EDTECH
A Way to Incubate Young Minds (WP)
MEDIA & SOCIETY
Mainstream Sites Serve as Portals to Hate (NYT)
Position Of 'Privacy Officer' Coming Into Public Eye (USA)
Data Basics: Clicking for Health Advice (WP)
JOURNALISM
Fox and NBC May End Ties to Poll Group Over Fiasco (NYT)
ARTS ONLINE
Studios Look at Delivering Films Over
High-Speed Internet Links (WSJ)
MERGERS
FTC Vote On AOL Deal Still In Doubt (WP)
Firm to Invest in AT&T Wireless (WP)
JOBS
Online Firms May Get A Blast From Past: Unions (USA)
EDTECH
A WAY TO INCUBATE YOUNG MINDS
Issue: Philanthropy/EdTech
The Morino Institute's Youth Development Collaborative is an example of
"venture philanthropy." Instead of just writing a check or donating
computers, Morino believes it is important to make an investment upfront to
reap gains later. As a result, the Institute insisted upon hands-on control
over the program that gave $150,000 each to four educational institutions
in Washington, trained two teachers and set up a computer instruction
center in each school. "It jump-started our effort," says Paul McElligott,
director of one of the Washington schools in the program, who credits the
Morino Institute with bringing the school into the technological age. He
says the kids are learning how to work as a team, building their
self-confidence and decision-making skills. The Morino Institute is now
assessing what was learned in this pilot and trying to find funding for the
schools to continue their programs. It has set up a Web site at
www.youthlearn.org to post results, and plans to come out with a report on
the project soon. Then Morino officials will meet with Members of Congress
and others interested in youth development to tell them that just giving
computers to schools doesn't work. "Unless you have the staff training and
technical support, you might as well pour the money down the drain," one
official says.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E01), Author: Shannon Henry]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4758-2000Nov29.html)
MEDIA & SOCIETY
MAINSTREAM SITES SERVE AS PORTALS TO HATE
Issue: Media & Society
The Internet harbors more than 2,000 groups promoting anti-Semitism or
white supremacy. To stem the proliferation of these sites, organizations
dedicated to eradicating such hatred have started to exert pressure on
online services and shopping sites that deliver, however inadvertently,
bigoted and racist views to a worldwide audience. Auction sites like Yahoo!
and eBay have been targeted for allowing the sale of Nazi memorabilia.
While the First Amendment allows Americans and American companies to
distribute even the most venomous speech, countries like Germany, Austria,
France and Canada prohibit the sale or promotion of hate-related material.
The Center for Democracy and Technology, the American Civil Liberties Union
and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have argued that large Web services
should preserve the Internet's open atmosphere even if that means providing
a platform for information about groups like the National Association for
the Advancement of White People (founded by David Duke) and the World
Church of the Creator. These free speech advocates say that government
rulings against companies providing access to certain types of speech would
not only trigger "a race to the bottom" (in which any questionable
material, however mild, would be banned) but would also cripple a company's
ability to move quickly in a changing marketplace. Instead, one advocate
argues, "the focus should be on the end user," so residents of France, for
example, would be punished for gaining access to illegal material in their
country, not American companies. [There's much more to this debate at the
URL below]
[SOURCE: New York Times (D1), AUTHOR: Lisa Guernsey]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/30/technology/30HATE.html)
(requires registration)
POSITION OF 'PRIVACY OFFICER' COMING INTO PUBLIC EYE
Issue: Privacy
On Wednesday, IBM appointed its first CPO, becoming the latest company to
create the high-profile position of "chief privacy officer." While the title
was virtually unheard of just two years ago, there are now about 75 in the
USA, according to James Grady, an analyst at Giga Information Group. The
Internet has brought privacy concerns to the forefront. One-third of
Americans still say that concerns about their privacy prevent them from
shopping online, according to a study by Fiderus, a consulting firm. It is
the job of the CPO to help create a secure environment for customers and to
insure that a firm's practices comply with government privacy regulations.
"Companies are finally realizing that privacy will not arise by accident,"
says Jason Catlett, an online privacy advocate.
[SOURCE: USAToday (1B), AUTHOR: Michelle Kessler]
(http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20001130/2877502s.htm)
DATA BASICS: CLICKING FOR HEALTH ADVICE
Issue: Health Info Online
The Pew Internet and American Life Project surveyed more than 12,000 people
in order to discover how the Internet has changed the way people make health
decisions. The survey marks the first time that anyone has quantified the
use of the Internet with personal healthcare research according to Lee
Rainie, director of the project and a co-author of the survey. One
interesting finding is where people started searching: "The vast majority of
people are doing health searches on their own," without help from
advertisements, doctors, friends or anyone else, Rainie said. "They're going
to search engines and just typing in words." While searching for information
online rates highly, Internet users seem more hesitant about using the
medium for communication or interactions on health matters. Ninety-one
percent sought information about a physical illness. Twenty-six percent
sought information about a mental illness. But only 10% received advice from
an online doctor, communicated by email with a doctor (9%), or participated
in an online support group (9%).
