RADIO
F.C.C. to Approve Plans Supporting Low-Power Radio (NYT)
EDTECH
Barbie PC: Fashion Over Logic (NYT)
BROADBAND
FCC Chief Says AOL-Time Warner Deal May Signal Web Open-Access
Solution (NYT)
A Fiber-Optics Powerhouse Is Poised to Speed March (NYT)
In Silicon Valley, Fast Web Lines Spark A Surprise: Slow Demand
(WSJ)
NEWSPAPERS
Drug Office Deal Included Newspapers (WP)
INTERNET
Net Company Terra Aims for Hispanic Connection (USA)
POLITICAL DISCOURSE
Competing to Click with the Tech Set (WP)
RADIO
F.C.C. TO APPROVE PLANS SUPPORTING LOW-POWER RADIO
Issue: Radio
The Federal Communications Commission is expected today to adopt new rules
that will permit the licensing of noncommercial stations with broadcasting
ranges of as much as seven miles. "This will bring many new voices to the
airwaves that have not had an outlet for expression, and it happens at a
time when the radio business has consolidated in very dramatic fashion,"
said William E. Kennard, the chairman of the FCC. The nation's largest
broadcasters, led by the National Association of Broadcasters, have waged an
intensive lobbying campaign to block the rules, asserting that the so-called
micro-radio stations could create interference for established stations. The
spectrum available for low-power stations will not be auctioned off, as
frequencies for the larger stations are. Instead, the FCC will award
licenses based on a group's ties to the local community the station would
serve.
[SOURCE: New York Times (A1), AUTHOR: Stephen Labaton]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/financial/012000fcc-radio.html)
EDTECH
BARBIE PC: FASHION OVER LOGIC
Issue: Gender/EdTech
When Mattel released the Barbie PC, a pink, Barbie-themed computer for
girls, critics were dismayed to discover that the $599 PC comes loaded with
a little more than half of the educational software found on Mattel's
companion computer for boys, the Hot Wheels PC. Among the software titles
offered with the Hot Wheels PC but not the Barbie
PC were BodyWorks, a program that teaches human anatomy, and a thinking game
called Logical Journey of the Zoombinis. Dana Henry, a Mattel spokeswoman,
said that the large number of popular Barbie programs, like Barbie Fashion
Designer and Detective Barbie, left less room for educational titles on the
girls' computer. "I think that's an easy way out for Mattel to say that. I
think it's a cop-out. They really are showing lowered expectations for girls
and pandering to that," said Barbara Bogue, director of the Women in
Engineering Program at Penn State.
[SOURCE: New York Times (E4), AUTHOR: Bruce Headlam]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/01/circuits/articles/20barbie.html)
BROADBAND
FCC CHIEF SAYS AOL-TIME WARNER DEAL MAY SIGNAL WEB OPEN-ACCESS SOLUTION
Issue: Broadband
Federal Communication Commission Chairman William Kennard said that his
agency will carefully scrutinize the AOL-Time Warner deal, but that he took
statements made when the merger was announced as sign that the market may be
working out concerns about the "open access" issue. Mr. Kennard was
referring to pledges made by Time Warner Chairman Gerald Levin and AOL Chief
Executive Steve Case that they would open the merged entity's cable lines to
various Internet-service companies. AOL, other Internet companies and local
phone companies have pushed the government to adopt rules requiring cable
companies to open their networks to rival Internet firms. The FCC has
resisted calls for government intervention, suggesting that the industry
needed to resolve this issue on its own.
