LIBRARIES
Loudoun Libraries To Restore Internet (WP)
EDTECH
Contest Honors Students' Educational Sites (CyberTimes)
BANDWIDTH
Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line Service (FCC)
INTERNATIONAL
British Telecom To Let Outsiders Tap Into Network (NYT)
INFO TECH
3Com Gives Palm Wireless Access to Web Surfing (NYT)
PUBLISHING
Ms. Magazine Is Bought by a Concern Led by Steinem (NYT)
ANTITRUST
Gates: AOL-Netscape Deal 'Paradoxical' (WP)
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LIBRARIES
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LOUDOUN LIBRARIES TO RESTORE INTERNET
Issue: Internet
The Library Board of Loudoun County (Va) has decided that adults can now
chose to access the Internet from filtered or unfiltered computers. The
board action came in response to a federal judge's ruling last week that
the library's policy of only offering filtered access to the Internet was
unconstitutional. In the first case of its kind, the court ruled that
restricting Internet access to adults violated the right of free speech. The
board's new policy requires children to obtain a signed statement from
parents before they can access the Internet at all. Parents must specify
weather their child is allowed to use computers with or without filters. Bob
Twigg, a member of Loudoun's Library Board, say the new policy "puts the
onus where it belongs - on the parents."
[SOURCE: Washington Post (B4), AUTHOR: David Nakamura]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-12/02/110l-120298-idx.html
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ED TECH
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CONTEST HONORS STUDENTS' EDUCATIONAL SITES
Issue: EdTech
Allan H. Weis is president of Advanced Network & Services Inc
http://io.advanced.org/, a nonprofit group that promotes education and
technology. Weis started ThinkQuest http://www.thinkquest.org/, a
competition that requires students to build educational Web sites designed
around an academic topic. Rules require that students work in teams
including at least one member at a long distance. This year, 500 teams
competed for $1.2 million in college scholarships. See the ThinkQuest
library at http://www.thinkquest.org/library/index.shtml
[SOURCE: New York Times (CyberTimes), AUTHOR: Pamela Mendels
mendels( at )nytimes.com]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/12/cyber/education/02education.html
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BANDWIDTH
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ASYMMETRICAL DIGITAL SUBSCRIBER LINE SERVICE
Issue: Bandwidth
FCC Releases Memorandum Opinion and Order on Investigation of New Access
Offerings Filed by Bell Atlantic, Bellsouth, GTE System Telephone Companies,
and Pacific Bell Establishing Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line Service (
FCC 98-317). From the Opinion and Order: "...we find here that these
offerings are interstate services and are properly tariffed at the federal
level. In addition, for the reasons stated in the GTE DSL Order, we reject
the argument that the possibility of a price squeeze warrants the
Commission's transfer to the states of its ratemaking authority with respect
to interstate DSL services such as those at issue here."
[SOURCE: FCC]
http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/Orders/1998/fcc98317.txt
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INTERNATIONAL
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BRITISH TELECOM TO LET OUTSIDERS TAP INTO NETWORK
Issue: Telephone/International
British Telecommunications PLC is giving up sole access to the software and
equipment that runs its phone network. Today the company will announce a
plan that
will allow outsiders to access the system via computer. One of the goals
is to promote programming for new services for the system. A prime concern
in the company's previous policy of privacy was security for the system.
British Telecom
believes that new computer technology, called Parlay, will permit
communications with the public phone network without compromising security.
British Telecom expects to launch a commercial version within a year and says
it hopes it will become an open standard which may one day make it simpler
for individual users to customize their own home or office system. Among
the partners they have enlisted are Microsoft Corp., Siemens AG, and
Northern Telecom Ltd.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B6), AUTHOR: Gautam Naik]
http://www.wsj.com/
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INFO TECH
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3COM GIVES PALM WIRELESS ACCESS TO WEB SURFING
Issue: Info Tech
A new PalmPilot is being introduced today by 3Com Corp. which will give
users of the hand-held computer wireless access to the World Wide Web. The
new device is expected to be slightly larger than a small package of playing
cards. The new device will allow users to access information from Web sites
which have been specially formatted for the new device. Stock reports,
travel and weather data are expected to be some of the early information for
the units. Meanwhile, Qualcomm Inc. has announced plans to produce the pdq
Smartphone which will include both the functions of a mobile phone and a
Palm-type device.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B7), AUTHOR: Lisa Bransten]
http://www.wsj.com/
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PUBLISHING
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MS. MAGAZINE IS BOUGHT BY A CONCERN LED BY STEINEM
Issue: Magazines
After months of uncertainty, Ms. magazine has been bought by a group formed
by the magazine's original editor and founder, Gloria Steinem. The 26 year
old magazine has struggled in recent years due a large decline in readership
and the adoption of a no-advertising policy that makes the magazine wholly
dependent on newstand sales and subscriptions for revenue. Some critics call
the publication "old fashioned" and question its relevance for today's
woman. Ms. Steinem, who claimed to have entertained these same questions
herself, said "I went out and picked up armloads of women's magazines and I
looked at them and I thought: 'Yes. The world does still need Ms. magazine.'"
[SOURCE: New York Times (C1), AUTHOR: Alex Kuczynski]
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/ms-magazine.html
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ANTITRUST
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GATES: AOL-NETSCAPE DEAL 'PARADOXICAL'
Issue: Antitrust
In an e-mail to his deputies which was made public by Microsoft Corporation
yesterday, Chairman Bill Gates said the Justice Department "must be VERY
dismayed at this merger" referring to the America OnLine-Netscape
Communications proposed merger. He called it "certainly paradoxical" in
light of the current trial against Microsoft due to the Justice Department's
antitrust concern. Referring to Netscape, he asked, "In how many segments
of the economy can a startup grow to a market valuation of $4 billion in
only four years." Meanwhile Frederick Warren-Boulton, a government witness,
completed his testimony yesterday at the Microsoft trial with what
Chandasekaran called "arcane economic theory." In testimony released
Tuesday Sun Microsystems Vice President James Gosling, the father of Java
programming technology, said Microsoft was creating a rival version of Java
which was intended to bind programmers to the Windows operating system. He
also accused Microsoft of hindering programmers from writing
"cross-platform" Java which can run on any operating system.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (C17), AUTHOR: Rajiv Chandrasekaran]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/longterm/microsoft/micro.htm
WITNESS CITES MICROSOFT 'MONOPOLY POWER'
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B6), AUTHOR: John R. Wilke]
http://www.wsj.com/
SUN SCIENTIST SAYS MICROSOFT GARBLED HIS LANGUAGE
[SOURCE: New York Times (C2), AUTHOR: Steve Lohr & Joel Brinkley]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/12/biztech/articles/02soft.html
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