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E08), Author: D. Ian Hopper]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4821-2000Nov29.html)
JOURNALISM
FOX AND NBC MAY END TIES TO POLL GROUP OVER FIASCO
Issue: Journalism
Fox and NBC will end ties to the Voters News Service unless they receive an
adequate explanation of what went wrong on election night and how the
service with ensure accuracy and integrity in the future. Voter News
Service is owned and operated by a consortium that consists of ABC, NBC,
CBS, CNN, Fox News and The Associated Press. While some officials at the
networks have pointed to reporting and statistical errors by V.N.S., some
politicians have said the competitive pressures at the networks may have
also contributed to the premature calls.
[SOURCE: New York Times (A22), AUTHOR: Peter Marks]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/30/politics/30NETW.html)
(requires registration)
ARTS ONLINE
STUDIOS LOOK AT DELIVERING FILMS OVER HIGH-SPEED INTERNET LINKS
Issue: Arts Online/E-commerce
Several major Hollywood movie studios are quietly working on separate
initiatives to deliver their feature films on-demand to consumers via
high-speed Internet connections. Both Sony and Walt Disney are leading
efforts to create so-called video-on-demand services over the Internet. The
studios are moving ahead with such plans because they don't want to be aced
out of the increasingly crowded race to deliver entertainment on-demand to
people's homes via digital pipelines to computers and television sets. As
more consumers get high-speed Internet connections that can handle
full-length films, the market for such services is expected to explode.
"People want to see movies on the Internet, and we, along with other
studios, plan to give them a chance to do that," said Yair Landau,
president of Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment. While some Hollywood
executives are skeptical about whether video-on-demand service will work,
one noted that the studios may need to develop an Internet service to
ensure a "Napster-like" service for exchanging movies doesn't develop in
the meantime. The executive said a "key motivating factor" for the studios
in developing a service is to "avoid the errors of the music industry,"
whose slowness in responding to the threat posed by the Internet left room
for services such as Napster to offer pirated music.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (A4), AUTHOR: Anna Wilde Mathews, Martin Peers
and Bruce Orwall]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB975550561535350725.htm)
(requires subscription)
MERGERS
FTC VOTE ON AOL DEAL STILL IN DOUBT
Issue: Mergers
One of the five members on the Federal Trade Commission now supports a
settlement that would allow America Online to take over Time Warner;
however, it is still unclear whether there are enough votes to ratify the
deal, according to sources. Commissioner Orson Swindle, a Republican,
believes the two companies have made enough concessions to warrant approval
of the $183 billion merger. A simple majority of the commission is needed to
approve the deal. Time Warner's recent agreement on content with Earthlink
was a particularly compelling development for Swindle. The FTC continues to
look at potential conditions to ensure competition in interactive
television.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E01), Author: Shannon Henry]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3679-2000Nov29.html)
FIRM TO INVEST IN AT&T WIRELESS
Issue: Wireless
AT&T is expected to announce this morning the sale of approximately 20 percent
of its national mobile telephone business to the Japanese company NTT DoCoMo
for about $9 billion. DoCoMo is the world's leading provider of Internet
service to wireless phones. AT&T is also expected to announce plans to adopt
the leading global transmission technology, GSM. AT&T's network now runs on
a technology called TDMA. While AT&T will continue to support TDMA, the GSM
standard will aid its transition to "3G," or third-generation wireless
technology, a higher bandwidth capacity wireless protocol. Analysts said
DoCoMo will bring valuable expertise to AT&T. "If you're going to pick an
international partner, AT&T picked a good one," said David Bishop, an
analyst with the Yankee Group in Boston.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E09), Author: Peter S. Goodman]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4808-2000Nov29.html)
See Also:
DOMOCO AGREES TO ACQUIRE STAKE IN AT&T WIRELESS FOR $9 BILLION
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Associated Press]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB975571815416925028.htm)
(requires subscription)
JOBS
ONLINE FIRMS MAY GET A BLAST FROM PAST: UNIONS
Issue: Jobs
Driven by layoffs and uncertain futures, many Internet employees are looking
towards an old economy solution: unionizing. Amazon.com has recently
generated attention when over 5,000 customer-service representatives at
distribution centers nationwide moved to organize. On Monday, service
representatives at Etown.com, an e-commerce site, filed a petition to vote
on forming a union. Blue-collar employees in distribution centers and other
e-commerce back-end operations are heeding the unionization efforts. Workers
"aren't as willing to put up with work conditions when they see their stock
options suffering... Their next logical option is forming a union," says
David Levine, a University of
California at Berkeley professor specializing in workplace issues. Amazon
CEO Jeff Bezos says he favors unions, just not at his firm. "We don't need
them," he said earlier this month.
[SOURCE: USAToday (1B), AUTHOR: Jon Swartz]
(http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20001130/2877508s.htm)
--------------------------------------------------------------
...well, at least one of us is outta here. Thanks again -- especially to
all the interns and colleagues who suffered the question: "What do you got
for me?"
* Kevin