[SOURCE: New York Times (Interactive), AUTHOR: Kathy Chen]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB94831920024006678.htm)
A FIBER-OPTICS POWERHOUSE IS POISED TO SPEED MARCH
Issue: Broadband
The pace of fiber-optics innovation stands to replace advances in microchip
speed as the new pace-setter in computing. And if there is a budding Intel
of the fiber-optics business, it may be JDS Uniphase Corp. of San Jose,
Calif. "They and companies like them are really what's enabling this
tremendous increase in bandwidth," says Scott Grout, chief executive of
Chorum Technologies Inc., a start-up maker of fiber-optic gear and a former
researcher at Lucent Technologies Inc. Moore's law states that the number of
transistors on a piece of silicon would double every 18 months - the amount
of information that can be transmitted over fiber-optic glass is doubling
every nine to 12 months. The greater bandwidth allows for telecom companies
to keep up with the explosive growth of the Internet. Fiber-optic networks
work by turning data into pulses of light. In the mid-1990s, engineers were
able to speed up those pulses by splitting a beam of light into multiple
"colors," each of which can carry a separate steam of information. The
fiber-optic equivalent of Moore's Law calls for innovation to continue at
the pace that new colors are added. Lucent recently said it had developed
experimental equipment to break light into 1,022 colors.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Scott Thurm]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB948320309596008882.htm)
IN SILICON VALLEY, FAST WEB LINES SPARK A SURPRISE: SLOW DEMAND
Issue: Broadband
Faster isn't always better. In Palo Alto, the affluent heart of Silicon
Valley, so few people have jumped on the city's offer of extraordinarily
fast Internet hookups -- up to 2,000 times as fast as
modems - that the city may have to scrap the project altogether. In order to
tap into the 31-mile fiber-optic ring surrounding the city, residential
subscribers would have to pay at least $1,200 for installation, plus $45 to
$70 a month in addition to a still-to-be-determined monthly charge to a
private Internet service provider. Lack of interest in the city's plan shows
that residents want faster connections, but "not at every possible price and
not under every possible condition," says Michael Eager, president of the
Palo Alto Fiber Network, a group of local residents that has been lobbying
the city for access to its Fiber-optic lines.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B1), AUTHOR: Scott Thurm]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB94832047051369034.htm)
NEWSPAPERS
DRUG OFFICE DEAL INCLUDED NEWSPAPERS
Issue: Newspapers
After saying in a lead editorial on Tuesday that the cooperation between the
White House drug policy advisor and the networks could lead to, "the
possibility of censorship and state-sponsored propaganda", the New York
Times admits today that they also have a cooperative relationship with the
drug control office. "I knew absolutely nothing about this," said Howell
Raines, the Times editorial page editor. White House officials say that of
the participating newspapers - New York Times, USA Today, and the Washington
Post - the Times and the Post were granted $200,000 in financial credits
that reduced the amount of public service advertising they were required to
provide. In the Times case, instead of donating advertising space for public
service ads, the newspaper produced 30,000 booklets as part of its
Newspapers in Education program. The booklets were a guide for New York area
teachers on dealing with drug abuse questions. "There was no involvement by
editorial employees of the Times and no advance content reviews or vetting,
which is the critical issue where the networks are involved," said Raines.
The six major networks have drawn criticism for allowing the White House
drug office to review and make suggestions on scripts for certain popular TV
shows. The arrangement with the newspapers only covers advertising and not
news stories.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (C1), AUTHOR: Howard Kurtz]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/feed/a4439-2000jan20.htm)
INTERNET
NET COMPANY TERRA AIMS FOR HISPANIC CONNECTION
Issue: Internet
Over the next decade, Hispanics are expected to be the fastest-growing part
of the American population, growing to nearly 44 million people by 2010, a
39% gain from today. The Spanish-speaking Internet audience is, "where the
English-language Net was three or four years ago. It's going to develop
fast," says Yankee Group analyst Beate Groeger. To take advantage of that
growth, welcome Terra Networks, the largest Net company of the European
continent in terms of market capitalization. The company is a spin-off from
the Latin American telecommunications giant Telefonica and is targeting 550
million Spanish speakers worldwide - including an estimated 31 million here
in the US. While about half of US households are online, among Hispanics
the proportion is only about one-fifth to one-third. Terra is aiming to
combat that disparity by providing Spanish language content for audiences in
eight countries, including the US. "The US is a keystone area for us," says
Enrique Rodriquez, who oversees Terra's Internet access business. "There
are almost as many Spanish-speaking people in the US as in Spain."
[SOURCE: USA Today (1B), AUTHOR: David J. Lynch]
(http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20000120/1860347s.htm)
POLITICAL DISCOURSE
COMPETING TO CLICK WITH THE TECH SET
Issue: Political Discourse
Today, eight high-tech CEOs from around the country will visit Daniel
Webster College in New Hampshire to participate in a discussion of the
future of the high-tech industry. As part of the session, the participants
are supposed to let it be known that they are members of George W. Bush's
national information technology advisory council, a way to let New Hampshire
voters know that the candidate is attuned to the economic growth engine of
the state. Getting inside the high-tech world to mine it for votes is a
challenge to all the campaigns. Nike Baldick from Gore's campaign said,
"They are difficult to reach. The don't walk around with signs saying,
'Talk high-tech issues with me.'" Gore has had town meetings in all the
centers of high technology in the state and Gore's daughter, Karenna Gore
Schiff, will meet with young Internet workers this weekend. Senator McCain
has made appearances before the Software Association of New Hampshire and
repeatedly stressed the need for a permanent moratorium on Internet taxes.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (A6), AUTHOR: David Boder]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3164-2000Jan19.html)
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