catch up with the leaders. "If you are
trying to leverage your existing infrastructure, you end up in an endless
series of meetings with the people whose toes you are stepping on," Mr.
Burnham said. "Freeing yourself of the restraints of your existing systems
enables you to respond in Internet time."
[SOURCE: New York Times (C1), AUTHOR: Saul Hansell]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/10/biztech/articles/05citi.html
ARE ONLINE BARGAINS HERE TO STAY?
Issue: Electronic Commerce
Internet retailers are offering discounted prices to lure users to their
sites. But how long will these prices be sustainable? Well, for "deep
pockets" players, the prices will last longer than for smaller start-ups.
But there are still advantages to opening a business online. A market
researcher said, "Traditional retailers have to spend $3-to-$5 million to
open a store, and then they can only draw from a 20-mile radius, so they
have to make sure they make a fair margin." Reel.com has recently been sued
by Tower Records for offering Titanic for just $9.99 -- $20 less than list
and less than the minimum advertised price set by advertisers and the
studio. According to Julie Wainwright, Reel.com's chief executive officer,
"With everybody in e-commerce fighting to be the winner, you have to spend
more and be more aggressive in your pricing. And although our pricing
strategy is to be the lowest on the Internet, we're not necessarily looking
to compete with the off-line stores."
[SOURCE: New York Times (CyberTimes), AUTHOR: Bob Tedeschi]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/10/cyber/articles/04commerce.html
==============
INFRASTRUCTURE
==============
CONTROL OF DOMAIN NAMES DRAWS ALTERNATIVE PROPOSAL
Issue: Infrastructure
Jon Postel submitted a plan to the Government of Friday for creating the
nonprofit Internet Corporation for Assigning Names and Numbers and allowing
the organization to administer Internet domain names. "This organization
will be unique in the world -- a nongovernmental organization with
significant responsibilities for administering what is becoming an important
global resource," Mr. Postel wrote. The plan also outlines the final
privatization of the Internet by the Federal Government which financed the
development of the computer network over decades to facilitate military and
academic communications. The plan would also create a nine-member board that
would finish writing the organization's bylaws and help pick a permanent
19-member board. The proposed 9-member board includes: Geraldine Capdeboscq,
executive vice president for strategy, technology and partnerships at Groupe
Bull, an international information systems group based in France; George H.
Conrades, a partner at Polaris Venture Partners, based in Seattle; Gregory
L. Crew, chairman of the Australian Communications Industry Forum; Esther
Dyson, chairwoman of Edventure Holdings, a venture capital firm in New York;
Frank Fitzsimmons, senior vice president for global marketing at Dun &
Bradstreet Corp.; Hans Kraaijenbrink, chairman of the executive board of the
Association of European Public Telecommunications Network Operators; Jun
Marai, professor of environmental information at Keio University in Tokyo;
Eugenio Triana, an Internet management consultant in Spain; Linda S. Wilson,
president of Radcliffe College. [For more information, see the NTIA
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/domainname/domainhome.htm]
[SOURCE: New York Times (C2), AUTHOR: Jeri Clausing]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/yr/mo/biztech/articles/05domain.html
ATTENTION FOCUSES ON AOL FOR ACQUISITIONS, ALLIANCES (WP)
AOL BUILDS TOWARD BROADBAND COMPETITION (B&C)
Issue: Online Service/Bandwidth
In a series of decisions and announcements the past few days, America Online
is proving that it has the technical sophistication and is on its way to
developing political savvy in its business dealings. The company appears to
be on a track toward the broadband market with its decision to include
streaming technology in its latest software and its revamping of its games
channel. Both are aimed at high-speed Internet access. The company also
hired a new VP for broadband development and selected a couple of well-known
people for board positions showing its improved desire for political
connections. In a political setback (of sorts) this week, the company
reported a profit for the fourth quarter last week instead of the loss that
it wanted to show. In a bookkeeping crackdown the SEC said that AOL had to
write off more of a recent company purchase than the company wanted. The
result will mean reduced earnings reports for the next few years. Other
technology companies are also under the gun from the SEC to avoid stretching
out amortization of goodwill for companies that have been acquired.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (F7), AUTHOR (Jerry Knight)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/digest/tech1.htm
[SOURCE: Broadcasting and Cable (64), AUTHOR: Richard Tedesco]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/
SMALL NETWORK CONSULTANT PROSPERS ON BACKS OF TECHNOLOGY GIANTS
Issue: Infrastructure
International Network Services, a small Sunnyvale, California company, does
not manufacture equipment, run computers, re-engineer business processes or
develop corporate strategies. INS designs, manages and secures
communications networks and has evolved into the engineer's engineer -- "the
expert that the network experts can turn to when they need a specialist's
touch." Clients include Bell Atlantic, AT&T, MCI and Worldcom, SBC, Sprint,
BellSouth, Cable & Wireless, Airtouch, GTE, Cisco Systems, Compaq, and
Oracle. The Yankee Group expects the network integration market to grow from
$1 billion this year to over $52 billion by 2001.
[SOURCE: New York Times (C1), AUTHOR: Seth Schiesel]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/10/biztech/articles/05temp.html
ADVANCED SERVICES TECHNICAL ROUNDTABLES
Issue: Bandwidth
As previously announced on September 24, 1998, the Commission's Bandwidth
Task Force and Common Carrier Bureau will host three roundtables to discuss
technical issues related to deployment of advanced services. These
roundtables will permit representatives from different segments of the
telecommunications industry to address the technical issues with respect to
each of these topics. 1) Technical Issues Relating to the Provision of
Advanced Services Over the Local Loop: Loop Qualification and Subloop
Unbundling: Tuesday, October 6, 1998, 1:30-5:00pm Participants: Neil
Ransom, Alcatel; John Reister, Copper Mountain; Mark Schmidt, U S WEST; Jim
Washington, ATT/Teleport; Charles Gowder, Valley Telephone Cooperative; Mike
Viren, Second Century Communications; George Hawley, Diamond Lane
Communications. 2) Technical Issues Relating to the Use of Different
Advanced Services Technologies: Spectrum Interference in the Copper Loop:
Thursday, October 8, 1998, 2:00-5:00pm Participants: Bill Euske, Northpoint;
Eugene Edmon, SBC; Tom Starr, T1E1.4 Standards Committee; Kevin Sievert, MCI
WorldCom; Wayne Gatchell, Nortel; Philip Kyees, Paradyne. For both panels,
see topics of discussion at URL below.
[SOURCE: FCC]
http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/Public_Notices/1998/da982004.html
========
INFOTECH
========
THE NEXT VOICE YOU HEAR
Issue: Info Tech
First Gate Service is advertising that it will send your voice messages over
the Internet for $10 a month. The author tried the service and concluded
that, yes, it works but "FirstGate seems to be a service in search of a
need." Audio is good. It doesn't cost much. It works as swiftly as other
e-mail. It has great reach. The service allows the registered user to call
its computer via phone, punch in ID numbers for the people who are to be the
recipients and leave a voice message. The message is turned into a "wave"
file and is delivered as e-mail to the recipients (who must have a sound
card and speakers to receive it). The company says it will be "especially
useful and economical for mobile professionals and people with lots of
contacts overseas."
[SOURCE: Washington Post (Business27), AUTHOR (Robert O'Harrow Jr.)
http://www.washingtonpost.com
=========
ANTITRUST
=========
MICROSOFT CASE: TAPES, E-MAIL AND MEETINGS (WSJ)
Issue: Antitrust
A couple of meetings are considered key in the federal antitrust case
against Microsoft Corporation that begins next week. Each side in the
dispute has released some information that it plans to use at the trial. At
one meeting Microsoft is alleged to have asked Apple Computer Inc. to resist
putting its QuickTime multimedia software in the Windows market. In return
Microsoft would help Apple with video-software tools. The other involves an
attempt by Microsoft to divide up the Internet software market with Netscape
Communications. Microsoft calls the market-division charges false saying
that meetings among rivals are common to ensure compatibility. Microsoft
also claims pretrial testimony by Chairman Bill Gates is being misrepresented.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B1), AUTHOR: John R. Wilke]
http://www.wsj.com/
WHY WE'RE SUING MICROSOFT (WSJ)
Issue: Antitrust
In an Op-Ed column, Chairman and CEO of Sun Microsystems, Inc. Scott McNealy
calls the company's decision to file suit against Microsoft Corporation in
October
1997 as "necessary." McNealy claims Microsoft breached the contract with
Sun which would allow distribution of products that incorporate Java
technology. Sun says that unlike other contracted users Microsoft claimed a
right to change the formula of Java to suit their needs. McNealy says that
"Microsoft is attempting to flood the market with what its own executives,
in an internal e-mail cited in the Justice Department's antitrust filing,
call a 'polluted' version of Java technology." Decrying Microsoft's
monopoly power in trying to convert the Internet to its proprietary domain,
McNealy concludes, "All the technology in the world doesn't alter a simple
golden rule of business: A deal is a deal."
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (A30), AUTHOR: Scott McNealy]
http://www.wsj.com/
*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*